In these lay a large number of ill, blind, lame, and crippled.
One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years.
He was ill for thirty-eight years, similar to the time that Israel wandered in the desert before finally crossing the waters of the Jordan and entering the promised land. But that journey was not meant to take nearly so long. It was because the hearts of the people consistently complained against Moses and against God that an entire generation had to pass away before they were allowed to arrive. In an analogous way, this man by the pool of Bethesda seemed to be more intent, at least by this point, on complaining and on self-pity than on being healed. Jesus looked at him and immediately understood this about him.
When Jesus saw him lying there
and knew that he had been ill for a long time, he said to him,
"Do you want to be well?"
It seems that the man had become so accustomed to the routine of others reaching the water before him that he had resigned himself to sit near the pools but never attempt anything, to attend but to never arrive. He seemed content to receive, not healing, but pity.
The sick man answered him,
"Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool
when the water is stirred up;
while I am on my way, someone else gets down there before me."
The lame man needed Jesus to rekindle his hope and reactivate the ability of his heart to desire healing. He needed him to help him to recognize that his wallowing in sorrow was only an obstacle, not a consolation prize. He needed the words of Jesus to reinvigorate him and restore what had been lost not only in his disease, but also in the thirty-eight years of watching from the sidelines.
Jesus said to him, "Rise, take up your mat, and walk."
Immediately the man became well, took up his mat, and walked.
As it was for this man it can be easy to become so used to our problems that we no longer truly hope for improvement. Instead we try to procure whatever side benefits of sympathy we can for ourselves as we sit beside the pools of healing without even imagining actually immersing ourselves within them. But as for the man by the pools, it will take the words of Jesus speaking to us to break us free from this negative mindset. We probably won't allow ourselves to recognize our condition until we hear Jesus ask, "Do you want to be well?" And do we? Or would we rather simply sit and receive sympathy? Once we rise and walk we have a life full of possibilities to face. On our own that might seem overwhelming. But when it is Jesus who commands us to rise we can do so with a sense of mission.
The man went and told the Jews
that Jesus was the one who had made him well.
Like the paralyzed man we might first experience healing without full knowledge of the one who healed us. But like him we should come to learn who it was whose words gave us the strength to rise and to carry out mats, so that that knowledge can give new direction to our lives, avoiding sin, and proclaiming Christ.
The Lord of hosts is with us; our stronghold is the God of Jacob.
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