Background Story: Jesus was constantly talking to people that everyone else ignored or avoided: the sinners, the smelly, and the sick.

Read John 5: 1-9

5 After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches. 3 In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water. 4 For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had. 5 Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?”

7 The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.”

8 Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” 9 And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked.

Big Idea: Lift our heads and open our eyes to see.

Go into an airport or in the waiting room at a doctor’s office and what will you see? Everyone with their heads down staring at their phones engrossed in whatever app, game, social media or YouTube video that has sparked their interest. All around us are hurting people, families that are broken and teens struggling with depression, eating disorders, and anxiety. Social media promotes the lie that everyone has it all together except for you. But that’s not reality.

Jesus saw. When He walked through the busy city of Jerusalem, He saw this man laying by “a multitude of sick people” who had been in this condition for a long time. Thousands of people probably walked by this man on a daily basis, but Jesus saw him in the midst of the crowd. This singular man with this singular story received the healing touch of Jesus.

Never are we more like Jesus then when we see and respond in love to the broken and hurting. Christ’s love and forgiveness pour into our lives like water filling a cup and then His love overflows from us onto others. As we seek God each day in relationship with Him, as we learn from Him about His mercy and grace, as we receive forgiveness for times of failure, as we draw close to Him and understand His heart for people… the love of Christ naturally begins to overflow out of us. 1 John 4:19 says it this way, “We love because He first loved us.” The more we understand our sin and the great cost of our own redemption, the more we will overflow Christ’s love on those around us.

Let us pray today that God helps us to see the one person: the kid sitting alone at lunch, the girl pretending to smile while her parents are fighting at home, the one freaked out because he might not get the grade, and the one just holding back the tears. I promise they are there…we just have to look up from our phones and see.

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