Our Greatest Healing
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“Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. 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. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, ‘It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.’ But he replied, ‘The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ So they asked him, ‘Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?’ The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there. Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, ‘See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.’ The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.” John 5:1-15 (NIV)
There’s a question in John 5 that will cause you to stop and think! At first glance, it will seem insensitive and unkind of Jesus to ask. Would you ask someone who had been an invalid for 38 years this question - “Do you want to get well?”
I wonder how it must have made him feel to be asked such a question. You would think his response would be, “Of course I want to be made well!” But rather than responding with an obvious and enthusiastic “Yes!” this man began to make excuses as to why he remained in such a sad condition. It’s almost as if his will had become as paralyzed as his body. As you reflect on this miracle in context of the story you see another sad reflection of our human condition. How often has Jesus reached out to you only to hear an excuse as to why you never change? Consider for a moment what the Holy Spirit may reveal to you about your own “disabilities.” What is it that you lean on as an excuse that disables you from moving forward in your faith journey?
The man had a good excuse. He told Jesus, “Sir, 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.” The belief in that day was that an angel would come from time to time and stir the waters. When the waters of the pool were stirred, the first person to get into the water would be healed. How could this man ever possibly beat someone else into the waters? All the man could see for 38 years was the impossibility of his condition and he had resigned himself to remain just as he was, unchanged. Have you given up on the possibility of changing as well? How did Jesus respond to the man’s excuse? Jesus told him, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!” (Vs. 8) Jesus healed the man through His spoken word. He told the man to do the very thing he had been unable to do for 38 years, but in His command was the power to do it! In Hebrews 4:12 the Bible says, “For whatever God says to us is full of living power. …”
It was the power of Jesus’ word that enabled this man to change. John tells us that the man was instantly healed. He rolled up his sleeping mat and began walking! The word of God has the power to change lives today. His word can change your life as well.
There was a much deeper change needed in this man, though, as there is in your life and mine. The man did not realize who it was that had spoken to him and healed him until later. Jesus had disappeared in the crowd. A while later, Jesus found him in the Temple and told him, “Stop sinning or something even worse may happen to you.” This suggests to me that this man’s plight may have been the result of some bad decisions or sin on his part, but there is no record that the man sought forgiveness as had others that Jesus healed. How tragic to be that close to Christ, even experience a miracle and yet remain unsaved. Miracles don’t produce faith. The greatest change in our lives happens in our hearts. It’s there where we need our greatest healing.