Healed

  Many years ago, in the great city of Jerusalem, there was an area near a popular gateway known as the pool of Bethesda. In Aramaic, Bethesda meant “house of mercy or grace”. This was the place where sick people came to be cured of their illnesses or injuries. With its five porches and various walkways, the people would wait, many of them blind, lame or so ill they could barely stand, or if they were lucky, walk. Here they waited for the waters to stir and the possibility of being made whole again. When Jesus passed by the area, He took notice of a man, whom He knew had been afflicted for many years and feeling compassion for him, Jesus approached him surrounded by the crowded walkways.

For thirty-eight years this man had been crippled, unable to walk. His only hope was the pool of water that was said to be blessed periodically by Angels. The pool would bubble and all the people around it that were waiting to be healed would rush toward the water trying to be the first one in. According to religious tradition, the first to enter the pool at this moment would be healed. Whether or not that was true or ever happened we don't know, this part of the story doesn't tell us that. What we do know is this man was never first in the pool. It's quite possible that he was pushed aside and trampled due to his disability, by others that had just a little more mobility. And yet he stayed, hoping that one day his healing might come. You might wonder, how did he keep from getting discouraged? If you had asked that man before he met Jesus, I’m sure he might have laughed or even had a response with some amount of resentment or anger. What else was he to do? When Jesus met him he didn't offer to move him closer to the pool or to sit with him and help him when the waters began to churn. He asked him a simple question, “do you want to be healed?”

We all have our handicaps in life. Whether they be physical, financial, or emotional; perhaps being abandoned or betrayed. All those things that we go through in life that beat us up and tear us down. We call out to God, “God, deliver me from this”, “God take this pain away”, and “God, help me to find the right person”. But do we really want to be healed? I've lived a long time and suffered my share of tragedies, illnesses, loss, and my share of abandonment, and betrayal. I've prayed those prayers over and over, “God deliver me from this”.

The question eventually occurred to me,

was I seeking His plan for my life

or just my idea of what would make me feel better?

    It seems that all too often we use our own narrow vantage point to view life. What makes us happy, what we consider to be a tragedy, and we try to use our own eyes to see God's plan for our life or our loved ones’ life, or our children's life. That's not the perspective that God sees when he looks at us, he sees a bigger picture, the Kingdom of God. How small my plans must seem when He looks at them, and yet, He knows each thought I have, each tear I cry and each pain I suffer; And, he knows exactly the right path I should follow. It's that path we should seek, His path, the perfection that is His plan. That's a hard prayer to put into words, especially when you're hurting.

The older I get, the more I realize I can't know His plan without knowing Him. I can't have insight into what's best for me and those around me unless I know Him. And yet I spend so very little time trying to do just that, get to know Him. Do you spend time just talking to God? Do you read the Bible and the works of other Christians that have lived through life’s trials and have insight into God and who He is? I must admit, at times I have not made this a priority in my life. But I do try, and that's where growing in Christ helps us to develop a relationship with Jesus. Cultivating through attention and labor, our relationship by spending time together, having conversations, and trusting Him.

Jesus asked the man at the pool, “do you want to be healed?” We might think he would have told Jesus, “of course I do”, and yet I believe Jesus had made a connection with this man and he already knew that the question he was being asked had more than just a simple response in mind. Jesus asked him to believe in Him, get to know Him, have faith, and live like it. Notice that Jesus didn’t wait to heal the man until he had proven the changes for good in his life. He wasn’t healed because he started going to church and finally gave up all of those bad habits he had picked up during his life. Jesus healed him and then said, don’t continue to do those things, or you could end up worse off in the future. Mercy and grace were poured out on him the moment Jesus said, pick up your bed and go home, God chose to heal him, knowing that he was still a man that didn’t have it all together. Several times during His ministry, Jesus asked the religious leaders who questioned His authority, ‘which is more difficult, forgiving the sins of the person or healing their afflictions’? It seems to me that Jesus knew it was more important to impact the rest of their lives for good than it was to release them from their illnesses.

Perhaps that's our answer to how we should live and the expectations that we have for healing. It starts with how we pray, how we trust God and follow through with faith that helps us to know that He only wants the best for us. His plan for us is not without trials and hurts, but when we get to know Him and follow His path, we will know that everything we go through will be used for the good of His Kingdom. Our reward for seeking Him first, knowing Him intimately in our lives, and trusting Him with every decision, will be Him leading us to the best possible outcome. Perhaps, your trial will be used to help someone else who is going through a similar situation. Your faith and the way you live your life through the hard times, with peace and trusting God, may become a beacon to those searching for answers to their own life’s cries for help. Imagine the lifetime impact that the once crippled man, healed by Jesus beside that pool, had on those around him for the rest of his life.

I believe that part of the mission of Jesus here on Earth was to rekindle a relationship. A relationship that was severed and damaged long ago when we betrayed Him, and each one of us has continued that betrayal in a life of selfish behavior, material gain, and denial. We each can fill in that line with our own shortcomings, all have sinned and missed the mark of God’s perfection in our lives. But He stands at the door to our hearts and He asks, in your pain do you want to be healed? In your illness do you want to get better? But more than that, He asks, do you want to know Me? The grace and mercy that we receive might not be what you and I are expecting, it might begin with mending us of a disconnect we have with our Father in heaven. It might be the re-establishing of a relationship we need with God himself so that He can work through our situations to help others, and us.

So the question remains, do you want to be healed?

John 5: 1-9

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