Jesus Loved Them, Part 7: Before the miracle, a penetrating question
If we were making a meme to remind us of this story—if we were designing a poster or fashioning a blinking neon sign—we might well choose the question of Jesus:
Do you want to be healed?
It’s difficult to read the story without wondering how we would answer.
At first, the question seems ludicrous. Who doesn’t want to be healed? This man’s disability had afflicted him for 38 years. How often had he dreamed of walking and running like other men, standing in the temple, or doing work he loved?
But after 38 years a man can become comfortable with his condition. Disability isn’t so bad when you have someone to get your food, run your errands, and take care of all the troublesome details of life you’re ignoring from your bed.
Do you want to be healed? Do you want the responsibility that comes with health and wholeness?
This man seems to sidestep the question. Instead of a simple yes or no, he offers an excuse. “Healing is out of the question for me,” he says, “because I can’t get to the place where healing is possible.”
Jesus ignores the remark and issues an invitation that sounds like a command: “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” Jesus could have healed him without a word. He could have asked someone nearby to help him lift the man to his feet before he gave him strength. Instead, he asks the man to participate with him in the miracle.
Perhaps he wants something similar from any of us standing before him with our crippling needs. Do we want to be healed? Do we want it enough to do what we can to help make it happen?
This isn’t the only time the Bible shows human action combined with divine intervention to make possible the unimaginable.
• A man born blind obeyed by washing the mud from his eyes, and then he could see.
• David put stones in the sling, and a fearsome enemy fell dead.
• The Levitical priests of Israel stuck their feet into the waters of the Jordan, and it opened to allow the people to cross on dry ground.
• Four determined fellows broke through the roof to put their crippled friend at the feet of Jesus who then forgave his sins and made his legs whole.
It's a delicate balancing act: allowing God to work while determining what work he wants from us. Sometimes we must wait. Sometimes he is waiting for us.
Sometimes he is asking us to accept how our lives will be different once he answers our prayer.
Do you want to be healed?
The question for the man at the pool can speak to every reader today. With our prayers this morning, we’ll do well to include our answer.
Read: John 5:1-9
Pray: Lord, we need so much from you, so much that can never happen unless you are in it. As we seek your intervention, show us what you want from us as a part of your action in our lives.
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