1Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. 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. 3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. 5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 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?” 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.” 8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
A football player was sitting in the examination room of the best orthopedic surgeon in the country after suffering his third major injury in three years. The doctor asked him how committed he was to do what needed to be done for him to return to the football field, because he was going to need several months of rehabilitation after another major surgery. Facing another long, painful, and grueling time of healing, he instead chose to retire rather than having to undergo the difficult time. He had neither the will, nor the mental strength to bear another lengthy and difficult journey to healing. He admitted to himself that he could not experience and persevere through another traumatic healing process and chose to reject the surgery and consequent therapy and retire from playing football.
Like the doctor, Jesus asked the lame man lying next to the Pool of Bethsaida, do you want to be made well? We are told the man was lame for 38 years, which is a very long and challenging time to be unable to walk, lacking the strength to do the most basic of movements. But the question cuts to the quick, and cuts deeply into the man’s soul, do you really want to be made well? He acknowledges the enormity of his suffering, but would he accept the opportunity to be rid of his weakness?
What answer would you give to the same question? Do you really want to be made well? Perhaps we are not lame, or blind, or deaf, although we could be. But we certainly are dealing with afflictions none the less. Do you really want to be free from the alcohol or drugs? Do you really want to be free from the mental illness you suffer under? Do you really want to be free from your uncurable degenerative diseases? Do you really want to be free from the Covid or Cancer? Do you really want forgiveness for your guilt, do you really want courage for your fears and anxieties, do you really want peace for your anger? Do you really want to be made well?
The man doesn’t answer the question, he instead complains why he is still lame, because he couldn’t get into the pool quick enough. Legend around the pool of Bethsaida states that Angels periodically descend to the pool and stir the waters. The first person into the pool after the stirring, is healed. The man says to Jesus, I cannot get into the pool first to be healed and so I am stuck here. Perhaps that is the reason so many of us are content and comfortable to be broken, injured and sick even though Jesus offers life and health. Do you want to be made well? No, we would rather be comfortable in the way we already are. When facing the long and painful road to health, we choose the easy and comfortable status quo of our broken lives. Instead of being motivated to pursue health and wholeness, we quit into the despair of the idea that is just the way things are and I need to accept that.
But Jesus does not leave the lame man, nor us, in that broken routine of false security and false reassurance. Jesus’ question and Jesus’ command gives freedom not only from the issues which threaten and spoil life and well-being, Jesus also gives freedom from the broken Spirit with no desire to ever become more whole. Jesus gives strength of body and mind and soul to those dealing with broken bodies, broken minds, and broken Spirits. Jesus give power into a powerless situation, to cure, to heal and to restore. Life into situations of death is Jesus’ gift.
But Jesus not only commands freedom from injury and illness, but His command also demands obedience. Stand up, take your mat, and walk. This is the one thing the man knew he couldn’t do and yet he is commanded to do so. What will happen, do I take the risk and fail, and nothing happens? Jesus gives freedom to the man and to us, but he also demands obedience, he demands responsibility. Jesus gives the power and life to us, but we have a responsibility to obey. If we want freedom from drugs and alcohol, we need to be responsible and change our lifestyle and accept therapy and accountability for our illness. If we want freedom from diabetes or heart disease, we need to be responsible and change our lifestyle with diet and exercise. If we want freedom from guilt, we need to take responsibility and make restitution and be forgiven. If we want freedom from fears, we must take responsibility and face the things that terrify us. If we want freedom from anger, we must take responsibility and manage and heal the traumas that make us angry. Jesus does give us freedom but also the responsibility to do the co-work of healing under the power and nurture of Grace.
My friends, the good news of the gospel is that Jesus is the Lord and Giver of Life, which can give strength to lame, but also to us. But just as we are given strength and freedom to live the resurrected life, we also bear the responsibility to co-participate in the healing process. Will we retire into the ease and comfort of a broken life we are familiar with, or will we be motivated to enter the complete life which Jesus gives and calls us to share in. God does give healing in Christ, but we must take responsibility for our healing and work with Christ in obedience. Everything depends on your answer to the question, do you want to be made well? In Christ be free, but also be responsible to do what it takes to be well.
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