Message One - The Shikataganai Guy
Presented at Free Methodist Senior Retreat, April 1999

Introduction
The Gospel of John begins with John 1:1-34 by presenting Jesus as the Creator of the universe who becomes a human being. John 1:35-2:11 records how Jesus called his first disciples. In John 2:12-23, Jesus bursts onto the public scene by clearing the temple. Then John’s Gospel gives us four examples of Jesus’ evangelistic ministry - to a religious leader, a social outcast, a political leader and someone who has been disabled for a very long time. These accounts certainly demonstrate that Jesus was not partial. He reached out to a broad range of people, but at the same time he reached out to particular people in very specific and personal ways, not in some general and universal way.

Each of these encounters are familiar to many of us who have been Christians for awhile, but during our time together this week I would like to refocus on two of them. First, we will look at Jesus healing the man who had been disabled for 38 years in John 5. I refer to him the Shikataganai Guy. Second, we will focus upon the situation where Jesus meets the Samaritan woman at the well as retold in John 4. I call her Shameful Sam, or Haji Hannah. In both instances we will learn some things about how Jesus went about doing evangelism and gain insight into some tendencies we may have as Japanese American Christians, both good and bad, by identifying with Shikataganai Guy and Haji Hannah. Then we will explore how we can become more effective in our evangelistic efforts to other Japanese Americans by focusing on the first Christian evangelist recorded in the Bible, that being Haji Hannah.

So then, let’s begin by turning to John 5:1-40.

John 5:1 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews.
This account tells of Jesus’ second visit to Jerusalem. He was there at the time of a Jewish feast. There are different opinions as to exactly what feast this might have been. In the commentaries I referred to, Passover and the Feast of Weeks were mentioned. In any case, because of the feast, Jerusalem was probably particularly busy.

John 5:2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades.
The existence of this pool has been validated by two sources. A pool on the eastern hill in Jerusalem is identified as “Bet ‘Esda” meaning “house of flowing” (J.T. Milik, Discoveries in the Judean Desert 3 (1962):71) in the copper scroll found at Qumram and this same pool site has been actually excavated by archaeologists and found to, in fact, have five porticoes just as described by John in his Gospel.

John 5:3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie —the blind, the lame, the paralyzed.
This pool site was evidently used as a hospital of sorts. The types of people mentioned were not sick. They were not the diseased and dying, but rather they were the disabled. In other words, they were physically handicapped in some way, relatively stable, and not contagious. It seems it was sort of a first century rehabilitation center like Rancho Los Amigos not too far from here in Downey.

Rancho Los Amigos is famous all over the world for the innovative work they are doing to provide state-of-the-art treatment and adaptive equipment for those with physical disabilities. How many of you know who Joni Earickson Tada is? Well, Joni found her way to California from the East because she had to come to Rancho for treatment of her spinal cord injury. I am personally familiar with Rancho because my own daughter, Joelle, has a neuromuscular disease known as Spinal Muscular Atrophy and has taken countless trips to Rancho to be examined, treated and fitted for everything from hand splints to whole body jackets, mobile arm supports to electric wheelchairs. Yet, as internationally known as Rancho is for those who are disabled, for those who don’t need a place like Rancho, it is as if such a place doesn’t even exist. Even for those of us who live nearby. How many of you know about Rancho and have ever been there?

Bethesda was a place much like Rancho. It was a place where only the disabled and their family and close friends probably knew about and paid much attention to. But, being Jerusalem and because Bethesda had a special reputation for healing people in a miraculous way, there were, as it says, a “great number” of blind, lame and paralyzed lying among the five porticoes adjacent to the pool. It might have been somewhat of a tourist attraction, too - especially at a Jewish Feast time as was the case in this particular instance. And, because this was a place where the relatively stable physically disabled gathered, many had been there for many years and the number, I am sure, just continued to escalate over the years.

John 5:5-6 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”
Among the multitudes, it says, there was one who had been disabled for thirty-eight years. That was older than many lived in those days. It doesn’t say how much of those thirty-eight years he had been there beside the pool, but it does say “he had been in this condition for a long time.” After much of those 38 years, what do you suppose was the state of this man’s health, not only physically, but mentally, emotionally, socially and spiritually? How did he cope during all those years to survive? What was daily life like for him? What did he do all day?

I have a feeling that every day was pretty much like the one before. He lay among the anonymous masses of other disabled, waiting for whoever brought the next meager meal to come and give them something different to do beside the interminable waiting, waiting and more waiting for the water to stir.

It is interesting to note that the NIV refers to this particular disabled man as an “invalid.” The word invalid can be pronounced in two different ways - “invalid” and “in-valid.” I’m sure that’s exactly how this guy must have felt about himself after being disabled and left to fend for himself beside this pool for such a very long time - that he was in-valid, not a valid or very valuable human being.

So there we have it, this man, who has been an invalid for 38 years, is lying by the pool of Bethseda just like every other day. He probably doesn’t even know it is the Sabbath. And Jesus singles him out from among the multitudes and comes up to him.

It says that Jesus “learned” of the man’s condition. Apparently, Jesus had to have interacted with someone in order to find out the details about the man’s condition. It could even have been the elderly invalid himself. In any case, Jesus either overheard something or he found out by conversing with someone. Maybe he didn’t ask about this particular man’s condition, but about the disabled crowd in general. And, in response, he might have received specific information about certain individuals lying around the pool. In any case, Jesus apparently involved himself with the situation. It probably caught his attention and drew his concern so he just couldn’t allow himself to walk by. This is in contrast to when Jesus, seemingly in a supernatural way, knew about the many past husbands and present sexual affair of the Samaritan woman he met at the well in John 4. The fact that Jesus got tired and stopped by the well to get a drink to quench his thirst seems to highlight his humanity, yet the the degree of his insight into the woman’s marital and sex life seems to go beyond his humanity and relate more to his divinity. But, in this case, it says that Jesus “learned” of the man’s condition. He didn’t just “know” it.

Then Jesus asked the man,“Do you want to get well?” Jesus probably singled this guy out because he was in the worst shape and had been there the longest. Why do you suppose Jesus asks this man a question to which you would think the response would be so obvious. I thought, “Of course, he wants to get well!” I expected something like, “Well, duh. What kind of a stupid question is that. Sure I do. Yes, I want to be healed!” But the man’s answer wasn’t anything like that.

John 5:7 “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”
You see, this was no clean let alone sterile place like a hospital or Rancho today, where there are all kinds of highly trained health care professionals and other support personnel standing by to offer assistance at the press of a bedside call button. I may be stretching things a bit much, but I believe this was a dirty, stinky depository for the disabled, where people were left abandoned by friends and family to fend for themselves, a sort of self-help health center for the dispossessed. Many, if not most, just lay their in their own excrement, waiting for the miraculous stirring of the water which somehow sadistically healed only the first to enter.

What a cruel torture for the vast majority. The healing waters were extremely selective. Only the most able-bodied and quick among them were healed, or those rare few who had extremely committed and attentive family members and friends who would wait with them for hours and days, even months and years for the water to stir since only one at a time could be made whole. But few were those who kept such friends for long. Even relatives soon left feeling discouraged and guilty.

Those who were weaker and slower just got even more weak and slow. So, the longer you were there, the chances of being healed became less and less, and the more helpless and hopeless you became. Someone else was always the winner, you were the loser over and over and over again.

And, since only one was healed when the water stirred, there was an atmosphere around the pool of bizarre life and death competition. Those scattered on the mats around you were your competitors. The winner lived, the rest of you, the losers, all eventually died - winning of another kind, I guess. At least their suffering was over. If someone else died, more the space and less the competition.

What an evil race it was. Absolutely no one helped anyone else. You trusted no one. You had no friends, unless you resigned yourself to your fate, that you and your mat would be stuck there until death do you part. So friendship was only possible among those who took themselves out of the competition. Then, no longer competitors, in their resignation, what they shared bound them together was increasing helplessness and hopelessness. And, those who were the winners, those healed and those who died, never came back again to help anyone else either.

Well, up comes Jesus to this man and pops the question to him, “Do you want to get well?” Maybe, now that we have explored the living hell this man has been living for the past several decades, we can empathize with him a bit and understand why he answered Jesus in the way he did. Instead of simply saying, “Yes,” and maybe adding “will you wait with me and help me into the water when the time comes,” this discouraged and depressed disabled man says,“Sir, I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”

The invalid’s response is why I call him the “Shikataganai Guy.” In essence, the guy is fatalistically saying, “Shikataganai” - “It can’t be helped” - “Why want something you can never have.” To him, there was only one way he could be healed, by getting into the water first when it stirred, so unless someone helped him get into the water at just the right time, he would never be healed. No one ever tried helping him before, so, he reasoned, “Why should I expect that anyone would ever help me in the future?” As a result, he believed he would never be healed. So, in essence, he was saying, “What difference does it make whether I want to be healed or not? Wishing doesn’t make it so. It only causes me disappointment and grief.”

How would you answer Jesus’ question if you had so desperately wanted to be healed for such a long time, the possibility and promise of being healed so close at hand, and yet never being able to crawl those few short feet into those magical waters at just the right time? The only way this man found to cope with the disappointment of all those years was to stop hoping or expecting that he ever would be well. To such a person as this distraught disabled man, Jesus’ question was painfully ridiculous.

At this point in his life, maybe he didn’t even want to be healed any longer. Predictability had become his security blanket. He knew where he would sleep that night and where his next meal was coming from. His life wasn’t great, but he knew what to expect. In other words, his answer to Jesus question was kind of a deflective action. He was telling Jesus he didn’t want to answer his stupid question. For many years, his answer would have been an instantaneous “Yes,” but now, accepting his plight makes him feel better.

Jesus asked him, “Do you want to get well?” The disabled man answered, “Shikataganai, it can’t be helped!”

There is another possibility for the way the elderly invalid responded to Jesus’ question the way he did. He was more Japanese than Jewish. Since he began his answer with “Sir,” maybe it was an indirect Japanese ask. He was implying a “Yes” by his statement. In essence, he was saying “Yes, of course I want to be healed. But, I haven’t been healed before because no one has ever helped me into the water. Will you help me into the pool when it stirs?” This might have been a plea for empathy or what the Japanese call “omoiyari.” What he wanted was for Jesus to identify with his predicament and take the initiative to offer him help without his having to ask. Sound familiar?

Not only do I call this man the Shikataganai Guy, but I also refer to him as the Gaman or Giri Guy. One reason this guy might not have had a friend to help him into the pool might be because of his own attempts before his disability and soon after it happened to be self-sufficient. Actually, its not that he didn’t need or want help, but rather he didn’t want to ask and depend on, or be obligated to anyone else. If someone helps you, you are then are obligated to help them in like measure. That’s what the Japanese call “giri.”He found himself between a rock and a hard place. He needed help, but felt as though the only way of getting that help was by asking and depending on others and, thus, losing face. This he refused to do, and so he suffered alone. He demonstrated “gaman” or perseverance, and, as a result ended up at the pool alone, pride intact, but friendless.

This man reminds me of those in many Japanese American churches who refuse to take any initiative at all to let other members know they or someone else in their family is sick or otherwise in need. Apparently, they don’t tell for fear of embarrassment or even some degree of shame - they fear that others will think they can’t or don’t take care of their own. So the congregation has to find out by happenstance or the grapevine in order to help them. And then, ironically, when the other members do know, they, in turn, often hesitate to help much for the same reciprocal reason. They too don’t want to cause those in need embarrassment or shame. They might help enough to show concern and thoughtfulness, but not so much that those in need would feel overly obligated or lose face. They are doing to others as they want others to do to them. As a result, these churches who do not share their greatest needs with one another or significantly help one another, are only loosely tied together by cordial but shallow relationships. They have attended worship and served on committees together for years, yet they are strangers.

And also, when help is offered, it is often late, limited, and not long-lived. Each is living their own lives. It is not that they don’t care and don’t want to help. They are just busy and have their own problems to cope with, especially when they too aren’t allowing anyone outside of the family (and even inside of the family to some extent) to know that they have needs and problems they are having difficulty dealing with on their own. Secrets, secrets, and more secrets! As a result, the more problems we have, the more we tend to isolate ourselves from others, preoccupied with our problems, problems we don’t want others to find out about.

John 5:8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.”
If the disabled man was going to be healed at all, what did he believe was the way it was going to happen? Did he seem to believe he could be healed any other way than by being first into the waters? I don’t think so. He was bound by his past beliefs and experience, his old paradigm. Jesus wanted to push him beyond his past beliefs and experience, his old paradigm, into a totally new one. Jesus was going to cure him in a totally new and unexpected way.

Jesus could have healed him consistent with the man’s old paradigm. Jesus could have caused the water to stir and helped the man into it to be healed, but what would have been the result? The disabled man most probably would have believed that either the water and/or getting into the pool first was what healed him, not Jesus. Jesus would have been relegated to being just a nice, albeit once-in-a-lifetime, good guy who helped him into the healing waters. However, so it would not be mistaken how we was healed, Jesus suspends all the hocus-pocus and just tells the man, “Get up! Pick up you mat and walk.”

John 5:9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath,
Jesus did not cure him in the way he expected. God often doesn’t do things the way we expect. This might be to prevent us from feeling like we can manipulate God, or that it is the means, which in this case would seem to be the water, or the method, which in this case would be getting in first, that actually did the healing rather than God.

Also, I have the feeling the man didn’t even have much of a chance to think about it, let alone make a rational choice. Jesus simply blurted out, “Get up!” with what I imagine to be the same force with which he commanded Lazarus, dead in his grave for three days, to “Come forth!” Stunned and overpowered, the disabled man, weakened by thirty-eight long years of disability, suddenly just got up! This is implied what it says, “At once the man was cured.” And then, he did pick up his mat, - and, he did walk, just like he was told to by Jesus. It all happened so fast, I don’t think the healed man even realized it was the Sabbath and that he had just broken the Sabbath rules.

Isn’t it interesting that Jesus did the man a good deed by healing him and yet gets him in trouble with the religious authorities in the same instant. The command to rise as well as pick up his bed and walk was simultaneously a promise of healing and, possibly if not probably, a promise of punishment as well. Such Sabbath law breakers were often scourged in the synagogue for strolling with mat in hand on the Sabbath, And, this was Jerusalem at feast time to boot. Not knowing who Jesus was, do you think the man who was healed would have thought of the miracle performing stranger that also commanded him to break the Sabbath as a deeply religious person or what?

Jesus directly caused attention to be brought to the healed man by telling him to carry his mat. To avoid all the later controversy, Jesus could have just told the man to rise up and simply walk, leaving his his mat behind. Walking a short distance was not against the rules of the Sabbath. But, that’s not what Jesus did. He instructed the then disabled man very specifically to pick up his mat and walk, thus telling the man to break the Sabbath. Jesus could have easily avoided it, but he didn’t. Could it be that he actually intended it? I think so.

Once healed, the man was probably in a daze, walking around in a bewildered stupor. What was he going to do now? He had spent decades wishing, hoping, praying for the day he would be healed and trying to imagine how wonderful it would be and, all of a sudden, it is that day. But, he probably had no clue as to how lost and afraid he would feel. It was as though he were a prisoner on death row being surprised with a totally unexpected pardon from the President of the United States. That morning he had awoken dreading and complaining about what every day brought, and the next thing he knew, he was free, walking around on the crowded streets of Jerusalem at feast time with no where to go and not knowing what to do.

At first, what joy, but then the terror. The world had changed so much since before he was confined to lie for what seemed like an eternity by the pool. But it didn’t take long before he realized that what he had gained, in other words, the right to enter the job market without training, experience or key contacts at a very old age, ended up seeming more like a curse than a blessing. It dawned on him what he had lost, the security of predictability. Nothing about his former life was great, but he had living life, survival, down pat. He knew where he was going to sleep each night, where his next meal was going to come from. He didn’t have to think about what he was going to do that day or the next, or the next, or the next. He didn’t have to make many decisions, and all of a sudden he was besieged by decisions he had to make. He, almost immediately, was beginning to miss his home with a view of the pool, long time acquaintances, such as they were, and the leisurely pace.

As a result of the onslaught of all this sudden responsibility, apprehension and anxiety, he might have even gotten angry with Jesus. He might have even felt used and abused. Jesus just came up and healed him without him even letting him know who he was. It just seemed like Jesus put on a spectacle for his own purposes and left, leaving him to fend for himself.

John 5:10 and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”
And so, the man who had been healed was now walking around Jerusalem still carrying his mat as he was told to. But, now the healed man looked entirely different. Before, he looked like my daughter, Joelle, who has had a neuromuscular disease for fourteen years. His muscles were atrophied and skeletally thin, his feet had long since dropped and pointed inward, his bones had become abnormally bent from being “mat-ridden” all those years. But now his body was healthy and normal. He looked like everyone else around, except that he was still wearing his poolside, hospital clothes and carrying a bedroll. No one knew who he was any more or would have recognized him if they did. All the Jews knew is that this guy was breaking the Sabbath law. And so they accosted him.

Isn’t it ironic that this man was someone who always rested on workdays and was now being accused of working on the rest day, the Sabbath. Such a turn around!

John 5:11-13 But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ” So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?” The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.
If this guy looked normal, how plausible do you think his story sounded. Do you think they believed him? I think they probably thought that his excuse was so preposterous and absurd, they passed him off as a quack and let him go his way. After all, he appeared so weird and was mentally out of touch with present reality. Maybe the healed man later went back to these same Jews who let him off the hook to offer them proof when he found out who had actually healed him that he wasn’t crazy, and that his story was true, that it really did happen.

At the same time, his response seemed to reflect a pattern or fault in this man’s character. Just like when Jesus had asked him if he wanted to be healed, the man blamed others for his predicament. In other words, he passed the buck. So too now, he was doing the same thing. In essence, when asked by the Jews why he was breaking the rules of Sabbath, he blamed someone else instead of taking personal responsibility for his present situation.

If and when he realized it was the Sabbath, the healed man didn’t have to continue to carry his pallet. He could have simply put it down. He had free will. But then again, perhaps he was afraid that if he put his mat down he would be an invalid just as instantaneously as he was healed, that it was the same kind of magic as the stirring of the waters that healed him and would keep him whole.

Perhaps the Jews didn’t persecute the healed man because they already knew who had healed him. He was small potatoes compared to the big banana they were really after. They could have been already in hot pursuit of Jesus, collecting evidence against him. And maybe, like King Herod telling the wisemen to report back to him when they found the baby Jesus so they too could worship him, the Jews told the man healed to find out and report back who healed him so they too could bring people to Jesus for healing. Or, maybe they simply said, “Turn him in or else,” and let him go. This might be the very reason Jesus disappeared into the crowd.

Or, because of the crowd, whether the great number of disabled who were always there, their visiting friends and family in town for the feast, spectating tourists waiting to see a miracle, or the usual rush hour traffic in a crowded city at a particularly crowded time, Jesus might well have slipped away to avoid the clamor of people who would want him to heal them or countless others. But, by leaving in the way he did, think of the stir he must have created not only in the vicinity of the pool, but spreading outward beyond the pool throughout Jerusalem. You can imagine the buzz. “Who is this amazing guy? Where did he go?”

John 5:14 Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.”
It’s not surprising that we find Jesus at the temple, but why do you suppose the healed man went to the temple? He might have gone to the temple because he hadn’t had the opportunity for decades. Or, he went to thank God and make sacrifice for his healing. Or, how about he went there to try to find the miracle worker who healed him, believing the temple to be a logical place to catch rumors about him or, perhaps, even locate him? In that case, he was right. He was there. Or, do you think he went to the temple to make amends and seek forgiveness for desecrating the Sabbath? Or, more down to earth, not knowing where to go, what to do, and in search of assistance, he went to the temple to try to find someone who would help him. Maybe he was getting hungry and worried he wouldn’t have a place to stay that night or food for his tummy, so he began begging at the center of Jewish life in Jerusalem, the temple. Or, finally, being a Jewish feast in Jerusalem, the temple is one place where huge crowds gathered, a perfect place to brag of his miracle healing and for one brief glorious moment become a celebrity of sorts instead of an unknown outcast. Which of these options sounds most plausible to you? Or, can you think of an even more better explanation?

One key to narrowing down the options as to why the healed man went to the temple is found in Jesus’ words and stern warning, “Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” Obviously, Jesus wasn’t pleased with whatever he was doing. So, all the good and sacred possibilities for his being there can be eliminated. What’s left? I believe it could have been any one of those possibilities that was more self-centered instead of God-centered. And, it really doesn’t matter if we can actually isolate which option it was. Whatever the reason, it was selfish rather than spiritual, and, therefore, sinning.

Maybe the man’s sin was not so much in what he was doing at that moment at the temple, but rather what the man was not planning to do. This man could now go back to the pool and become the friend to others he never had who would be willing to help the weakest and slowest make it into the pool in time. But, that’s not what he was thinking. If the man Jesus healed came to the temple for the right reasons, he wasn’t planning to leave that way. So, Jesus stopped him in his tracks and told it like it is. Jesus upsets the healed man’s life once again.

A very important point to notice here is that Jesus sought out the man twice. First to heal him physically by the pool, and second to heal him spiritually at the temple. It says “Jesus found him.” Just as Jesus singled the man out at the pool, I believe Jesus sought the man out after he got away from the clamor surrounding the healing to check out how the man healed was doing and offer help if need be. But, when Jesus did find him, he discovered the physically healed man doing and thinking some very unhealthy and unspiritual things. So, Jesus commanded the man once again to do what he said, but did the man do it this time. I don’t think so.

John 5:15 The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.
How do you suppose the man left Jesus? How did he feel when he went away? Glad, sad or mad. I think he went away more sad or mad than glad. He might have been overjoyed at first sight of Jesus. But he also might have been mad for the seemingly very insecure predicament Jesus left him in by healing him. And, then Jesus goes and gets on his case. Jesus saw right through the man and blurted out “Stop sinning!” just as boldly and authoritatively as he told the man to “Get up!” by the pool. The healed man was humiliated and inwardly fumed, “Who does this guy, Jesus, think he is anyway?”

I think the man healed by Jesus went away either sad, convicted by what Jesus said. or mad, vindictively wanting to get back at Jesus for his present misery by reporting to the Jews who the real Sabbath law breaker was. The ingrate actually went and turned Jesus in to the Jewish authorities.

Just as the man could have chosen to put his mat down and not break the Sabbath any longer, so he didn’t have betray Jesus either. He could have just as easily, convicted by whatever sin he was committing, stopped sinning and decided to follow Jesus, But, that’s not what he did!

John 5:16 So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted him.
Isn’t it interesting! The Jews didn’t really wanted to know who healed the man. They failed to recognize and appreciate the miracle God had done right there in their midst. They were so negatively minded, instead of thanking and praising God, all they were after was the person who caused the healed man to break the law of the Sabbath. In any case, if you remember, they asked the man, not who healed him, but rather who told him to pick up his bed and walk. It’s amazing that they were so nitpicky that they missed God’s miracle by their preoccupation with catching someone who broke the Sabbath. In any case, these “godly” people totally missed the work of God and who it was that performed the miracle, the very Son of God.

The irony in all this is that their criticism and judgement of Jesus was motivated, sincerely for the most part, by their desire to honor God by fastidiously trying to keep the Sabbath holy. The problem was their interpretation of just how to do that. Their understanding was full of holes, the biggest one being they left out God and what he set aside that special day to do with those who worship him = to relax, relate and do wonderful things together. And, so, apparently, once told who healed the man and caused him to break their Sabbath rules, the Jews must have sought Jesus out and cornered him. They worked so hard to honor God by honoring the Sabbath, they found themselves, with the Son of God and Lord of the Sabbath right in front of them and judging him without realizing it.

What follows now in this passage is not only Jesus’ personal defense, but an amazing evangelistic presentation of the gospel as well. Through it the Jews are pushed to make a response, whether to believe him and believe in him and receive eternal life or reject him and remain spiritually dead. Jesus used the healing of the disabled man to open the doors of ministry to many others, namely the temple authorities, whether or not the man healed did it willingly or not. In a sense, the incident at the pool, as spectacular as it was, was just the preliminary event. Perhaps that’s why the account of the healing beside the pool and what followed is so sketchy and full of holes, leaving us to speculate so much about what was happening behind the scenes. The event’s description was brief because it wasn’t the main event. It was simply an explanation of what led up to the main event which was Jesus’ heated encounter with the Jews and the major discourse he delivered that boldly disclosed exactly who he was and is. So now let’s examine the main event.

John 5:17-18 Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working.” For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
This passage clearly demonstrates that those who say Jesus never claimed to be God don’t know what they are talking about. His audience of the moment clearly got the message. These verses also reveal more insight into why they didn’t judge the healed man more harshly for breaking the Sabbath. It says here that “the Jews tried all the harder to kill him,” meaning Jesus. What this seems to indicate is that they were already seeking to kill Jesus before this incident. Apparently, they were collecting further evidence to convict and execute Jesus even before they questioned the man healed by the pool as to why he was carrying his mat on the Sabbath. That’s why they didn’t punish him. He was just a little fish. They were trying to catch the really big fish, and that was Jesus. And, even more so now that he has strongly implied that he was the Son of God and equal with God. Jesus implied that, if anyone should be on trial here for breaking the Sabbath, it should be God himself. Jesus was saying that the “work” he was being accused of doing that broke the rules of Sabbath was not just his work, but God’s work. This is made even clearer in the next few verses.

John 5:19-21 Jesus gave them this answer: “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, to your amazement he will show him even greater things than these. For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it.
Essentially, Jesus is telling the Jews that it was God, his Father, that initiated the action taken with the disabled man lying beside the pool of Bethesda. It was God who singled out this one man among the throngs of disabled gathered there. It was God who actually healed him. And, ultimately, it was God himself who chose to tell the man not only to get up, but also to pick up his mat and walk on the Sabbath, the special day he himself had instituted. Therefore, since God started the Sabbath, he should have perogative to do whatever he chooses on that day. According to Jesus, he was simply doing whatever he saw God doing, and saying only what God wanted him to say.

The case of the man healed by the pool is an example of Jesus demonstrating that perogative to heal whomever, however, and whenever he pleases. He is not limited by our faith. He is not constrained by any innate religious right bestowed upon his believers, like the “name it and claim it” approach to God. Us saying to him, “You said it, so you gotta do it!” As soon as those who are his followers begin to require God to do anything, we ursurp his Lordship and we make ourselves god. He is God so he must have the perogative to be God. And so, as responsive as he is to our prayers, every once in a while he just acts on his own accord to remind us of that fact, that he is God. Every once in a while he acts like a two thousand pound canary. Where does a two thousand pound canary roost? Anywhere he wants to.

John 5:22 -23 Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.
How’s that for a rebuttal. The Jews have put themselves in judgement over Jesus. They are accusing him of dishonoring God by dishonoring the Sabbath, failing to keep it holy by doing what they have defined as work and causing another to do likewise. Jesus, on the other hand, says that God has “entrusted all judgement” to him so that all may honor him as they honor God. He says that, unless they honor him, they do not honor the very God who sent him to do what he has done and say what he said, including the healing of the man by the pool and what he is saying to them at that very moment.

John 5:24 “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.
Here now is the evangelistic clincher. He has been telling the the truth all along. But, to emphasize the point he is about to make, he says, “I tell you the truth.” In other words, he is saying, “Pay special attention. What I am about to say is vitally important,” then he goes on. Essentially what Jesus says then is, “Whoever believes all this stuff I have said about me and my relationship to God, and why I am doing what I am doing, I won’t condemn but will reward you with eternal life. With what you have come to realize and believe, you will have passed from spiritual death into spiritual life because of your newly established relationship with me, and, therefore, with God my Father as well.”

And Jesus’ major discourse doesn’t end there. He then, in verses 25-30, beginning with same words, “I tell you the truth,” goes on to predict what was and is to come, and his role as judge to determine the eternal destinies of absolutely everyone, not only those were alive at that moment, but all who had ever lived and who ever will. Next, in verses 31-40, Jesus talks about past things that validated all he was saying about himself which included John the Baptist, the work of Jesus itself, the witness of God in the hearts of those who believe in him, and the Scriptures. Jesus boldly tells them, “You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” And, finally, in verses 41-47, he tells them that they are much too concerned about “praise from one another, yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God.” How were they to obtain such praise from God? Believe not only in what Jesus said about himself but also what the Scriptures have said about him.

Conclusion
So, what can we learn about Jesus and how he did evangelism?
Jesus took advantage of national, ethnic or religious holidays to do evangelism

Jesus went to places and reached out to people normally avoided by others, like going to hospitals and reaching out to the disabled. People like these would feel especially lonely and needful during holidays.

Jesus sought out and chose who he would relate to and who he would help. He took the initiative in relating to them. And, he didn’t feel obligated to relate to everyone or heal everyone.

Jesus learned about those he chose to relate to and related to them specifically, relative to who they uniquely were, according to their dreams, needs and desires, their sins and the particular things that held them in bondage.

Jesus started conversations and relationships with people he didn’t know by asking them questions

Jesus began conversations talking about the concerns and circumstances confronting them before introducing the substance of what he wanted to communicate, and he did so in a way that addressed those very same concerns and circumstances.

Jesus seeks to heal people not only spiritually but physically as well.
And, once Jesus met a person’s physical need, he sought to meet their spiritual need. However, physical healing from God did not guarantee it would lead to spiritual healing.

Jesus acted decisively seemingly out of the blue at times

Jesus observed traditional religious rules and rituals if he believed them to be consistent with God’s will and Word, but did not if he was convinced they were not.

Sometimes Jesus’ evangelistic efforts resulted in rejection and even persecution. Jesus told it like it is and let the chips fall as they may anyway.

Jesus only did what he saw God doing and only said what he heard God saying.

By relating to one person, Jesus was able to have an impact on many others through that person’s influence.

Jesus did evangelism with both individuals and groups, individual evangelism leading to group evangelism.

Jesus was more concerned about the praise of God than the praise of men, and suffered the consequences if a choice had to be made in favor of God over men.

Jesus was always in control of the situation

So, how should we do evangelism? Like Jesus, who enabled many to know and worship him, or like Shikataganai Guy who brought many to Jesus only to accuse and persecute him?
Should we take advantage of national, ethnic or religious holidays to do evangelism?

Should we go to places and reached out to people normally avoided by others, like going to hospitals and reaching out to the disabled?

Should we seek out and choose people to relate to and help, and take the initiative in reaching out to them?

Should we learn about those we choose to relate to and relate to them specifically, relative to who they uniquely are, according to their dreams, needs and desires, their sins and the particular things that hold them in bondage?

Should we start conversations and relationships with people we didn’t know by asking them questions?

Should we begin conversations talking about the concerns and circumstances confronting them before introducing the substance of what we want to communicate, and do so in a way that addresses those very same concerns and circumstances?

Should we seek to heal people not only spiritually but physically as well?
And, once we see a person’s physical need me, should we seek to meet their spiritual need?

Should we act decisively, seemingly out of the blue at times?

Should we observe traditional religious rules and rituals if we believe them to be consistent with God’s will and Word, but not if we are convinced they are not?

Should we expect that some of our evangelistic efforts will result in rejection and even persecution, and yet tell it like it is and let the chips fall as they may anyway?

Should we do only what he see God doing and say what he hear God saying?

Should we operate on the principle that by relating to one person, we are able to have an impact upon many others through that person’s influence?

Should we do evangelism with both individuals and groups, individual evangelism leading to group evangelism?

Should we be more concerned about the praise of God than the praise of men, and suffer the consequences if a choice has to be made in favor of God over men?

Should we always be in control of the situation?

To all these questions, I am sure we would all answer, “Of course we should?” However, it is important to realize and remember that, in this instance, Jesus himself applied all these principles, and yet the response he received was not positive but negative. Effectiveness in evangelism is only partially due to doing it in the right way.

What can we learn about ourselves as Japanese American Nisei Christians by identifying with Shikataganai Guy?
When Jesus asked the disabled man, “Do you want to be healed?”, Jesus was offering the man hope and healing. But, the man, in essence, responded by saying, “Shikataganai,” “It can’t be helped!” Instead of giving a direct answer to Jesus’ direct question, he offered an excuse or complaint for why he hadn’t been healed after so many years. He blamed circumstances and others for his pitiful situation.

“Shikataganai” was one of the few Japanese words I learned growing up as a third generation, Japanese American. The Japanese words I did learn were either of little importance or tremendously important. The important ones included such words as haji, shikataganai, amae, enryo, gaman and giri.

Shikataganai reflects a whole philosophy that has enabled Japanese Americans to not only survive but thrive as ethnic and racial minorities here in the United States. Shikataganai is but the tip of a huge philosophical iceburg that is in direct contrast to the philosophical orientation of those of western cultures, and is both an asset as well as a liability for those of us who live lives consistent with it.

According to Japanese culture, the way to effective living is to live life as if you were like bamboo. When adversity in life inevitably hits, you, as bamboo, are to bend in the direction of least resistance and then spring back up when the harsh conditions pass. Western cultures, on the other hand, epitomize the person who lives life most successfully as a mighty oak, rigid, strong and upright no matter how much pressure is exerted by the elements upon it.

This same philosophy is reflected in martial arts. Consider the difference between judo or jujitsu and Greco-Roman wrestling. Judo utilizes the power of the opponent against them by deflecting or absorbing it, while Greco-Roman wrestling seeks to over power the opponent utilizing leverage and brute force.

So, too, comparing the swords of the samurai versus those of medieval European knights yields the same insight. Samurai swords were light, thin, flexible and extremely sharp. In contrast, the swords of European knights were extremely heavy, thick, rigid and dull. Japanese swordsmen were able to wield their swords quickly and easily, being able to slice and penetrate cleanly because their swords created such little resistance upon impact due to friction. They cut cleanly because they were so fast, thin and sharp. However, the way the European knights had to wield their swords was completely the opposite because their swords were so heavy and cumbersome. The damage their swords caused was by the shear weight of the dull instrument crashing against the heavy metal armor of their opponents. Their cuts were extremely messy because they smashed rather than slashed.

As a result of this philosophical difference, those of western culture tend to be aggressive, out-spoken, confrontational and individualistic. Those of Japanese culture, on the other hand, tend to be responsive, soft-spoken, non-confrontational, and group-oriented. Western cultures tend to embrace change, while Japanese culture tends to resist it.

This can all be summarized by describing Japanese culture as the way of least resistance, or “shikataganai,” which also means, “It can’t be helped, so why fight it. Just go with the flow and, hopefully, things will eventually change for the better.” Majority Americans make opportunities happen. Japanese Americans take advantage of opportunities when they happen. This is why we have the reputation of being inscrutable. The American majority doesn’t know or understand what Japanese Americans are quietly thinking or doing because we are not aggressively moving in a particular direction. We are opportunists who quietly wait and prepare to take advantage of any positive opportunity that opens up. Then we swiftly move through that door of opportunity and least resistance. All the majority knows is that, all of a sudden, there we are, the Japanese Americans have emerged to a new level of status or achievement without the majority being aware of how we got there.

However, just as there are many positive ways the shikataganai philosophy has contributed to the success of Japanese Americans, and the Japanese American community as a whole, there are also drawbacks to having this philosophical bent as well. We can see some of these negative tendencies reflected in the attitudes and behavior of the man healed beside the pool in John 5, the Shikataganai Guy.

Shikataganai Guy allowed circumstances and others to control his life, and blamed those circumstances and others when things didn’t go well. Remember when he said, “Sir, I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.” He didn’t accept personal responsibility for his continuing condition or seek new alternatives to solve his problem. After having been there by the pool for some time, having tried a number attempts to make it into the pool first on his own efforts and then finding it futile to find anyone else to help him do so, he could have left the pool in search of another means of healing or another way of life. However, he didn’t do that. My belief is that he got so secure and comfortable in the way things were that he really didn’t want things to change that much. His disability was his ticket to staying where he was.

Shikataganai people have a tendency of doing just that. They are fatalistic, tending to be more pessimistic rather than optimistic. They see themselves as realists who are practical, rather than idealists who are visionary. And, as such fail to see new possibilities and opportunities when they are staring them in the face. Such was the case with our Shikataganai Guy. There he was with Jesus standing in front of him asking if he wanted to get well and failing to see the opportunity and possibility before him. Or, perhaps he did see it, but the change it posed was too much of a threat to him so he refused to take it. Similarly shikataganai people share this same tendency, failing to see or refusing to see new possibilities even if they are staring them in the face because that are afraid to take risks and cope with change.

But, Jesus healed him anyway and change happened. So he was forced to become responsible for his own future and deal with the radical changes that occurred in his life. He ended up not being thankful for God’s blessing and resenting Jesus for bestowing it. He viewed God’s healing blessing as a cursing and wanted to get back at Jesus for bringing it upon him. And, that’s just what he did. As a result, the Jews persecuted Jesus. And Shikataganai people like ourselves often have the same tendency. We too have a tendency to resent God’s intrusion into our lives when it causes us to change, even for the better. We view God’s blessing as unexpected and unwelcome. So, we refuse to thank him, and resent him for it. Sometimes, out of that resentment, we actually even do things that cause him harm than good, dishonor rather than honor?

What must we do in order to become more like Jesus than Shikataganai Guy, and influence people positively toward Jesus rather than against him?
That’s why we are now going to move on and look at another encounter Jesus had with someone else, we’ll call her Haji Hannah or Shameful Samantha, that resulted in quite the opposite outcome. The incident I am referring to is contained in John 4: 1-42.

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