THE MAN WHO MADE ME WELL
“Do you want to get well?”
A friend and I were talking some time ago and both of us agreed that it had been a long time since either of us had felt completely well. There was nothing seriously wrong with us, just a general weariness, sinus problems, and mysterious aches. It would just be nice to feel 100 % more often than not. Most of us over 30 feel that way and we seek out holistic or alternative remedies as a result.
For decades thousands of people trekked out to a place called Evan’s Plunge in South Dakota, believing that the mineral waters there had healing powers. Spend some time in the tepid waters and feel your problems wash away. Someone at some time must have claimed healing of something in those springs and a legend was born. Tests were done, however, and it was discovered that the waters contained no healing properties whatsoever.
Canadians are more likely to travel to Wattress, Saskatchewan to sit in those potent waters. Again the general feeling is that those waters can heal all kinds of ailments. Abe Esau’s mother slipped in the pool trying to help Abe get his own footing…she went under getting a nose-full. She found that this actually cleared her sinuses. I tried the same water and found it did nothing for me.
But we try these things because we want to be well. And we try a host of other remedies, herbal based, reflexology, stress management, kinesiology, homeopathy, diet, exercise…you name it. Many people are finding help in some of these alternative healing methods. But the remarkable thing about them is that people are discerning, more and more, that the actual healing is in none of them. They can remove some of the obstacles to healing. They can help to evoke it, but the healing itself is in the power of God.
Do you want to get well?
1. The Situation: Everyone is sick
The pool they called Bethesda in Jerusalem had a mystic aura that drew the sick, the lame, the blind and the paralyzed. Legend said that if a person could slip into the pool when the water mysteriously rose up, there was a good chance that person could be healed. It was said that an angel troubled the pool and created a source for healing.
Archeologists believe that they found this very pool in the 1960’s with its five colonnades. They also found that, like other pools in the area, that it was fed by an intermittent spring. At times water was released in surges from hidden reservoirs in the hills causing the pool to rise and fall suddenly. Here is where fact was overshadowed by superstition. Some people may have been healed there, but it only heightened the legend and the hopes of the ill.
Jesus walks into this situation and picks out one man who had been invalid for 38 years. He could have healed everyone there but he didn’t. Jesus goes to this man who is weak, feeble, and unable to stand, because of some wasting disease. Why this one man? Jesus was very intentional about this choice. He wanted to reveal something about himself.
We might surmise that he wanted to show us how God proposes to deal with human weakness and helplessness. This helpless man does symbolize us in a way. We can all see ourselves as weak in a sense, or helpless, or paralyzed by our pasts, our fears, unable to do the thing we want to with our lives. Everyone is sick in one way or another. How can Jesus help?
2. The Question: Do you want to get well?
“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?”
“What a strange thing to ask! I am sitting here by this supposed pool of healing aren’t I? It’s been 38 years and I am sick of being sick. What do you think?” Why would Jesus ask this?
Obviously it was an important question. Do you want to get well? Many people honestly do not want to get well. They don’t want to be helped. Their helplessness gets them the attention they crave. Their weakness is their excuse for not taking responsibility or for helping others.
For this man being healed was frightful. He made a living out of begging. What would he do now if he could walk? Many of the homeless people we meet on the streets of Winnipeg actually make a good living through begging. It’s an art; it’s takes skill to score good dough. And some of those street people make more money than you do. They don’t want help, it would ruin business. They need help, but they don’t want it. The change is too difficult.
In the movie Shawshank Redemption, a man who had been in prison since he was a teenager, now pension age, is released on parole. But he faces a huge dilemma. He’s been in prison so long he doesn’t know if he can live on the outside. In the apartment they give new parolees, he finds that a man he knew and released earlier has hanged himself. This man faces the same choice: Does he really want to change, or does he want to go back to the security of prison life?
We must admit there are areas of our life that we know we should change. But we don’t really want to. Our sin serves a purpose in our life – it keeps us from facing the pain of change. Change is difficult because we don’t know what change will bring. Just like the paralyzed man we will have to choose what we do with this new life.
Do we really want to get well? That question makes us look at our obstacles, our sins, our problems. It’s a lot more difficult to answer than we thought. You might say, “You don’t know my situation. You don’t know my family…I can’t change…I’ve tried.”
3. The Excuse: It’s not my fault
“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.”
Perhaps that’s true but in some sense it smacks of an excuse. It is true that he has a desire to be healed and it is true that he has tried and he lacks the ability. And what he is really saying is “I’ve lost all hope.”
Many here today may feel like there is no hope for change in their situations. They see no way through with human strength to do this. The 12 steps didn’t work; the audio tapes put me to sleep…they have resigned themselves to being weak, faltering Christians. There is no doubt in my mind that you have tried and no one has the right to belittle you for failing. But is it true for all of us that we can’t?
Drs. Minirth & Meyer have written a book about overcoming depression entitled "Happiness Is a Choice." They wrote, "As psychiatrists, we cringe whenever Christian patients use the words, `I can’t’ & `I’ve tried.’ Any good psychiatrist knows that `I can’t’ & `I’ve tried’ are merely lame excuses. We insist that our patients stop saying `can’t’ & say `won’t’ instead."
"They need to see what they are really doing, so we make them face up to it by saying, `I just won’t get along with my wife.’ `My husband & I won’t communicate.’ `I won’t discipline my kids the way I should.’ `I won’t find time to pray.’ `I won’t stop gossiping.’ When they change their "can’ts" to "won’ts" they stop avoiding the truth & start facing reality."
Take responsibility and admit that a big part of the reason for your problem is in your hands.
4. The Healing: Rise and walk
What Jesus does next seems impossible. He says to the man: “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” There are 3 steps crucial to this healing that we must be aware of:
a) Do what he tells you – Jesus tells the man to do what he cannot possibly do, what he has tried to do for 38 years and failed to do. Somehow this man sensed that Jesus was going to do something for him to help him stand. His faith is transferred from himself to Jesus because he knows “I can’t do it; he must be able to.” If I am going to be helped then I must do what he tells me.
Is this what we are missing when we ask God for help? There is always something God tells us to believe, to do, or to act on. Jesus doesn’t say “work at it” or “build up your faith”, he says “Get up!” We need to do what he tells us believing that it is his will that we do it.
b) Leave no excuse for relapse – Jesus didn’t just say “Get up!” He said, “Get up! Pick up your mat…” Why did he say that? Jesus didn’t want to leave any room for a relapse. The man could have thought, “I’m healed, but I’d better leave my mat here in case I need to come back.” Good chance he’d be back tomorrow. Jesus leaves no opportunity for that.
In this way Jesus teaches us that if we want to be healed that we should not go back to what we have done. This is where we fail. We leave a back door open to sin in our lives. Go home and pour out your alcohol! Get rid of the drugs you are addicted to! Say no to the friends who are getting you in trouble! Cut off any possibility of going back to what has sickened you in the first place. Burn your bridges.
c) Walk in his power - The third step is to walk. Don’t expect anyone to carry you – walk. If Jesus gives you the power to rise, he will give you the power to walk as well.
5. The Point: Do you have any idea who Jesus is?
This would be just another healing incident if not for the point Jesus was deliberately making. Whereas the royal official sought out Jesus in the last chapter, Jesus sought out the invalid in this one. This is just a taste of the differences here in this story. But one odd thing really stands out in this story: the man did not know who Jesus was. When the Jews asked who healed the man, the man had no idea. With this healing, Jesus was not randomly acting, he was purposely revealing to everyone present who he was. Two things stand out: one theological and one practical.
The theological revelation is this: Jesus was the fulfillment of every Jew’s hope. He is the Messiah, the one who would restore unworthy men like this invalid to a relationship with God. Leviticus 21:16-18 says that no one with any defect shall approach the altar of God. But prophecy foretold of the day when the blind would see and the lame walk. With few words, Jesus revealed that he was the one sent from God to do this.
Jesus also ruffled feathers by purposely doing this on the Sabbath. No one is supposed to work on the Sabbath, and healing is work. Note that the Jews didn’t ask who healed the man, but who told him to carry his mat. When Jesus told the man to carry his mat, he was saying “I am greater than the law.” Mercy trumps law.
Jesus is greater than the law or any legalism we can dream up. Think of the symbol of water in these signs. Water is a symbol of old Judaism. The water of purification in chapter 2 could not produce the joy of the wine of the Spirit. That water failed. The water from Jacob’s well in Ch. 4 could not quench the Samaritan woman’s thirst. That water failed too. The water from the pool in Jerusalem could not heal the lame man. That water failed. What they all needed was living water. What we need is living water. We need Jesus.
Do you have any idea who it is that can heal you? Yes, Jesus, but do you know him? He is not a magic wand to wave over us; he is not an MRI machine; he is not a tool to be used when we are in trouble. He is the Lord and he longs for you to know him. Why? Because he knows you and he wants to have a relationship with you. We all know the name, but do we take the time to know the person of Jesus? Do we know the man who can make us well?
Now when we talk about healing there may be a lot of skepticism and questions that we leave unanswered. Am I saying that if you do the three steps you will be healed as easily as the lame man was? I wouldn’t say “no” but I don’t know what God wants to do in you. Am I saying that we just have to think positively and it will happen? No you weren’t listening…Here’s the question again that you should think about: Do you want to get well?
Tony Campolo tells a story about being in a church in Oregon where he was asked to pray for a man who had cancer. Campolo prayed boldly for the man’s healing.
That next week he got a telephone call from the man’s wife. She said, "You prayed for my husband. He had cancer." Campolo thought when he heard her use the past tense verb that his cancer had been eradicated! But before he could think much about it she said, "He died." Campolo felt terrible.
But she continued, "Don’t feel bad. When he came into that church that Sunday he was filled with anger. He knew he was going to be dead in a short period of time, and he hated God. He was 58 years old, and he wanted to see his children and grandchildren grow up. He was angry that this all-powerful God didn’t take away his sickness and heal him. He would lie in bed and curse God. The more his anger grew towards God, the more miserable he was to everybody around him. It was an awful thing to be in his presence.
But the lady told Campolo, "After you prayed for him, a peace had come over him and a joy had come into him. Tony, the last three days have been the best days of our lives. We’ve sung. We’ve laughed. We’ve read Scripture. We prayed. Oh, they’ve been wonderful days. And I called to thank you for laying your hands on him and praying for healing."
And then she said something incredibly profound.
She said, "He wasn’t cured, but he was healed."
Wellness is more than health…it is wholeness. You may never be physically 100 %, but you can be well. Jesus can make you well. Do you want to get well?
AMEN
