Do You Want To Be Healed?

Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades.  In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed.  One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?”  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 going another steps down before me.”  Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” John 5:2-8

My Pastor used the above verse for his sermon on Sunday. It was a great sermon. One line stood out for me, “Do you want to be healed?” This seems an incredibly stupid question for Jesus to ask. After all the man had been an invalid for thirty-eight years and had lain near the healing pool at Bethesda for “a long time.” Wasn’t it obvious that the man wanted to be healed?

Maybe it’s not so obvious. We don’t always want to be healed from our conditions. In some cases, we may not even realize that we need to be healed. We are so comfortable in our lives that we don’t realize that we are missing something, maybe even something incredibly important.

Maybe we know we are lacking in something, but we are comfortable with that. After all if we were 100 percent, more might be expected for us. I had a bad knee for months. I had to use a cane to get around. I recognized that I was “handicapped” but began to feel pretty comfortable knowing that much less was expected from me.

Maybe we know we are handicapped and really want to be healed, but don’t want to do anything extraordinary to receive it. Just laying by the pool can be a comfortable compromise between wanting to be healed and being pretty comfortable being handicapped.

So Jesus’ question wasn’t so strange. We need to prayerfully consider just how healed do we want to be. Do we really want to do all that we are called to do? Are we willing to be used in our weaknesses? Are we willing to pick up our pallets and walk, even if it’s not completely within the rules? Even if it means, we are relying on Jesus instead of medicine or some other politically correct solution?

Yes, I want to be healed, but I’m a little intimidated by all that might mean.

Be healed and be blessed.