josephholubsermons


 

May 10,2009
Easter 5
John 5:1-16 

Do You Want To Be Made Well?

This gospel story from John is about healing, but it's about healing on several different levels.  I will briefly look at this gospel story from two perspectives this morning.  Each perspective gives us a different look and a different application of healing for our lives.  First, I will look at the story at face value.  Secondly, I will look at the story in its context in John's gospel. 

One day a cowboy was riding down an old wagon trail. All of a sudden as he rounded a bend, he saw a man, whom he recognized as a locally renowned scout, lying down flat in the middle of the trail, his ear pressed to the ground. As he got closer the scout began to speak "Wagon," he said, "drawn by two horses; horses are gray and white; two passengers in the wagon; one a man, one a woman; the man is driving; going very fast."

The cowboy was truly amazed and impressed. This scout was legendary for his extraordinary tracking skills and now the cowboy understood why.   "That's incredible!" the cowboy said in awe and respect. “You can tell all of that just by listening with your ear to the ground?"   The scout didn't move but replied, "No, they ran over me an hour ago!"

The man by the pool in our gospel story had been flattened for a long time. He lived among a community of infirmed.  John tells us this man had been near this pool for thirty eight years – a lifetime.  This pool, that archeologists have actually uncovered, was a kind of "health spa" in the sense that the belief was that when the water “stirred” in the pool (perhaps caused by an intermittent spring), the water then attained healing powers, and the first one in the water would be healed.  So there he was, for 38 years, waiting beside the pool.  

Jesus walked up to this man and asked a most remarkable question: “Do you want to be made well?”   That question fascinates me.  Of course the man wanted to be made well, didn’t he?  Or did he?  

The man’s reply is equally as fascinating.  He didn’t reply with a resounding, “Oh, yes sir!”  He didn’t respond with excitement or a sense of eagerness.  He hedged, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water stirs; and while I am making my way someone steps down ahead of me.”   That's not what Jesus asked.  He asked if he wanted to be healed? The man's response was somewhat evasive.  Now if I put myself into this story, which is what I believe we are invited to do, and I think about my own personal pathologies, I begin to hear all sorts of possibilities in the man's  evasive response. 

I think hear of little bit of guilt?  It is very likely that this man had repeatedly been told this his infirmity was the result of his sin as people believed in those days.  He likely has been told his infirmity was his fault, so when Jesus asked the question perhaps he felt latent guilt well up from within him, and he tried to brush it away or side-step it with his indirect reply. 

 I think detect a little self-pity. “I have no one to put me into the pool.”  Self-pity is like being trapped in quick-sand. It’s a paralyzing and suffocating power from which you simply cannot extract yourself alone, but keeps you stuck in your pathology. 

Perhaps I hear a little skepticism.  Other healers may have tried to heal this man and had failed, and he had been disappointed, and as a result he was skeptical, defensive and even cynical about this person who stood before him. 

I even detect a little fear; may be a lot of fear.  Being made well would transform his life dramatically.  He had been there thirty-eight years, a life-time, and he had learned to cope and survive within his condition.  Being made well would change all of that.  It would change everything.  It would change his relationships.  It would change his world-view.  It would change his lifestyle.  It would move him from the known into the unknown.  Being made well would require letting go of old ways of living and coping and embracing new ways of freedom and health.  Perhaps the prospect of that was simply too overwhelming and too frightening.   This man, perhaps like us and even representing us, had learned to live within the parameters of his pathology, and had adjusted to it, so much so, perhaps he had accepted his condition as normalcy.  The prospect of wellness may have been too much for him to consider. 

So which was it?  Which one of these is closest to the truth?  I don't know!  The point is, it was all of them and probably more.  For this story is not ancient history about a man sitting by a pool long ago, but a contemporary story about us; about you and me; a story that rewinds and replays over and over again and takes shape in your life and mine.  We don't have to speculate about him because we know what it is like for us. 

I believe what is ultimately going on here is that Jesus stands before each and every one of us and speaks into the condition of our infirmities and asks a similar question, "Do you want to be made well."    Of course we want to be made well!  Or do we? 

At one time or another we all have been injured, wounded and flattened by life.   Something comes along: some disease, some circumstance, some broken relationship, some loss, some emotional wound, some rejection, some failure -- something came along that injured your mind, body, emotions or spirit, and you were knocked off your feet and sent staggering through life, and perhaps found yourself knocked down for the count with your face rubbed into it literally or figuratively; or maybe you were left feeling empty, hollow, angry, resentful, fearful or crippled in some way.

I think more often that I am willing to admit, I can sound a lot like the man by the pool - sort of dancing around Jesus’ question, not really all that sure if I really want to be set free from the maladies and infirmities of my life; finding myself hesitate to let go of the old that is known to embrace that new that is unknown; finding myself hesitant, uncertain, uncomfortable and anxious.

I believe the most debilitating infirmities are not physical but the emotional, spiritual, and attitudinal.  I also believe a regular and repeating rhythm of the Christian life is that Jesus stands before and us and directs this question into the depths of our infirmities, “Do you want to be made well?”  “Do you want to be set free from whatever it is that confines you, paralyzes you, keeps you locked within yourself, erodes away your love.   Do you want to be made well from negative and narrow attitudes,  a pervasive prejudice, a grudge you carry; a fear keeps you from risking, a wound that festers in your soul, low self esteem; a past failure that still haunts and handicaps you; the self-pity in which you wallow?  Do you want to be made well?  Do you really?  Hear that question rewound and replayed this morning and spoken into the depths of your unique life?

How do you answer?  How will I answer?  Perhaps with, “Well, yes!  thank you very much, but I can handle it myself.”   It's been my experience in ministry and in my own life that many issues go unresolved under the guise of "I can handle it myself." 

Or perhaps I answer with, “I am not at fault.  I am not to blame.  Someone else is responsible.” Self-pity offers shallow comfort and is a dead-end and provides no hope for healing and empowerment.

Or maybe, I respond with skepticism and cynicism:  “I don’t believe you can make me well.  I’ve tried all that faith stuff before, and it has not made any difference.”

Or maybe I respond with resignation: "I am who I am.  I have grown accustomed, even comfortable with my situation, my condition, my pathology.  Don't ask me to change.  I don't want to change.  I am afraid to change.  I choose to hang on to my condition."

Do you want to be made well? asks Jesus.  Of course we do - or do we? 

The second perspective on this story is to see it in context of John's gospel.  Did you notice the reaction of the religious authorities to Jesus' healing of the crippled man?  John is very specific that this all happened on the Sabbath.  We know that there were virtually hundreds of incredibly restrictive Sabbath laws that forbade all sorts of activity, including healing.  In fact healing was one of the biggies.  No healing on the Sabbath!  Sick?  Want to be healed?  Sorry, it's the Sabbath, you will have to wait until tomorrow!   And they were serious about it!  The law was clear!

When we look at this story in context there is a huge issue at stake here, that is relevant to us.  There are two distinct religious paradigms portrayed in this story, and they stand in intense and severe contrast to one another. 

There is the paradigm of Jesus which is a paradigm of empowerment and freedom accomplished through love and compassion.  

There is the paradigm of the religious authorities that was a paradigm of law, legalism and restriction. 

There is no doubt or ambiguity that Jesus broke sacred and revered Sabbath laws.  And of course, this wasn't the only time.  The gospels are full of examples of Jesus and his disciples departing from sacred Sabbath law and doing it intentionally. 

The point is that there are two distinct paradigms of religious expression and religious attitude standing face to face and looking each other in the eye in this gospel and they are irreconcilable.    Which one will cry "uncle" and yield to the other?

It is crystal clear that the religious authorities could not celebrate the healing that the man had experience at the hand of Jesus.  They simply could not celebrate his new found health, freedom, and reconciliation with the community.  John's telling of this story is dripping with irony and tragic humor.  The man was made well, so he grabs his mat and leaps to his feet.  And the reaction of the religious authorities is, "What are you doing carrying that mat on the Sabbath?  Don't you know that is against Sabbath law?"  Are you kidding me?  They guy was just healed of a life-time of oppression, and he's being chastised for joyfully carrying the mat that has been his bed for 38 years?  

Have you ever noticed how quickly Christians depart from the paradigm of empowerment accomplished through the compassion, grace and love of God as embodied in Jesus and adopt the oppressive and restrictive paradigm of law and legalism when they want to beat somebody up or cast judgment upon another?  I would dare say that at least 90% of the time that I ever heard Christians quote scripture has been in the context of condescension, casting judgment or in some way minimizing another. 

A part of what John wanted his community to get, and his readers to get was that to follow Jesus had little, if anything, to do with conforming to law and legalism and imposing it upon others to dehumanize and control, and everything to do with grace, compassion and the empowerment of people; setting people free from internally and externally imposed oppression. For Jesus the love and grace of God, the compassion and empowerment of God always, always, always trumped law and legalism!   

You see, they are two distinct kinds of pathology evident in this story.  There was the personal condition of the crippled man of whom Jesus asked, "Do you want to be made well?"   It's an intensely personal question also asked of us by Jesus, especially when our lives can be distorted, and confined, and limited and minimized by an assortment of crippling emotional, spiritual and intellectual conditions. 

But there is also the pathology of the oppressive paradigm of a crippling legalism that is out of step, out of tune and out of touch with the very one who occupies the core and center of our faith, our mentor and the pioneer of our faith, Jesus Christ our Lord. 

This story, either way you look at it, is about being empowered by the love, grace and compassion of God.  It's also about the tragedy of how quickly and easily so many are willing to abandon that empowerment and trade it in for a restrictive kind of religion that imprisons self and oppresses others. 

"Do you want to be made well?"  Of course we do - or do we?