I love the story in John 5

About the man at Bethesda

Unable to walk for 38 years

Sitting by a pool thought to have healing properties

But unable to get in

So many others going in before him

Hopeless

It was a thin hope anyway

To put one’s hope in a pool of water

Many others must have gone in

And come out again

Unhealed

But then Jesus came

Asking the man a question

The answer should have been obvious

Do you want to be healed?

Both a physical and spiritual question

Yes! The man said

So Jesus told him to pick up his mat and walk

Bypassing the pool entirely

It took courage for the man

To admit he needed help

Courage to do what Jesus said

To get up and walk

When it should not have been possible

Courage to go to the temple

Where Jesus later found him

The man not even knowing the identity

Of the One who healed him

Not realizing the one who created the moon and stars

And knit him together in his mother’s womb

Had also come to heal him

It took courage to set aside his very identity

After 38 years, being an invalid

Was surely part of his very self

To become someone new

And while we don’t know the rest of his story

Surely the man took Jesus final words to him to heart

To address the deeper problem

So much worse than his inability to walk

His spiritual problem, sin

For sin hobbles us in every way

Sin keeps us from ministry

Keeps us from being a blessing to others as God intended for us

Robs us of joy

The world promises healing

But it never delivers

Only God can truly heal

The deepest hurts of our heart

And the sin that ties us up in knots

Do I want to be healed?

The question should be obvious

Yes!

But first I have to acknowledge I’m broken

In need of a Savior

Willing to do the hard things Jesus has commanded

Like forgive as He forgave us

It takes courage

To take Jesus at his word

To choose the path of healing

To step out in faith

Instead of doing what we have always done

Expecting a different outcome

For Jesus did not carry the man into the pool

Nor did he pull him to his feet

He told him to get up

And the man did

I could drown the world with all the To Do lists I have written

But what I really need is Jesus’s DONE list

For he has already done the only thing that could ever really change me

He has come, Immanuel, living amongst us

He has died and risen again, conquering death itself

The one sure sentence we all live under

Predictably the Pharisees missed the miracle

Fixating on their own petty rules

Saying what God had done for the man

Wasn’t allowed on the Sabbath

The irony thick

But when Jesus heals you

You don’t much care for man-made rules

For you were an invalid for a very long time

And now you are free