Do You Want To Be Well?

 

After this there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha, which has five porticoes. In these lay many invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be made well?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.” Jesus said to him, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.” At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk.

Now that day was a sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been cured, “It is the sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.” But he answered them, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Take up your mat and walk.’ ” They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take it up and walk’?” Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had disappeared in the crowd that was there. Later Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you have been made well! Do not sin any more, so that nothing worse happens to you.” The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. Therefore the Jews started persecuting Jesus, because he was doing such things on the sabbath.

“Do you want to be made well?” Jesus asks a man who has been ill for 38 years. The first time I read this years ago I went “Duh”. Really, Jesus? You’re asking a man who has been sick for 38 years if he wants to be made well. Of course, he does. But then when I discovered that Jesus asked this question of almost everybody who was sick, I realized that there wasn’t any “of course” about it. Maybe he didn’t want to be made well. And now you probably are going, “Really, Aneel?”

Yeah, really! Let me explain. Here’s a man sitting by a pool that has supposedly miraculous powers. If you look into your Bibles you will find verse 4 is missing. Some manuscripts include this verse: “From time to time an angel of the Lord would come down and stir up the waters. The first one into the pool after each such disturbance would be cured of whatever disease they had.” Some believe the angel was Gabriel, but let’s not get side tracked. From a later verse we know that the water is being stirred and the first one in is healed.

Do you really believe that a guy who wanted to be healed would have let somebody beat him to the pool every day for thirty-eight years? If I had been there and wanted to be healed, I would have sat by the side and jumped in, and if I couldn’t do that for any reason, I would have had somebody beside me to push me into the waters the moment there was the slightest ripple to be seen. So, now the question is, why would be NOT want to be healed? Listen carefully because this might be true of a lot of us.

We like to wallow in self-pity. There is a perverse kind of pleasure to be had in feeling sorry for oneself. There is also a sense of satisfaction in having others sorry for us. And if this is not dealt with immediately, it can become a part of ones lifestyle, like cocaine can become part of a junkie’s lifestyle. Eventually one does not know how one would live without it. So now, consider this man. He has been pitying himself and been pitied for years. He likes it. 

But it’s not only that. His survival now depends on his continued sickness. Because should he be healed, what is he going to do? For thirty-eight years he has been dependent on others. For thirty-eight years he has begged for a living. What is he going to do if he is healed? He knows no trade. He has no skills. He has nothing. So, when Jesus asks him the question, it was a question that was going to change him in ways that he cannot even begin to comprehend. 

So brothers, sisters, do you really want to be made well?