Do You Want to Get Well?

Every time I pick up the Bible, I see (or rediscover) something fascinating.  This morning I was thinking and reading about the invalid at Bethesda.  In John 5, Jesus appeared out of nowhere to an invalid near a pool and asked the man, “Do you want to get well?”  Do you remember how the man responded?  The man gave an excuse.  Jesus asked the man a question and the man’s answer did not match Jesus’ question.

Doesn’t this episode remind you of the kinds of conversations we have today?  I mean, there is a lot of talk, but no real dialogue.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been involved in a conversation and chased a rabbit.  The end result was like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz exclaiming, “I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore, Toto!”

In the story, the man was so preoccupied by his illness that he did not hear Jesus’ question, but answered from his feeling of helplessness.  Jesus must have understood this, so He just healed the man.  This is how God’s grace usually works.  God intervenes many times in our lives and we don’t even know it.

Later, when the leaders of God’s people saw the man, they confronted him because he was breaking one of God’s laws.  The man explained to the religious leaders that the stranger who healed him, said to him, “Pick up your mat and walk.”

This episode reminded me of how John introduced us to Jesus.  In John 1:10-11, John writes,

“He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him.  He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him.”

It wasn’t until later that Jesus revealed Himself to the man.  Then the man went back to the religious leaders and told them that it was Jesus who made him well.

Jesus is a snapshot of our heavenly Father (Hebrews 1:3).  Jesus might be the “Kodak Moment” in people’s lives.   May we be the ones who recognizes the Hand of God in the world and be the finger that points back to Him