Misery and mission met at the Pool of Bethesda. The invalid wasn’t expecting much. After all, he had been ill for thirty-eight years. He had come to define himself by his resentment of others who got into the pool first and his own victimhood, loneliness, and despair. Today would not be any different.

"Do you want to get well?"

The man looked up to see who would ask such a stupid question—a Galilean in town for the feast. "Look, you don’t understand. It’s like this: Every time I try to get into the pool someone runs ahead and gets there first. It’s hopeless. I have no one to help me . . ."

"Get up! Pick up your mat and walk."

Maybe it was the intense love in the stranger’s eyes, or the hint of a smile playing at the corners of his mouth that won the wretched man’s trust, for as soon as he made an effort to obey, he was "healed on the spot" (John 5:9 The Message). Quickly he gathered up his bedroll and set off in the direction of the temple. Jesus had slipped away into the crowd.

The Pharisees who saw the man carrying his mat did not waste any time in chastising him. "It’s the Sabbath! You can’t do that!" they exclaimed. "Let’s see, it’s a sin to dislodge something, a sin to carry it, another sin if you carry it too far, a sin to put it down again—The religious leaders quickly calculated that this fellow was in big trouble. He, however, had already concluded that it was the greatest day of his life. He had been set free at last.

"The man who healed me told me to pick up my bed and walk," he replied with perhaps a bit too much emphasis on the word "healed." In thirty-eight years none of the religious leaders had even prayed for his healing. They believed the man had deserved his misery. Perhaps he did, but Jesus wasn’t finished with him yet.

In the temple, Jesus approached the joyous restored one and advised, "See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you"

The healing miracles of Jesus were not ends in themselves. They served to demonstrate the loving Father’s desire for humankind to enjoy not merely a healthy mortal life on earth but also eternal life in Christ’s kingdom. Often physical healing brought awareness of the need for spiritual healing as well.

But to the members of the Sanhedrin, Christ’s miracles served as reminders of their own impotence. The Pharisees dared to attack Jesus for going about his work of restoration on the Sabbath. Every eye and ear opened had moved the multitudes to look and listen to the Christ. He taught them to observe what they heard preached from the Law but to on no account emulate the lifestyle of their religious leaders. The raising of Lazarus was the last straw. "See, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him!" the Pharisees complained. Jesus was fulfilling his mission.

Laurie Beth Jones identifies three simple elements to a mission statement:

1. A mission statement should be no more than a single sentence long.
2. It should be easily understood by a twelve-year-old.
3. It should be able to be recited by memory at gunpoint.

Jesus’ mission statement can be found in one sentence in Luke 19:10. "The Son of Man came to find and restore the lost" (The Message). When he was twelve, Jesus’ visit to the temple revealed that he already understood his mission. In a short while he would bear the sins of the world and be tempted to abandon his mission of restoration.

When the time came, he tried to explain to his disciples that he must die, but they had just come from the "Triumphal Entry" into Jerusalem and could not understand. They were sure he would soon set up his kingdom on earth and deliver them from the Romans. Their thoughts were turned to the rewards they would enjoy in Christ’s earthly kingdom, to the riches, power and positions that might be theirs.

Jesus prayed, "Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? ’Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father glorify your name" (John 12 27, 28 NIV). Standing firmly in the shadow of the cross, he remembered his mission.

In healing the centurion’s servant, the woman with an issue of blood, and the demoniac, Christ demonstrated his desire to break down the barriers between Jew and Greek, male and female, slave and free. His kingdom was not of this earth, but all peoples, tribes and nations would be gathered into it. It would be his disciples’ task to carry the "good news" to all the world.

In Walker Percy’s The Second Coming one of the characters muses, "I am surrounded by Christians.…I cannot be sure they don’t have the truth. But if they have the truth, why is it the case that they are repellent precisely to the degree that they embrace and advertise the truth?…A mystery: If the good news is true, why is not one pleased to hear it?"

Perhaps, in part, it is because there are still many religious leaders who would set up their kingdom on earth. Even among Christians, the temptation to judge harshly their fellows, and crave political power and wealth for themselves preserves Satan’s work to discredit Christ and lead many astray.

What about us? Do we have the love of God? With what spirit do we present our faith-claims? What is our attitude toward those whose beliefs are unlike ours? Does being an Adventist mean we never have to say we’re wrong? Or are we still committed to growing in our knowledge of the good news? Are we still fulfilling our mission? Or in the words of Thoreau, could it be that "we now no longer camp as for a night, but have settled down on earth and forgotten heaven"?

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