2 April 2019 - unstuck

Today's Readings

(Audio)

"Do you want to be well?"

Our brokenness can become such an integral part of our ideas of ourselves that we don't readily relinquish it. Sure, at first we had hoped to make it into the pool of healing when the water was stirred up. But thirty-eight years without healing would lead most of us not only to give up on the healing, but even the desire for the healing. We often develop a sort of Stockholm syndrome toward the ailments that afflict us. We grow comfortable in our discomfort, sometimes using it as an excuse to not grow in holiness, to not strive in mission. We're stuck on this mat, we think to ourselves, and we'll just have to do our best from here.

"Do you want to be well?"

Jesus wants us to hear this question. He wants us to remember why we came to the well in the first place. We remember desiring wholeness even if we no longer desire it. That memory can ignite in us a desire. It is a desire which Jesus wants to fulfill although he may not do it in the way we once expected. The pool might not even factor in. It need not, for Jesus himself is the living water.

Wherever the river flows,
every sort of living creature that can multiply shall live,
and there shall be abundant fish,
for wherever this water comes the sea shall be made fresh.

The source of this river is the heart of Jesus himself.

But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water (see John 19:34)

This is the water that Jesus wants to give us to drink.

If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink (see John 7:37).

But do we thirst? Or have we forgotten our thirst, in the midst of self-care and self-pity? Let us hear the voice of Jesus.

Jesus said to him, "Rise, take up your mat, and walk."
Immediately the man became well, took up his mat, and walked.

This healing is dangerous because what it does first and foremost is frees us to follow Jesus and to grow in holiness. We are no longer confined. We have no more excuses. If we live by the Spirit we must walk by the Spirit (see Galatians 5:25). When we follow Jesus we learn that, like Aslan in Narnia, he is not safe, but he is very good indeed.

There is a stream whose runlets gladden the city of God,
the holy dwelling of the Most High.
God is in its midst; it shall not be disturbed;
God will help it at the break of dawn.