Sunday, I wrapped up our series, Questions Jesus Asked, and looked at a question that Jesus asked a man who couldn’t walk at the pool of Bethesda.

Before getting to the question, some background.

In John 5, Jesus is walking by the pool on the Sabbath. The pool is a place where possibly hundreds of people who were blind, deaf, lame, etc., would wait for the waters to stir. They believed that an angel was stirring the waters when the waters stirred, and the first person in the pool would be healed. The man that Jesus encounters has sat there and waited for 38 years.

38 years!

I don’t know what it is like to be an invalid or live in chronic pain for 38 years. But imagine that.

This is important for the question that Jesus will ask this man.

I wonder, did this man give up hope? Did he think, this is what life is like?

I think this can be easy to do when we think about places in our lives that we’d like to change or heal. Some of this might be being realistic, but other times, it might be a way that we protect ourselves from disappointment.

Because this man can’t get into the water, it seems like he is all alone.

So, Jesus asks him in John 5:6, Do you want to get well?

For some of us, I think Jesus asks this question because we have to ask ourselves, Do I want to get well? Some of us don’t want to get well.  Or, we don’t want to get well if it requires anything of us. 

We want to heal from emotional wounds without doing any work. We want to recover from relational wounds without dealing with anything from our past. We want physical healing without doing any work. 

Now, sometimes there is nothing we can do to heal. But sometimes, we play a role in our healing. 

I wonder, would Jesus ask us, “Do you want to get well?”

Healing is not something to be flippant about. 

The thing we want healing from is something we have potentially carried and dealt with, prayed for, and cried out to God about for years. Just like this man. I wonder if Jesus is also asking, “Have you given up? Do you still believe healing is possible?”

There comes a moment when it is hard to believe healing is possible. There comes a moment where it is hard to believe and hold out hope that anything could change. 

Something else can happen. This man was here for 38 years. He knew what it was like to live like this. He knew how to get through the day as an invalid. It possibly was part of his identity. The thing we want healing from slowly becomes part of who we are. 

Our brokenness can become a part of our identity and what makes us who we are.

Jesus tells him in verse 8, “Pick up your mat and walk.” Instantly the man was healed; he picked up his mat and walked.

I wonder what this moment felt like. 

Instantly he got well. Did he feel it right away? Did he feel the muscles move in his legs right away?

Jesus healed him, but the man also had to believe and stand up. 

At some point in our faith journey, we will have to take a step of faith. We will have to trust the impossible and believe in the power of God. We will have to respond.

As we apply this question, here are some things I believe Jesus is asking us beneath the surface:

• Do you want to get well?
• Have you given up hope on healing?
• Is there a part that you play in your healing?