Do You Want To Be Made Well? Do you really?

 One day a cowboy in Arizona 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; passengers in wagon; two passengers; one a man, one woman; the man is driving."

The cowboy was amazed and impressed. This scout was legendary for his extraordinary tracking skills and now the cowboy understood why.  He couldn't believe it. "That's incredible!” he said in awe and respect. “You can tell all of that just by listening with your ear to the ground?"

The scout replied, "No, they ran over me half an hour ago!"

The man by the pool in our Gospel reading had been flattened for a long time. He lived among a great multitude of sick people: blind, lame, paralyzed. It doesn’t say precisely what was wrong with him -- but he had been inflicted with his infirmity for thirty eight years.  (That’s a number that hits personally as Marcia and I will soon celebrate our 38^th wedding anniversary – long time – but I don’t mean to draw any parallels!)  Anyway, he couldn't get up and walk.  The belief was that when the water “stirred” in the pool (perhaps an intermittent spring), the water attained healing powers and the first one in the water would be healed.  So there he was, on his little mat, waiting beside the pool of healing water, hoping that someone would put him into the water when it began to stir and the healing power was released.  

 Jesus approached this man and he asked him a most remarkable question: “Do you want to be made well?”   You might say, “So what is so remarkable about Jesus’ question?  Of course he wanted to be made well!”   

 Think of it this way: If you had the power to heal as Jesus did, and you walked into your loved one’s hospital room, would you really enter into a conversation about whether or not your loved one wanted to be made well?  Is it not more likely you would simply proceed with the healing? 

 Of course the man wanted to be made well didn’t he?  Or did he?  The man’s reply is fascinating.  He didn’t react with a resounding, “Oh, yes Lord!”  He didn’t respond with excitement, joy, anticipation, or a sense of eagerness.  He hedged and said, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way someone steps down ahead of me.”   I don’t know what you hear between the lines in his reply but I hear all sorts of things. 

 *I hear of little bit of guilt? It is very likely that someone told him his infirmity was the result of his sin or the sin of his parents as people believed in those days, and when Jesus asked the question perhaps he felt latent guilt well up within him and he tried to brush it away with his indirect reply. 

 *I 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 suffocating power from which you simply cannot extract yourself alone. 

 *I hear a little skepticism.  Perhaps others had tried to heal him and had failed, and he was skeptical and even a bit cynical about this man who stood before him. 

 *I even very faintly detect a little fear.  Being made well would transform his life dramatically.  He had been there thirty-eight years, and he had learned how to cope and survive. Being made well would change all of that, and he would have to let go of the old ways of living and coping and embrace a whole new way of life and perhaps the prospect of that was too frightening. 

 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 hurt your mind, body, emotion or spirit, and you were knocked off your feet and sent staggering through life, and perhaps found even yourself down for the count with your face rubbed into it literally or figuratively; or maybe you were left feeling empty, hollow, angry, or fearful.

 We must not forget that John recorded this story for his readers, and today you and I are the readers.  Simply by the way John tells it, with his emphasis on the man’s response, I believe he wants us to focus on the responses we give to the Lord Jesus when he stands before us and asks, “Do you want to be made well?” 

 I think much of the time we sound a lot more like the man by the pool that we are perhaps willing to admit – sort of dancing around Jesus’ question, not really all that sure if we really want to be set free from the maladies and infirmities of our lives; finding ourselves a bit unwilling to let go of the old that is known for the new that is unknown; finding ourselves hesitant and uncertain.

 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 comes and stands before each and every one of us and asks, “Do you want to be made well?”  “Do you want to be set free from your sin; your addiction; your negative attitude; your selfishness; the grudge you carry; the wound that festers in your soul; your low self esteem; your fear; the 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? 

 How do you answer the Lord Jesus when he comes and asks, “Do you want to be made well?” and he is asking you today?  Do you say, “What are you talking about?  There is nothing wrong with me?”  It took me until I was 44 years old to deal with wounds entrenched in my soul that were the result of a childhood of living in a dysfunctional alcoholic family.  The people around me saw the issues I needed to deal with, but when confronted with those issues, I would respond with denial.

 How do you answer the Lord Jesus when he comes and asks, “Do you want to be made well?”  Do you respond, “Well, yes Lord, but I can handle myself.”  In my ministry I have seen more relationships and marriages crash and burn because of the prideful attitude, “I can handle it  myself.” 

How do you answer the Lord Jesus when he comes and asks, “Do you want to be made well?”   Have you ever fallen into the trap of self-pity: “I am not at fault.  I am not to blame.  Someone else is responsible.”  Self-pity is a dead-end and provides no hope for healing and empowerment.

 How do you answer the Lord Jesus when he comes and asks, “Do you want to be made well?”   Perhaps with doubt 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.”

The most profound infirmity in all of life – the core infirmity - is the broken relationship with God that results from the wounds we regularly inflict upon the Lord Jesus Christ with our sins.  Yet, it was he who provided the ultimate healing through the forgiveness of our sins -- his broken body/shed blood. 

Life is broken.  We get broken.  We inflict pain and pain is inflicted upon us.  But our Lord keeps approaching, and he looks deeply into our fractured souls and he asks, “Do you want to be made well.”  And then the Lord Jesus does the most amazing thing.  He stretches himself out on a cross so that you can experience the ultimate healing: forgiveness of your sins and peace with God.