Do You Want To Get Well?
People will tell you that the Bible has all the answers. When asked what he thought about specific issues, the new Speaker of the House told reporters they just needed to read the Bible. It had all the right answers and that is what he believed. Dwight has asked us several times how many questions are in the Bible. Do you remember his answer? I think he had counted 2552. Now Biblical scholars might debate that exact number since early texts had no punctuation markings; however, that is still a lot of questions.
I read that in the 4 Gospels, Jesus is asked 183 questions, and he only directly answers 3. That doesn’t sound like the Bible is just an answer book to me. So why are the questions in the Bible important? They help us engage with the text. They bring it to life. They make us think. They give us permission to engage in a deeper relationship and conversation with God. Some questions are asked of God, like “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?” Others are questions that God asks of us.
In his book Questions God Asks Us, Trevor Hudson explores 10 of those questions, although there are many others. As we read the scriptures, when God addresses a question to someone in the Bible, we can benefit greatly from hearing God ask us the same question. God wants us to wrestle and grow. God wants to push us to examine ourselves in light of God’s love and grace. Think about a counselor—a good counselor asks questions to get you to identify areas in your life that need attention. If the counselor does all the talking and gives you all the answers, then you are wasting your time and money. Dialogue and soul searching are essential to the growth process.
I am indebted to some of Hudson’s reflection on today’s question. I have been teaching this book at Pfeiffer this semester with college students in a spiritual formation class. This is a great little book, and I would be happy to lead an on-line study of it with any of you who are interested, starting in January. Just let me know if there is some interest in that.
Our question today is “Do you want to get well?”. It is found in John’s gospel, chapter 5. I am reading from The Message, Gospel of John 5: 1-6.
Soon another Feast came around and Jesus was back in Jerusalem. Near the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem there was a pool, in Hebrew called Bethesda, with five alcoves. Hundreds of sick people—blind, crippled, paralyzed—were in these alcoves. An angel stirs water. First one in gets healed. This pool was not just a healing place for Jews—people came from everywhere. It was even associated with a Greek god of healing.
One man had been an invalid there for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him stretched out by the pool and knew how long he had been there, he said, “Do you want to get well?”
The sick man said, “Sir, when the water is stirred, I don’t have anybody to put me in the pool. By the time I get there, somebody else is already in.”
Jesus said, “Get up, take your bedroll, start walking.” The man was healed on the spot. He picked up his bedroll and walked off.
Here we have a man who has been lying beside a pool of water, hoping for a miraculous healing for 38 years. Along comes a stranger who says to him, “Do you want to get well?
At first glance this seems almost like a silly question—you would expect an answer like, “Duh—of course I want to get well.” The man has no clue what Jesus is offering him.
Why might Jesus have asked the question?
Jesus knew that the man had become accustomed to his condition. He had a routine—a daily routine—where unnamed someone--friends, family, caregivers--would bring him to the pool, set him up at the water’s edge, and leave him there for the day. He was dependent upon others to meet his needs. He had been living that same pattern for 38 years.
Jesus, in asking the man “Do you want to get well?” is also asking him “Do you want to change?” If this man is made well, his life will change drastically. His current patterns of behavior will shift. The expectations of him from others will change. If he is healed, it is likely that he will be expected to take full responsibility for himself—something he has been unable to do all these years.
What is the man’s answer when Jesus asks the question? It’s not YES! No, he gives excuses for why he isn’t well yet. I have no one to help me. Other people get in first. It’s other peoples’ fault that I haven’t been healed.
It is obvious that Jesus has compassion on the man. Jesus responds by telling him to take up his mat and walk.
Think about this from the man’s perspective. Jesus is asking the man to do something radically different from what he has been doing for at least 38 years. He is offering him the opportunity that he has been seeking by coming daily to the pool at Bethesda.
The man has a choice. He can be obedient to this stranger. He can risk trying to stand and be ridiculed or hurt when he does what he has been told, or he can stay on the mat and refuse to try. He can continue the patterns of living that he has become comfortable with, even if they are restrictive, or he can risk following the command of Jesus, whom he doesn’t even know. Just an observational aside here-- this healing does not seem to be contingent on the man’s faith—it is an unmerited gift from a stranger. In many examples of Jesus’ healing and miracles, they are a fulfillment to a request. Here, it is just pure gift.
So, what happens? The man takes the risk. He is obedient to the command. He is made well. He takes up the mat and begins roaming about, carrying his bedroll. In a sense the mat is a testimony to where he has come from, what he has been delivered from. It is an indicator of his healing.
Let’s consider the question: Do you want to be well? In this story, Jesus is offering this man freedom from a lifetime of paralysis that has restricted him.
How do you hear that question? What are things in your life that paralyze you from singing with joy and living with hope? Is there some behavior or character flaw that God wants to offer you healing from? Are there wounds or scars that you carry that you need to give to God for healing? Do you need to trust God to help you acknowledge and love the person God has created you to be? Do you need the healing that comes from forgiving someone or from saying you are sorry? Do you need the courage to leave an abusive situation or to seek healing from abuse experienced as a child? Perhaps you need healing from religion that has inflicted paralysis, and you want a fresh encounter with God?
We all suffer at some point from fears, depression, stress, addiction, flawed relationships, boredom, blaming others for our problems, and other things that impede living a life that God wants for us. To begin to experience healing, we have to acknowledge to our Creator that we are broken people who want and need healing and we have to begin to take those risky, obedient steps to let God work in our lives. God loves us and wants us to live fully in His love. Unlike the instantaneous healing in this story, God is not likely going to wave some magic wand and then all things will be made right.
Healing takes work on our part as well. It takes risky obedience and trust. It takes support from others who walk alongside us. Healing is most often a process that takes time and effort on our part in union with the Holy Spirit who assures us of God’s love and presence on this journey.
As I reflected on the question this week, (you know preachers should always reflect on what they are about to tell others—they have to let God go meddling in their business, too) I felt God nudging me in two different ways.
First God said, "Hey Marcy, what is an area in your life that you need to hear this question?"
Several things bubbled up, but the big one that rose to the top for me this week, and if I am honest for a long, long time, is my weight. It isn’t a vanity thing—that’s not the push, but it is my long-term health. Currently, I am not in any major health crisis, so it is easy to ignore a dog that isn’t barking. But I let God ask me the question: Do you want to get well?
Right now, I am still on the mat thinking about it. For me to get off my mat and walk means fewer brownies, more exercise, and perhaps trading my comfortable mat for a yoga mat. Telling you this out loud today, however, increases the chances I am going to let God work on this with me.
My second nudge was about Providence. I think God has been asking us this question over the last 2 years since I have been attending, and probably long before that. When Danny and I joined in October of 2021, the handful of people who were attending at that time said things like “Why would you want to come here?” This church was battered and bruised. Some wounds were self-inflicted and others were cultural, socio-political, covid, geographical migration—probably 30% of this congregation moved out of the community in a three-year period—we were languishing beside the pool of Bethesda with no one to drag us into the waters when the angel stirred them. But this little rag-tag group of people made the choice to seek God’s healing.
I tell people that when we first joined, this church was in ICU. In early 2022, we got moved to a regular room, and soon we were sent to a rehab facility. I think we have actually moved home now but are still working on our health. We have been adding people who come for whatever reason, but I like to think it is because we are allowing God to make us well. We have officially proclaimed God’s love and unconditional acceptance of people in the LGBTQ+ community. We are following our call to be obedient and accept risks in doing so. Our community of faithful followers of Christ is growing, even as we acknowledge our struggles and trials.
God is bringing healing to this place, and I am grateful! I hope you are sensing that same presence of the Holy Spirit among us. Let’s work together to pull each other off our mats and to walk in God’s love and healing grace.
Hear God ask you that question. Do you want to get well?
What, today, do you need to give over to God to help you be well? It may be personal. It may be corporate. Listen for God’s voice—be aware of the nudges of the Spirit.
I want to give you a few minutes of silence to reflect on the question. Do you want to get well?
Write your requests and thoughts to God. These notes are for you to keep. It is up to you whether you share them with someone else, though that might help with the healing process.
Then take time to hear what God might be saying to you. Dialogue. Deepen that relationship. Be honest. Be open. God is big enough to deal with whatever you bring to the table and may also bring others into your life to help you along the way.
[Silence]
In his book, Hudson shares a story by Carlos Valles, a Spanish-Indian Jesuit priest, about riding through the Indian countryside on his bike. He suddenly became aware of a strange stillness in the air. He stopped his bike to see what was happening. A little way off the path he saw a cobra with its hood spread and its tongue flicking. He followed the gaze of the cobra and saw a tiny bird perched on the branch of a bush just in front of the cobra’s gaze. The bird appeared to be paralyzed.
He wrote: “The bird had wings but could not fly. It had a voice but could not sing. It was frozen, stiff, mesmerized. The snake knew its power and had cast its spell. The prey could not escape though it had the whole sky for its range.”
Carlos reacted by waving his arms and shouting, breaking the hypnotic spell the snake had on the bird. The snake slithered away, and the bird found its wings and flew and rediscovered its voice and began to sing.
As we continue to hear God ask, “Do you want to be well?”, our prayer is that we will allow God to help us to find freedom from what paralyzes us, to spread our wings and learn to fly, and to find our voice and sing with joy.
