Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent

Although I have never been to Jerusalem, I have visited, lived and worked in shrines – especially Carey, Ohio -- and I know the power of a holy place. The ancient city of Jerusalem had been Holy for over a thousand years when Jesus arrived there. With the psalmist, he loved its very stones. Its dust moved him to pity. (Psalm 102:15) After a millennium – a span of time so long most Americans cannot conceive of it -- there wasn’t a building, street or fountain in David’s City that wasn’t blessed with sacred stories and legendary powers.

Ezekiel’s fountain came from under Jerusalem’s temple and into a collecting pool. People drew water from there and occasionally bathed in it. In his vision Ezekiel saw it growing from a rill to a stream to a river, growing in depth, width and power to heal. It was a flood of healing grace to the universe.

Several hundred years later Jesus came upon that very spring with its pool and a crowd of people waiting for a swirling of the water.  According to legend, the first person to enter the mystic water would be healed. One fellow had been there thirty-eight years. By then he was pretty well settled in; to most people he seemed part of the landscape. But he was no more prepared for a healing on that particular day than the city was for the Son of God, although both the city and the cripple were ostensibly waiting for the Messiah.

When Jesus asked him a direct question – Do you want to be well? -- the querulous old man complained: “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; while I am on my way, someone else gets down there before me.”

Despite his equivocation, Jesus healed the man and sent him on his way. “Rise, take up your mat, and walk.” We should hear in the word rise the resurrection that is promised to all who believe in him.

Jesus had come not to visit the city but to fulfill its mission. He is the holy city and the Sabbath. He is the baptism of new birth, giving life to those who are washed in him. He is the Sabbath, providing rest and refreshment to those who repose in him.

As we have settled into the season of Lent, we want to grow daily in eagerness. Our gentle fasting, persistent prayers, and works of charity sharpen our appetite for the Bread of Angels. Graceful opportunities abound. We need not focus all our attention on the mystic roiling of water. Something else may occur, something as mundane as a tourist asking impertinent questions. We want to be ready when He comes.