Have you ever felt sorry about yourself that you asked ‘how are you’ to someone? I asked a guy in a
another church one Sunday, "How are you?" His answer was: “I was fine until you asked.” I felt sorry
that I asked. Jesus felt sorry not about himself, but about the man when he asked, “Do you want to be
healed?” He got an answer that had no connection to the question.
You have heard people saying, 'God Helps those who helps themselves'. Some believe that this is from
the Bible. It is not in the Bible. Greek philosopher Sophocles wrote “heaven ne’er helps the men who.
will not act.” In fact, the Bible teaches that God is a helper to the helpless.
Here in the scripture reading of John 5:1-9, we read about a man who was at a certain pool waiting to be
healed for 38 Years and counting. 38 years is a long time to be doing anything. This man took his place
with many others who shared a similar plight. After all, misery does love company. They gathered at the
pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem where some said that every now and again an angel would disturb the
waters, and the first one in would be healed. Jesus comes into the picture and surveys the situation.
Somehow, Jesus becomes aware of how long this guy has been lying there. But rather than healing him,
he asks him a question…”Do you want to get well?” What kind of question is this? Of course,
he wants to be healed! After all, he is lying beside a pool that was supposed to heal people. Talk about
“politically incorrect.”
Some versions of the Bible like the NIV and RSV, Verse 4 is missing. Many versions include this verse
in a footnote which explains why these people were there. The facts are that the pool of Bethesda, like
many similar pools in the Jerusalem area, is an intermittent spring. At times water is released in surges
from hidden reservoirs in the hills around the city, causing these springs to rise and fall suddenly.
This is what gave rise to the superstition about an angel troubling the pool. Undoubtedly healings did
occur there. Even today healings take place in these special areas where people go, believing they can be
healed. But most of these healings would be just psychological.
But Jesus must have asked this specific question for a reason. On the surface it may sound like a silly
question, but there are lessons to be learned in this. There are two things to notice in this person.
First, he is investing in the wrong kind of plan, to get someone to help.
The second thing is that he wants to try the same plan that continues to fail him and does not try a different
plan. Notice his answer. He does not answer Jesus directly. The man's answer was "“If only someone
would help me". We hear little hope in the man’s sad reply. No anticipation that Jesus might help him.
Decades of pain and dashed possibilities brought him to the place where all he could see was a sealed fate,
a grim future.
The man already has figured out his problem. It was that there was nobody to help him to get into the pool.
What did Jesus say to a man who had lost all hope, a man who had given up on himself? Jesus didn't say,"
I'll help you get into the pool the next time the water is troubled." No, he did not say that. He did not
offer that kind of help. Jesus did not say, "Hang on. Keep coming here. Perhaps someday you'll make it
in time. Someday it will all work out." No, he did not say that either. Jesus didn't say "Let's at least make
you comfortable. Let's get you a new mattress to lie on, put a few flowers around you and bring you
food everyday". These are the suggestions of what we say to people. But Jesus does not say any of those
things to people who want to hear from him. What does Jesus say, then? Notice carefully his method:
First, he asks an impossible thing; secondly, he removes all possibility of a relapse; and thirdly,
he expects a continued success. All these are involved in the words, "Rise, take up your pallet, and
walk." And at once the man was healed, and he took up his pallet and walked. (John 5:8b-9).
Jesus convinces him that he has the wrong answer that leads him to frustration and disappointment.
He needs to change his answer. There is someone who can help. He is here today. Jesus calls him into
the fullness of life with Him.
HIS Position was at the pool of Bethesda. (means House of mercy).
HIS Problem was looking for help from the wrong places.
HIS Plan was not to have a plan.
He is waiting for something to happen. He was waiting for the time of water to move, and he is waiting
for someone to help him get in the pool. People believed in something about the water and someone to
help him get into the pool, not someone to heal him. Many are Waiting for instant blessing, instant
healing, and instant transformation. The condition of many of us today is that we are waiting for
something with no real plan or hope of achieving it.
Many people go after what are not real. They go to places of miracles, healing, prosperity not knowing
that they are expecting results from false things. Most of what we come to expect out of life comes straight
from the television or movie screen. We buy into the false reality that our culture hands to us. We sell our
souls to an illusion of life — not the real thing. We also buy into the false reality peddled of a God who
can be manipulated in order to make us healthier,
wealthier, and wiser. With this god, everything happens by cause and effect. If you are suffering, then you
have sinned. If you aren’t being healed, then you don’t yet have enough faith.
If we assume that our friend at the pool really does want his situation to change, what plan has he made
to make this happen? He starts to explain to Jesus that nobody would help him to get into the water when
it’s stirred up. Someone else always gets there first. That is indeed unfortunate.
Let us examine this plan. He has been at a pool which is supposed to have the answer to his problem, but it is also the answer to everyone else’s problem. There are probably a few other people who are strong
enough to get in first. Yet, he remains, with no other back-up plan. For 38 years! How many years do
you think it would it take for you to figure out that this is a bad plan? Perhaps a bit less than 38?
So, with no other plan in sight, that leaves this man with no real hope and no real way to change is
condition. His situation is not ever going to change just by hanging around the pool. But still he stays
there. Presumably because he can’t come up with a better plan. This is a good picture of people without
spiritual hope. We see this every day in our family and friends, and, sometimes in ourselves. This man
trusted in a rumor about a pool, and he has also put his trust in some invisible friends who would put him
into the pool when the water was stirred. How many of us continue to trust in things that are human and
will fail? He was trusting in “if only” someone. He trusted that “if only someone would help me!”.
Our life is not ours; it is a gift from God. Nobody chose to be born at a particular time and place. But
we falsely believe that we control our life. Because of that we simply fear losing the control, which we
don't have. That’s an irony. We must admit that we need to be healed and that our own efforts have
made a mess of things. Jesus asked him if he knows there is a way he can change his situation. Are you
willing to take that step?
Jesus’ question to the man was about physical healing, but the man’s physical condition was not the
main point. The question behind the question is about life itself: “Just what do you want to do with your
life?” Are you afraid of getting well? The Son of God, who is omniscient, doesn't ask us questions
because He lacks information. He knew and He knows. Believe it or not, there are many who think they
want to be healed but are afraid of being healed. Their ailments (physical, mental and emotional) have
come to define them. They are used to being looked on with sympathy and pity by others. He had waited
in this condition for 38 years and it might have been that all hope had died. The man might have been
content to remain an invalid.
The man did not say a simple “yes”. Being well holds more responsibilities. Being well holds more
accountability. There will be a complete transformation of your life. The deeper question Jesus asks
is, “Do you really want to be transformed?”. If we are content to stay as we are — no matter how
miserable that may be — there can be no change, no possibility of healing for us. The questions we
need to answer may sound like, "DO YOU WANT TO LOSE WEIGHT? Do you wish to stop
repeating the same mistakes and going through the same cycles in your relationships, or does it feel
safer to blame others instead of dealing with your issues? Do you wish to get rid of your anger, or
would you just as soon keep it? " "Do you really want to forgive that person and move on, or is it
easier to distance yourself from the pain they once caused you?" "Are you willing to change your
lifestyle habits, or will it take too much energy to quit your unhealthy routines?" "Are you ready to take
up your bed and walk? Are you willing to give up the excuses that allowed you to stay the same,
somehow seeing your situation as secure?"
Too often we plod along in our debilitating condition, craving to be healed, yet resisting any change
whatsoever. Jesus asks : “1.Stand up, 2. take your mat and 3. walk.” Notice that the first thing Jesus
says to do is what the man could not do, what he had tried for 38 years, to Get up and stand. Jesus asks
an impossible thing to do as far as he is concerned. Secondly, he removes all possibility of a relapse; and
thirdly, he expects a continued success. Take up your mat. Don't leave your mat behind, in case you
need it tomorrow??
The third thing: "walk." Do not expect to be carried -- walk. Many people want to be carried after they
are healed. They expect everybody to gather around them and keep them going. Jesus says, yes you can
do on your own. He is the One who can give you the power to walk every day, to keep going. Fix your
eyes not on your friends or on yourself, but on Jesus, "Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of
faith," {Heb 12:2 KJV}.
We all can see ourselves, in a sense, helpless, weak, crippled and lame, lying at the pool of Bethesda. We all need help. We all find ourselves paralyzed at times, unable to do the thing we want or ought to
do. We find we are lame: we do not walk very well spiritually. Jesus wants you to be whole, that you
do not have to wait around without hope. You can get up and go beyond where you have not imagined.
Jesus asks us the question today, and He deserves an honest answer. Healing will come on God’s terms,
not ours. It is really a question of faith. Can you trust God to change you and transform your situation?
Can you let go of your own fear of change and allow God to make all things new? A new life, a new
way of living, that is the Good News Jesus is bringing to you.
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