lauren laughs

I love this story—both for what it says and what it doesn’t say.  We’re told that Jesus saw the man lying near the pool, and knew that he had been there a long time.  We don’t know how he knew—if someone told him (there’s no mention of the disciples), if the man just had a “look” about him, or if Jesus’ own divine wisdom let him see the truth.  But Jesus knew he had been there for a long time. 

Knowing this, Jesus asks: Do you want to be made well?

This is, I think, a very good and useful question to ask—not just in this story, but in our daily lives.  Do you want to be made well? 

For while it may seem obvious that wellness and wholeness is something to be desired and hoped for, it’s also true that sometimes we choose other things.  Sometimes the familiarity of our infirmity is too comforting to let go of.  Asking the question: do you want to be made well—invites us to pause and consider our heart’s desire. 

And then the man responds, not with a simple or exuberant YES! But with his own story: I have no one.  I have no one.  Sometimes the loneliness of our infirmity is the biggest burden of all.

So Jesus says to him: Stand up, take up your mat, and walk.  Jesus asks him to do the impossible, which he does, and in standing up, he is healed.  It’s helpful for me to notice that Jesus invites the man to participate in his own healing.  This man who had no one, and felt he could do nothing on his own, is invited to partner with Jesus by responding to Jesus.  Jesus could have just said: be healed!  And perhaps that would have allowed the man to walk, but it might not have allowed the man to walk away whole. 

So what does this passage have to teach us?  I think it invites us to slow down and ask ourselves the question—do I wish to be made well?  And then pay attention to our answer.  If it’s no, what about our own illness or brokenness are we clinging to?  And if it’s yes, then say so.  Let your “yes” be your prayer: Jesus, I want to be made whole.  And then pay attention to what Jesus might invite you to do—how Jesus might invite you to partner in your own healing, acknowledging that you are not alone.

As followers of Jesus, I think this passage also invites us to pay attention to who might be sitting by the pool, seemingly alone, hoping for healing.  This person didn’t call out to Jesus, Jesus noticed him.  So even as we pray for healing in our own lives, we pray for the eyes to see others in search of healing.  We pray that we would have the courage to ask the people we encounter—do you wish to be made well?  And that we would be equipped to accompany them in their healing.

It is in asking the question—of ourselves and of those around us—that healing begins.