Do You Want to Get Well?

John 5:1-14

Jesus was traveling to Jerusalem and while on His way He stopped at the Pool of Bethesda. Surrounding the pool was a group of disabled people who believed they could receive healing if they were able to be the first in the water when it was stirred.

There was a man lying by the pool who had been an invalid for 38 years. When Jesus saw him, He asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

Why would Jesus ask such a question? Wasn’t the fact that this man was lying by the pool proof enough that he wanted to get well? After all, he had been that way for 38 years; would he not want to be healed? Would he not want the change in his life that a physical healing would bring?

Not necessarily, and that is why Jesus asked the question. If, as scriptures say, this man had been an invalid for 38 years, then this was a life to which he had become accustomed. The man had learned to adapt to his circumstances and his life was familiar to him, after all it was his life. Healing would bring about dramatic change in his life. Was he ready for that?

The man does not answer Jesus with a simple “yes” or “no.” He explains to Jesus that he has no one to help him get in the pool when the water is stirred.  Jesus takes that as a “yes,” and tells the man to “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” Scripture says that at once the man was cured. In an instant, this man’s life was forever changed!

And that is what it is like to come face to face with Jesus! Our lives can be a mess. We can be so familiar with our own mess that it becomes a place of comfort to us. We can complain about it, say we don’t like it, but still do nothing to change it or make it better.  Change means stepping out of our comfort zone, letting go of all that is familiar and allowing Jesus to heal our broken and wounded hearts. There is so much that He wants to do for us if we just let Him. He still stands at the door of your heart and asks, “Do you want to get well?”

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.  Matthew 7:7-8