It's Up To You!

It’s Up To You!

None of us likes to take responsibility. We can always find someone else to blame our problems.

We all have heard about the woman ordering coffee at a McDonalds drive thru and she spilled it on her and she sued McDonalds for giving her hot coffee.

We find a man with a problem in John 5:1-9

Mt 4:23 And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people

John 5:1-9

1 After this there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

2 Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches.

3 In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water.

4 For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.

5 And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years.

6 When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole?

7 The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me.

8 Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.

9 And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked: and on the same day was the sabbath.

Jesus went to Bethesda,

There he met a man and Asked

I. A Strange Question (John 5: 6) When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole?

Here is a place where sick people congregate because they believe that they can be healed by getting into the water whenever it is stirred.

Jesus approaches a man obviously crippled. This man had all the stuff that is common to cripples who begged for a living in those days--

* a mat to lay on,

* a collection plate for the alms of those who might take pity upon him,

* perhaps he had crutches if he was able to use them.

Jesus was speaking to him and had learned that he had been this way for 38 years.

Add to this the fact that he was hanging out at a pool that was known for healing and we can begin to get some sense of how strange it must have sounded for Jesus to ask, "Do you want to get well?’"

What kind of a question is that? Does a crippled man want to get well?

That’s a question that rivals one of my Dad’s all time favorites: "Do you want a spanking?" "Well Dad, I’ll have to think about that.

Let’s just think for a moment. Here is a man who had been crippled for 38 years. All of that time he had relied upon others to make his way in life.

If he were to "get well" he would have to earn his way for the first time in 38 years--perhaps the first time ever. He would no longer have an excuse for what his life was. The responsibility would be his.

So maybe the question "Do you want to get well" wasn’t such a strange question at all.

Maybe it was a question that pierced to the very center of the man’s heart and exposed the motives that lay deep within.

And what about us?

As Jesus looks at us crippled by problems, crippled by circumstance, crippled by sin, what does He say to us? Could it be that he asks us the same question “Do you want to get well?"

Do you want Jesus to heal the parts of your life where you’ve been damaged or is it easier to hold on to the hurt?

Is it easier to let bitterness fester and to wallow in the hurt and betrayal, licking and liking our wounds.

Often we hold on tightly to the things that paralyze us spiritually.

Jesus can heal us of those things but when he does we will be left without excuse for our lives and the choices we make.

We will no longer be able to cry "My life isn’t my fault, others are to blame"

So the question isn’t strange at all, "Do you want to get well?"

To the one crippled by past hurts, Jesus asks, "Do you want to be healed?"