John chapter 5 poses all sorts of difficult questions – about the Sabbath, about the connection between sin and sickness; about Jesus’ identity and so much more.
Bethesda, Jerusalem, was excavated in 1956 and a ceramic fresco of an angel was discovered; the pool is dry now but was 100 ft. deep. In God’s word we are faced with real places and real questions, real people, too…
A profoundly disabled man who, as far as we can tell, has been in the same place for 38 years; waiting on his sick bed for someone to pick him up and deposit him first in the famed Pool of Bethesda - so that the waters (troubled by an angel according to superstition) would bring about a total and miraculous cure. Well, if it weren’t so pathetic, it would be laughable.
The man in our story is just like the mass of humankind – who daily receive health and strength, the billions who unknowingly, daily reap the benefit of God’s ordering of the world and the universe; the God who daily protects them from the full force of evil in this world – things, even we, would do well not to take so much for granted. 9 Immediately the man became well, and picked up his pallet and began to walk.
I don’t wish to be irreverent but there are some questions that only Jesus had “the cohunes” (or perhaps the right) to ask! I don’t want to seem irreverent but sometimes Jesus was downright insensitive.
Jesus asks a question of the man – and of us – and it is one of those which engages us, and enrages us in equal measure. “Do you want to be made well?” Asked by anyone else, the question might seem condescending, critical, and even cruel. Imagine asking a lame man, “Do you want to be made well?” Of course he wants to be made well! But, wait just a moment. Jesus is also asking the question of us. “Do you want to be made well?” How will we answer?
7 The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I am coming, another steps down before me.”
The man does not even answer the question. He describes instead a situation of every man for himself, a sort of first century Jerusalem lottery where the winning ticket has eluded him for nearly 4 decades. He describes an experience of friendlessness and despair.
“Do you really want to be made well, to be healed – made whole?” Really!!
Have you ever seen the film, The Shawshank Redemption? There’s a scene where Morgan Freeman’s character (Red) has a chance to get paroled from prison after being in there for almost 40 years. And he says to one of his friends, “I don’t know if I want that. I’ve been here most of my life. Besides, these prison walls are funny. First, you’re afraid of them. Then you get used to them. After a while you start relying on them. I don’t know if I can make it on the outside.” I love Red’s honesty.
It’s possible that the paralyzed man could have felt the same way about his situation. Maybe his problem was more than just his physical paralysis. Maybe the paralysis was emotional…
And so Jesus wants to be absolutely sure, “Is this what you want?” Perhaps it’s not such a silly question after all. It’s a penetrating question…
Perhaps our man had become accustomed to his condition. Perhaps he liked relying on others to do things for him. Maybe he liked not having to work for a living. If he were to ever be healed, he would have to go out and get a job like every other able bodied person. And since he didn’t have any skills, perhaps life would become very complicated very quickly. The text does not answer these questions.
There are some people so locked into habits that they can’t answer “yes.” Nothing is more powerful than their dependence. They would rather continue in addiction than face life without medicine for their pain.
There are others who seem to enjoy their poor-health. If we ask them how they are doing, they typically respond with a list of maladies and complaints. We know people just like this. Perhaps we are like this, too…
Because we know that if we answer that question in the affirmative, we will, of necessity, have to change. We tend to be a lot like the woman who said, “I’m all in favour of progress. It’s all these changes I can’t stand!” That’s where many of us find ourselves. We like the idea of progress. We love the idea of being well. We want to be whole and better and complete. We love the idea! But, answering “yes” to this question is harder than we might think.
Jesus said, “The truth will set you free...” “But not before it’s done with you!” (Patheos, Sarcastic Lutheran). Change can be difficult – it can leave us feeling threatened and insecure. Do you really want to change? Have you really forgiven the person who hurt you? Do I really have to?
Are you happy where you are? Is God asking us some hard questions – as individuals and as a church? ‘Pick it up and walk’?”
13 But the man who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away while there was a crowd in that place. 14 Afterward, Jesus *found him in the temple and said to him, “Behold, you have become well; do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you.”
Sometimes we believe that if we just keep doing the same things we’ve always done, sooner or later, the result will be different. Yes, we know that a definition for insanity is doing the same things you’ve always done and expecting a different result, but that’s for other people and not for us. Somehow the good Lord will make an exception in our case. Like the man in the story we expect some sort of magic!
When Jesus says, “Get up and walk”, what does that mean for us? Are we waiting for something to happen; are we waiting for someone else to step up and help us?
That’s where many of us find ourselves. We like the idea of progress. We love the idea of being well. We want to be whole and better and complete. We love the idea!
Later verses in chapter 5 will tell us Jesus is more than merely a man, a philosopher, a miracle-worker – he is the man who is equal with God, the man (mystery) who is God.
That is why Jesus goes back to see the man again. It’s not a doctor’s follow-up consultation to see how well his limbs are healing – instead it is a stark reminder to him (and us) that there are more important issues at stake. His physical healing ministry is a sign (a pointer to Jesus’ identity); and only part of what he came to do. And, sometimes, plainly, our misfortunes have everything to do with sinful choices…and our refusal to trust God…
14 Afterward, Jesus *found him in the temple and said to him, “Behold, you have become well; do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you.”
The point of this strange story is that the greatest miracle God can bestow is the forgiveness of sins – we shouldn’t miss the point. The man who is God comes to make people whole – he comes to offer forgiveness and deal with the real sickness – sin!
When John the Baptist saw Jesus walking towards him, he saw the Lamb of God, the one who takes away the sins of the world. This is that which we should be most grateful for!
My friend constantly asked me if I had any experience of miracles. Had I seen incontrovertible evidence of physical healing? Well I told him that, for me, the great miracle was that my sins (and they are many), have been wiped away. The answer never seemed good enough! Physical healing happens. God heals today, of course – but…
The important thing (the eternally significant thing) is not that your body is in perfect working order or that you’ll be the best-looking corpse in the funeral parlour… but that your soul is right with God.
Better to live with infirmity (Matthew 18: 1-9) than with ease and health and sin un-forgiven than to face the consequences of an eternity without God – that awful prospect - or eternal life in Him.
24 “Truly, truly, I say to you, the one who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.”