Do You Want To Get Well?

John 5 has one of the strangest healing stories in the Bible. It begins by the pool called Bethesda. Now this was no ordinary pool. It was believed that an angel would stir the waters and the first one in was healed. Because of this many of the sick and crippled would make their home by the pool in hope of healing. The area looked like the emergency waiting room at any hospital. And one day Jesus visited the hospital! He became aware of a certain man who had been invalid for 38 years. Now here is the weird part - Jesus asked, "Do you want to get well?" Jesus can't you see this poor man's condition? Isn't he in the emergency waiting room? How could you ask him that?

One of the powers Jesus had that I would not want is the ability to know people's thoughts. The ability to multiply bread and fish would come in handy with three kids. Walking on water would be cool. Knowing people's thoughts is scary. I believe the Bible when it says, "Blessed are the naive because they do not know." (By the way you have to add this beatitude in the margin of your Bible.) I do not want to know other's thoughts. I do not want to know when my wife has a brief thought, "Why on earth did I marry him?" I don't want to know why all the people showed up for church. The truth may be too hard to process.

Jesus hit a nerve with His question because the man never gave an answer. He just gave excuses. Why would a man not want to be healed? Is change that terrifying? Is responsibility that hard? Is being sick that rewarding? How could someone live by a pool of healing with no intention of getting better? I don't have many of the answers, but I do know - Jesus asked a good question! Hey - Do You Want To Get Well?

September 10, 2008