Jesus approached a man laying at the pool called Bethesda. According to the text, he had been an invalid for 38 years. And Jesus asked what appears to be the most obvious question: "Do you want to be healed?" (John 5:1-7). I mean ... was that really a question?
Well ... yes ... it was. The man didn't actually answer His question. "Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me" (John 5:7). Sure, "yes" is implied, but his answer was more to the question, "Why are you here?" than whether or not he wanted to be healed. We all suffer from this sometime. We moan about our condition and groan about our disabilities when, in fact, there are answers. That's because ... we're used to it. Like the proverbial kid who has played in the dirt in the gutters all his life, so isn't interested in going to the beach. We're used to substituting happiness for joy, romance for love, the world's meager best for God's best.
Do you ... want to be healed? Or ... do you prefer the crippling ways of the world? Do you want to be shaped into the image of His Son, or would you rather pursue what the Bible calls "the works of the flesh" (Gal 5:19-21)? Talking to Jesus is talking to the Healer. He's asking ... "Do you want to be healed?" Because the answer isn't as obvious as you might think. Will you give Him the reasons why you can't ... or will you ... "Get up, take up your bed, and walk"?
On the face of it, there is no reasonable explanation--apart from Satan’s deceptive powers--why anyone should intentionally choose to live under the bondage of sin and reap the fruit of “the works of the flesh” rather than the fruit of righteousness. As you say, why settle for “the world’s meager best”? Of all the accounts of healing in the New Testament, the most impactful one to me is the man with leprosy who approached Jesus and said, “Lord, if you are willing, You can make me clean.” How compassionately and definitively Jesus revealed His heart, assuring him, “I am willing; be cleansed.” (Matt. 8:2, Mark 1:40, Luke 5:12) Jesus was willing to not only reach out and touch a leper in healing but to lay down His life for every sin-sick man, woman, and child--not only willing to heal us but able to, as well. What a Savior!
ReplyDeleteFar too often we believe we know better than God and this don't want to even think about Him, let alone turn to Him as our designer that knows the best for us. Lord, help my unbelief.
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