Do You Want Things To Be Different”?

John 5:1-9, CEB

After this there was a Jewish festival, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.  In Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate in the north city wall is a pool with the Aramaic name Bethsaida. It had five covered porches,  and a crowd of people who were sick, blind, lame, and paralyzed sat there.  A certain man was there who had been sick for thirty-eight years.  When Jesus saw him lying there, knowing that he had already been there a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

The sick man answered him, “Sir, I don’t have anyone who can put me in the water when it is stirred up. When I’m trying to get to it, someone else has gotten in ahead of me.”

Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.”  Immediately the man was well, and he picked up his mat and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath.

                Jesus has now made it to Jerusalem and comes upon the pool of Bethsaida.  The pool was rumored to bring healing to the first one in the water when the waters stirred, which happened from time to time.  For this reason, many gathered there daily to wait for the waters to stir and try to be the first in the water.  There was a man there who had been there for thirty-eight years.  That’s approaching 14,000 days.  I assume there were days he was not there, but even so – 14,000 days!  It is only when we stop to consider the enormity of that number that we begin to understand Jesus’ question to the man; “do you want to be made well?”

                While being the rare exception, there are people who are homeless who have no desire not to be homeless.  There are many people who voluntarily choose to be poor (sometimes even for noble reasons) and have no desire or ambition to be rich.  There are people who live their lives doing things they know are not healthy and/or morally acceptable, but have no desire to stop the behaviors. And, circling back to the story, there are folks who have physical ailments and/or infirmities and have come to a place where they no longer seek wellness or healing.  So Jesus’s question is for this man and for all the folks we’ve just mentioned.  Another way to ask it is, “do you want things to be different?”

                Interestingly enough, the man does not give a clear and definitive answer.  He explains that he has tried and failed to get in the water first.  While this could be construed as, “yes, I do want to get well,” why not just say “yes.”  Literarily, it highlights Jesus’s question more prominently.  And although I might be in the minority of scholars here, I believe Jesus puts the question to him in another way.  He commands the man to get up and walk. 

                At this point the man does have to decide if he wants things to be different.  If he obeys Jesus, it is a sign that he does indeed want to walk again.  But it does seem that, if he is content to lay before the pool indefinitely, he could choose to do so.  But he chooses to obey Jesus’ imperative to stand, and in doing so, finds he can now walk.  He picks up his mat and walks away.  Jesus has performed his third public sign, one that demonstrates His authority over physical ailments (and highlights the role of obedience as well). 

                This sign also riles up the Jewish leaders, but that’s a subject for next time.  For today, let us all hear and deeply consider Jesus’s question for the man because it is a relevant question for us as well.

Question:  Do you want to be well?/Do you want things to be different?

Prayer:  Lord, too often we resign ourselves to settle for unwellness and cease seeking the things we know would be better for us.  Help us see that tendency in ourselves and respond affirmatively to your invitation for things to be different. Amen,

Prayer Focus:  Pray for people who cannot afford medications they need.

Song:  How Long O Lord – Sovereign Grace