Do You Want To Get Well?

DO YOU WANT TO GET WELL? (JOHN 5:1-14)

The Ice Bucket Challenge is all over the papers, TV and internet. Participants from celebrities to businessmen and politicians are dared to have a bucket of iced water poured over their heads. Why? Many have forgotten the reason. It is to raise money and improve awareness of the fight against ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) or Lou Gehrig's disease. The challenge is for participants to pour a bucket of ice water on themselves and then post a video of it on social media while nominating three other people to do the same. People who fail to take the challenge will have to donate $100 to the ALS Association.

The Hong Kong non-profit chapter of ALS usually raises HK$10,000 a month for the disease, but so far it raised a total of HK$9 million (Aug 26, 2014) to help patients with renting equipment and the office with long-term planning.

Paralysis is a loss of muscle function in part of the body. It can be partial or complete, temporary or permanent, and natural or accidental. Most patients feel no pain in the paralyzed areas of their bodies and have no control over how those muscles move. Paralysis include medical condition such as a stroke, spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis (MS), cerebral palsy, post-polio syndrome and others.

John chapter 5 tells of a sick man in Jerusalem whom Jesus healed on a feast of the Jews. The fourth gospel is quite unlike to the first three gospels in the New Testament when it comes to the Jewish backdrop and involvement, including Jesus’ early observance of the Passover and his frequent trips to Jerusalem (John 2:13). The presence of the “Jews” were recorded no more than six times each in the three gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, but they made their presence felt 71 times in John’s gospel, so something had to give when they were around. The Jews had no holiday spirit nor were they in festive mood. There are three “not” (vv 7, 10, 14) in the passage to describe the opposition and obstacles the man had to overcome. John’s gospel is the backdrop of the most hostile reception Jesus received because the Jews “sought to kill” Jesus repeatedly (John 5:18, 7:1, 19, 20, 25, 8:37, 8:40) – a charge found in John only, and this account started it all (John 5:18)

What are the burdens and baggage in your life? How do you overcome the blows and barriers? Why is bravery needed in weakness or wellness?

Break The Snare of Suffering

1 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. 2 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. 3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie -the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. 5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 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?” 7 “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.” 8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” (John 5:1-8)

Sickness, illness and disease have a powerful grip over people as testified by the MERS scare and panic in Tsing Yi, Hong Kong. It started in the morning at 9 am, June 10 2015, when a patient made a visit to a clinic for fever and respiratory symptoms. The 22 year-old woman visited Seoul from May 23 to 27. Next, ambulance men in protective gear arrived at the private clinics to ferry suspected MERS patients to hospitals. On the same day the MERS outbreak in Korea saw the number of cases hit 108, including 13 newly confirmed and brought the death toll to nine.

What touched a nerve with citizens was three health professionals wrapped from head to toe - resembling what was done during the 2003 SARS outbreak - arriving at the Tsing Yi clinic in an ambulance to send a feverish woman to Princess Margaret Hospital. The Fire Services Department said ambulancemen are required to gear up in a gown, mask, goggles, disposable cap, gloves and rubber boots in confirmed and suspected cases when the health alert is serious. The QHC clinic and another two adjacent closed for the day for disinfection. False online rumors about the woman being a confirmed case saw shops in Maritime Square empty of customers. Pictures of police setting up metal barriers to cordon off the clinic went viral, and then a tumble in the stock market. (“MERS panic,” The Standard June 11, 2015)