17 The Third Sign

(John 5:1-8[HCSB])

1 After this, a Jewish festival took place, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2 By the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem there is a pool, called Bethesda in Hebrew, which has five colonnades. 3 Within these lay a large number of the sick blind, lame, and paralyzed [ waiting for the moving of the water, 4 because an angel would go down into the pool from time to time and stir up the water. Then the first one who got in after the water was stirred up recovered from whatever ailment he had].

5 One man was there who had been sick for 38 years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew he had already been there a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to get well?

7 “Sir,” the sick man answered, “I don’t have a man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I’m coming, someone goes down ahead of me.”

8 “Get up,” Jesus told him, “pick up your mat and walk! ” 9 Instantly the man got well, picked up his mat, and started to walk.

Asking whether someone wants to get well may seem to be begging the obvious. But consider how many of us have made being sick a lifestyle. Jesus may have also been implying the same companion question, “Do you want to remain sick and disabled?” It is a fair question. Sickness often becomes what we know and can best relate to. We are very good at it.

Maybe the first one to get up and step in the water at Bethsaida was also the most willing to be set on a healthy course. In healing there always has to be intention and passion on the part of the individual to be healed. It has been said before, but I will reiterate: God can do anything though He will not often override our freewill. Healing, like any covenant must be a two-way street. There must be the ability of the One to heal, and the other to be healed. If not, it just won’t work! Physical healing is, under even the most gracious circumstances, relatively rare. It is the spiritual aspect of healing that must be our focus, for it alone is eternal.

When the crippled man tells Jesus there isn’t a man there to help him into the pool, Jesus tells him to get up and walk. I think this speaks volumes into what we are to be about doing if we are to get well, recover, or experience healing of any kind: we are to get up and walk, to begin the journey right where we are stuck. Staying where we have always been only guarantees that nothing will ever change, and that we will remain in the same place God found us. All real and lasting change begins with a total reliance upon Jesus Christ. Unless we change, nothing changes.

So it seems that we must have a desire to get into a place of healing. When Jesus asks the man if he wants to get well, I believe we could all answer, “maybe,” as we reflect upon our personal sin.

Are we willing to do whatever it takes? Do we really want to get well; to pick up our mats and walk again?