The Question Remains

 

When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, "Do you want to be made well?"  

John 5: 6 NKJV 

What would you say to Him?  If our Lord Jesus were to approach you in your illness and ask if you wanted to be healed, what would you say to Him?  Would you be like the man beside the pool and tell Jesus your story of how you have been sick for so long and that there was nobody to help you?  Trust me, Jesus knows where you've been.  He already knew that this man by the pool of Bethesda was ill and had been for some time {John 5:6}.  Still, He asked him the question, "Do you want to be made well?"  to me this is a silly question, because if I were in this man's condition I would jump at the opportunity for healing.  Yet the man by the pool had seen false hope before.  When the waters of the pool would be stirred, he would try in vain to make it into the pool, only to have others beat him to it.  Jesus knew this as well.  It is beyond certainty that Jesus, knowing this man had experienced false hope so many times already, had come to give him everlasting hope.  He didn't need the healing waters of the pool, all he needed was Jesus.  Jesus was his hope.  Jesus is our hope.  It is Jesus who proclaimed to the man, "Rise, take up your bed and walk" {John 5:8}.  Immediately, of course, the man who had waited for so long was healed.  He hadn't stepped into the waters of Bethesda.  What he did experience was the living water of Christ Jesus.  I'm sure that most of us have a dog in the fight on this issue as we have all been ill at one point of another.  Scripture tells us that the man by the pool had been sick for thirty-eight years {John 5:5}.  I think back to some of the times in my life where I have been ill and yearned for Jesus to heal me.  I prayed that His healing hands would hold me.  I asked others to pray over me.  In the end, I was healed, knowing that Jesus never left my side.  But thirty-eight years?  I cannot even begin to imagine what that must be like.  Yet there are those who have suffered for so long.  To these Jesus may indeed pose the question, "Do you want to be made well?"  

And what agreement has the temple of God with idols?  For you are the temple of the living God.  As God has said:  

I will dwell in them

And walk in them,

I will be their God,

And they shall be My people."

2 Corinthians 6: 16 NKJV 

I think that Jesus' healing of the man by the pool of Bethesda is an important lesson for us today.  When I look at this man, I see one who did as the religious authorities of the day instructed those who were sick.  He went to wait beside the pool.  His focus was not on the healing power of the Lord, but on idols.  In the series The Chosen, Jesus lays it out for the man by the pool, "This pool does nothing for you, and you know it."  Indeed, many of those things we have been taught do nothing for us as well.  Did Jesus tell the man to tithe that he might be healed?  Did He tell him to spend more time in the temple in prayer over his infirmity?  No, He simply asked him what he wanted to hear for so many years.  "Do you want to be made well?"  Those tithes and offerings, the time spent in church filling a pew, it does nothing for you...and you know it.  What does offer you strength and healing is Christ Jesus.  It is only through Jesus that we will discover all which we really desire and need.  He is our hope of glory.  So, the question remains, do you want to be made well?  

To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.  

Colossians 1: 27 NKJV 

~Scott~