Read John 5:1–23
Hope is an easy thing to misplace, especially when you feel disappointed by the thing you hoped in last time.
Examples of this abound today, whether it’s “healing” crystals, a different job, tarot cards, horoscopes, the Enneagram, Tinder, or anything else we think will finally make us happy. As an example, consider Leland Olds,
chairman of the Federal Power Commission from 1940 to 1949. All he wanted in life was to effect positive change. But he kept hoping in different institutions and kept being disappointed. First, it was social work, then
the social gospel movement, then teaching history, then economics, and finally government work. But everything ultimately left him disappointed. None of it worked like he wanted it to. After he lost his government position in 1949, he never recovered his hope or passion and died 10 years later.
The passage we read today, likewise, is a story of misplaced hope. The disabled man hoped in a superstition that if he was the first one in the pool when the waters were stirred, he would finally be healed. Whether or not God actually healed people through this pool is unclear, but what is clear is that the man hoped in the pool rather than in God. Then, God in the flesh showed up and healed him. Great! End of story. Everyone is happy. But there’s another group who misplaced their hope in this passage. The religious leaders placed their hope in their interpretation of the law, instead of the Law Giver. When their hope seemed to disappoint them, they turned to persecuting the One through whom the law came.
So the question for us is, what do we hope in? What do we think will finally “fix” us, or make us happy? If it’s anything other than the Creator and Sustainer of the universe, then it’s a misplaced hope. There’s only one source of true hope that will not disappoint, and His name is Jesus.
Begin praying with Psalm 62:5:
“Rest in God alone, my soul,
for my hope comes from him.”