When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had already been a long time in that condition, He said to him, “Do you wish to get well?” (John 5:6 NAS95)
People came to Jerusalem to celebrate a feast. Crowds abounded. Jesus entered the scene, but through a gate that attracted a different sort of crowd: the sick, the lame, blind and withered. Jesus noticed in that crowd a single, older, paralyzed individual, one who’d regularly returned to the place of the healing pool, quite possibly for 38 years. I can’t imagine how surprised this man appeared when Jesus asked, “Do you wish to get well?” Why did Jesus ask him amidst a large crowd of others? Strange that a Stranger would ask that kind of question. Yet Jesus knew that the man would struggle answering. A simple “yes” or “no” would work. Maybe the question tapped into a fear or insecurity that told him he should already be well? Maybe it tapped into the reason he was in that condition and he didn’t think he deserved to get well?
Who knows? I wonder what Jesus saw in the man’s eyes? Jesus simply told him to pick up his pallet and walk. The man responded with action. Jesus asks us all, first as a stranger, then when we believe, as a friend; “Do you want to get well?” He asks with a heart filled with love toward us. After all, He came not to condemn, but to save, to restore us to an ever deepening interactive relationship with Himself. His questions to us may seem strange because of comfort's complacency in our life, but He wants to lead into fullness, into life as He intended for us, to life with Him. When Jesus saw the man again, He told him to sin no more. I wonder if the man understood Jesus as saying avoid departing from My love and My care by going your own way again. Remain in My love. Do you want to get well? Do you want to live the Jesus way, in the fullness of God’s presence?
For Reflection:
“Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget none of His benefits; Who pardons all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases;” (Psalms 103:2–3 NAS95)
- Where would you long for healing and wholeness to be restored in your heart? In your life?
- How would it shape your heart and lifestyle, if Jesus brought an area of your life that concerns you to wholeness and health?
