Do You Want To Get Well?

"Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, "Do you want to get well?" "Sir," the invalid replied, "I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me." Then Jesus said to him, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk." At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked."

Let's start by covering the vs 4 controversy. The KJV and other old translations include a verse 4 which is an explanation as to why all the disabled people were laying around this pool of water…'because whoever was first in the water after an angel stirred it, would be healed. Discoveries of numerous older and more reliable manuscripts of this chapter happened after the KJV was written. These manuscripts do not include vs 4. Most, nearly all, Biblical translation scholars agree that vs 4 was later added by a scribe to further explain the story. Moral: The Bible, in its original writing, is God's perfect Word. Not every translation reflects the original writing. Still, all the differences are listed in a book about the size of a giant print deck of cards, and all those differences are in areas of minor significance.

Assuming the explanation in vs four is accurate, and everyone was there waiting for an angel to stir the water so they could be healed, why would Jesus ask such a strange question? "Do you want to get well?" 'Of course he does!' we all yell back to the Bible. 'Why would he be there if he didn't want to get well?' Is it possible Jesus knew something we don't? Very! First of all, we all know of people who profess to want help out of their circumstance, but really want help to stay in it.

Jerusalem had only 12 gates to get in and out of the city. It was during one of the feasts or celebrations to the Lord when people came from miles around. There was lots of traffic at the gate. A disabled person could receive lots of money from rich people fulfilling their religious duty as they pass by. We don't know if the paralytic was actually begging that day, but in those days begging was the only way a disabled person could survive. If he did manage to get along well on the generosity of others it would be a good reason not to want healing.

Another reason would be the problems being healed would cause. In business school they teach, "every solution causes problems." It's true! I saw a movie, recently, called "At First Sight". It was the story of a man who had been blind his whole life. His sister, being the good co-dependant she was, had 'sacrificed' much of her life to be his support system. They lived in a small town he had memorized. He had a good way to make money, and everything was fine, until he fell in love with a sighted woman who became bent on 'fixing' him. She introduced him to a surgeon who gives him his sight, and that's when the trouble starts. I'd never thought about this before, but having sight all-of-a-sudden after 30 years of blindness would be quite a shock to your mind. He was thrown into serious shock. He's still disabled because he doesn't know how to drive and he's used to people doing things for him, his whole life becomes one huge mess all because he was "healed".

Our man was paralyzed for 38 years. Think how long that is. It takes less than half that long to go from being inside you mother to a legal responsible, functioning (hopefully) grown up. If you didn't have your legs for 38 years and then got them, how would that change your life? His survival depended on people helping him, giving him food, doing things for him, giving him money. After he was healed, he'd be expected to earn his own food (with no training), do his own things, make his own money. The handouts would be gone. There would be the pressure of society to get married and have children. There were a lot of reasons for him to not want to be healed.

The Wrong Answer: "I have no one to help me…"

Was this an answer to Jesus' question? Was the paralytic saying he wanted to be healed, or not? Was the man suggesting Jesus wait with him until the angel stirred the water, then throw him in? I think not! The two things this non-answer suggests is the paralytic didn't know Who he was talking to and didn't have any faith he would be healed. This, of course, flies in the face of some false teachings going around about our faith somehow being able to force God to comply with our wishes. But, the man's answer sounds an awful lot like those "will work for food" people. We get addicted to our weaknesses and disabilities. Our discomfort becomes comfortable once everything in our life is ordered around it. It's then easier for us to see how we can't be healed or how that healing can't really improve anything than to see what the healing really is.

The paralytic could have been coming from the town known as Excusiopolis, by the river De'Nial. Having becoming comfortable with his sickness, the healing looked like a bigger problem. What saved him was Jesus confronting the excuses with His miraculous power, and saying:

3. The Decision: "Pick up your mat and walk."
This direction from Jesus forced the paralytic to make a decision. 'Strange, it was, it seemed like this Jesus fellow could heal me, would heal me, if I just did what he said.' The paralytic seems to testify to us, 'I knew at that very moment, if I didn't follow His direction to walk, I could no longer blame chance or fate for my life. I could no longer ask for pity, because my future was in my hands.' It's like Jesus was telling him 'I'm not going to help you live in weakness when you can live in my strength'.

Jesus asked the paralytic a question that has rung out almost 2,000 years and has now come to you and I. Do you want to get well? If we do, we must be willing to stop living in Excusiopolis, near the river of De' Nial. We must open ourselves up to a new life, one that includes the power of God over our weakness sickness and sin. If we do, we'll be willing, just like the paralytic, to pick up our mat and walk.

Lord, we stand here before you as weak, broken, sick, sinful people. We admit we're utterly unable to heal ourselves. We open ourselves to your healing power and accept the changes your healing will make in our lives. We know this will open us up to new problems we've never faced or imagined before and we trust you to be there with us, carrying us through to your glorious kingdom in Christ Jesus. Thank you for healing us.