From the Pastor |
Throughout the Gospels, there are many miracles of healing, and each story has something different we can learn.
In today’s reading from John 5: 1-9, Jesus has traveled from Galilee to Jerusalem for a Jewish festival. He has gone to the Pool of Bethesda which is outside the Temple, and John tells us that it is there that Jesus encounters a man who has been an invalid for 38 years. Here Jesus asks the question… “Do you want to get well?” The Pool of Bethesda was a large rectangular pool that consisted of two basins separated by a wall. The pool is believed to have been a mikveh, or ritual bath. The northern basin provided a reservoir, to continually replenish and purify the mikveh with fresh water flowing south through the dam between them. John tells us was surrounded by 5 colonnades which were rows of columns that supported a roof creating covered porch areas... one on each side including on the center wall. Jewish pilgrims would flock to pools such as this one to purify themselves before they would continue on to the Temple and, at times, they would seek healing. The name of the pool is derived from the Hebrew beth hesda which means “house of mercy”. It was also a place of urban legend. The belief was that an “angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool, and stirred up the water; whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was made well from whatever disease that person had.” [John 5:4 added in some texts] Therefore it was not surprising to find that a great many sick and disabled people would wait beside the pool for hours… days… even years on end simply waiting for the waters to be stirred up so that they might be the lucky one to receive healing. Can you picture it? The marginalized of society sitting under the shade of the surrounding porches hoping and praying for a miracle so they could be made whole again. This was the reason the invalid man from today’s reading was there… day after day… waiting… hoping… for a miracle. Yet when Jesus meets this man he looks at him and asks the question “Do you want to get well?” Really? I can almost see that man… looking up at Jesus and rolling his eye thinking “Well… Duh! Why else would I be here?” This man had been lying by the pool of Bethesda waiting to be cured… He cannot walk. There are no wheelchairs. The pool is not handicapped accessible. Day after day, year after year, he lays there alongside countless others hoping to win the angelic healing lottery. So many people sought the Bethesda Pool’s healing powers that the man tells Jesus, he can never get into the water quickly enough. The reality that Jesus’ question brings to light might seem harsh, but the truth is that this man had been “trying” for a long time to receive the miraculous healing that the pool boasted. Yet when we look at his response… “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” the bitterness that had built up over 38 years spills out as he blames others for his NOT being healed. Has there been no-one during all this time that has been able to help him to get into the water? He survived on the charity of others to provide food and drink… a few coins… yet in all this time NO ONE could help him? More likely, given Jesus insightful question, this man had probably given up hope… become so used to his condition that it had formed his whole identity. This was who he was… what he knew… His whole life revolved around sitting there by the pool relying on the mercy of others to survive. Did he really want to be healed where he would have to get up… move on… get a job and care for himself? Did he want his whole life to change? The man did not beg Jesus for healing… he displayed no faith at all and Jesus doesn’t offer even a hint of sympathy… there was no “Well, you poor man! Let me help you” Jesus simply says, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.” Jesus says “Don’t blame other… Stop waiting for someone to carry you. Stop waiting for other people to not be in your way. YOU rise! YOU take up YOUR mat. YOU walk!” It was like Jesus declared “If you want to be healed do what I command and be made whole again.” This story demonstrates that God was and is working everyday through Christ to make all things new… to bring healing and wholeness. Jesus told him to do something he was completely incapable of doing. And suddenly he WAS able… he was rebuilt… remade. It truly was a miracle. So what does this mean for us? Well, Carl Sandberg once said: “There is an eagle in me that wants to soar, and there is a hippopotamus in me that wants to wallow in the mud.” This is true for most of us… at least at times. We start off with bold dreams and grand intentions, but as life goes on we find ourselves hunkering down… wallowing in the mud… wrapped in the down comforter of the familiar. Accepting life… settling for things being what they are. The harsh truth is that there are so many people who claim to want healing… whether it is of body or mind or spirit… but who fear it. They gain their sense of identity from their illness. It becomes WHO they are. They complain to all who will listen, but never really take the steps needed to find a solution… to find healing and wholeness. We can become so defined by our needs that we become afraid. If that need is met or removed we won’t know who we are anymore. We lose our identity. We fear the future and what being healed might mean for us. When the hard times come, it’s a temptation for us to hide away with our problems. We cease thinking about how to move forward. Whether a physical ailment, emotional turmoil or perhaps life has been unfair to us, we wallow in the mud. Our hearts becomes hardened to anyone’s problems but our own. We avoid responsibilities, while demanding sympathy; shutting out everything except our self-pity. But the Good News is that no matter what ails us… Jesus does offer healing, if we want it… But it does come with a price… it brings change! We have to understand “being made well” means. Being made well means that you can’t keep lying on the mat, waiting for a fairy tale solution to swoop down and rescue you from your circumstances. Being well means that you must get up and start walking again… that you go back to work... taking responsibility for yourself and your actions. Being well means caring for others who are hurting like you have hurt. It means following Jesus obediently, wherever he leads you. For those who hope in the Lord will have their strength renewed. “They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” [Isaiah 40: 31b] As we lay beside the pool… wishing whatever problems we have might go away… Jesus walks up and asks us: “Do you REALLY want to get well? Do you want to let go of your dependencies? Do you want to leave behind all excuses and take on the full responsibility of life? Do you want to move forward, spiritually? Do you want to make progress emotionally? Do you want to go to a new place where God can be your all-in-all, not the situation that you have let define you?” “Do You Want To Be Made Well?’ Let’s not be too quick to respond. Let’s not just say as a knee-jerk reaction, ‘Well, Duh! Of course I do!’ Instead… let us look deep inside ourselves and ask. “Do I really want to be made well? Do I really want the changes that healing will bring to my life?” The same Jesus who heals… gives the power to rise up… the power to walk, and to keep walking beside him every day. Therefore, this question requires that we each look deep inside and ask ourselves the question: how much do we really want to be made well? Are we prepared to be made whole… to become that new creation? How much energy are we prepared to put into our spiritual disciplines? What are we prepared to give up and let go? Who are we prepared to forgive? Are we willing to get up… take our mats and follow wherever Jesus leads us? We look for healing, but we must be ready for the changes and challenges that healing will bring to our lives… God does not only want to make us well and whole… God wants to lead us to a place where we can understand the “abundant” life He promises, a life filled with God’s grace and love, a life lived according to His ways of mercy, kindness and goodness. That’s God’s thing: Restoring what is broken. Loving us into wholeness. Offering healing long after we’ve given up, and wanting us to be made whole, to take up our mats and walk. We need to take time to think about this question. Do YOU want to get well? Do you want to be remade and made new? Do you accept the change that God’s healing will bring to your life? Look to God and accept his forgiving love that brings wholeness of life… recognize the acts of God’s grace in your life and take time to show the gratitude we owe to God. It is the response of faith and love to a God who has first sought us out and brought us all the healing we need, undeserving as we are. And then when Jesus comes before us and asks the question “Do you want to get well?” may our response be: Lord Jesus, open my eyes to see you. Open my ears to hear your voice. Heal my legs so I can follow you. Heal my heart so I can love you more. Amen.
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Yeon Shin
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