Do you want to be healed?

John 5:1-15

“Do you want to be healed?”  Jesus asked the invalid by the pool called Bethesda.  He was waiting and watching the water among all the paralyzed, blind and lame; each one wanted to be first into the pool when the waters were stirred up.  Usually crowds of sick and hurting people clamored around Jesus.  Yet, here in a space full of invalids, there is no mention of a commotion.  Did anyone see the Healer walk in?  Wasn’t there anyone who recognized him?  What was it about this one man that caught Jesus’ attention?  Was he the only one who looked up when Jesus arrived?

 Jesus knew the man had been there for thirty-eight years.  And He who always asked the right questions and gave the right answers asked this, “Do you want to be healed?”  But the man did not answer directly.  Jesus questioned the heart of the man, and the man responded by pointing out all the circumstances and people preventing his healing.  “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.”  So, Jesus replies, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.”  The man was healed.  He took up his bed, and he walked.

But, it was the Sabbath.  When the religious leaders saw this invalid walking around with his mat, they went to work enforcing the laws against work on the Sabbath.  They informed him that he should not be walking around carrying a mat.  It was against the law.  (Don’t you know people like that?  They did not even comment on the fact that this man was walking after 38 years!)  Then, instead of rejoicing because he can move, the man insists that it is not his fault that he is carrying his mat.  The man who healed him TOLD him to carry it.  Who was he?  The man didn’t know. 

Jesus found the man later and said, “See, you are well!  Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.” (That’s the way you talk to a pessimist.  Because, let’s face it, something worse could always happen!)  Jesus was speaking this man’s language.  He wanted this man to see.  Really see.  He is well!  Sin no more.  This man could be transformed; his life could be forever changed.  Instead, he walked away and told the religious leaders that it was Jesus who healed him.  He tattled. And the leaders had one more reason to hate Jesus.

This story bothers me.  If Jesus came and asked me if I wanted to be healed, I would not have missed Jesus’ question or turned aside the opportunity to be transformed.  I would not have missed Jesus, focusing instead on the circumstances and people surrounding me.  As a main character in the story, this man is really disappointing.   I would have done better.

What did you want the man to do?  What did I want the man to do?  I wanted him to really answer the question, to see how much he needed you, Jesus!  I wanted him to say ‘Yes, I want to be healed!’  I wanted him to stop thinking about everything and everyone around him, about who was at fault and who to impress.  I wanted him to follow you out of the temple and listen to your teaching.  I wanted him to spend time with you!  If he had spent time with you, he would have been changed. 

 Do you want to be healed?  Yes, Lord.  But I give you so many excuses.  Help me not to make excuses.  I want to be healed.  I need to be transformed.  Come, spend time with me.