I recently heard a pastor say that the first book of the Bible that anyone should read is John. Well, it's a little late for that for me personally, but I recently started reading a chapter a day and I can see why spiritual leaders would suggest young Christians begin their studies there. John gives a wonderful account of Jesus' life that is very easy to understand. I've only been doing this for a week (so I'm only on chapter seven), but so far what I've noticed is that I recognize all of the stories of the miracles, but there are only a few that I have really taken the time to go through and dissect myself. Which is totally awesome, because I have so much untouched material to go through!
One of the many things that amazes me about both the Bible and Jesus Christ Himself is that they are both basic enough for a child to understand, yet complex enough for Theologians to spend years and years analyzing with a fine-tooth comb. Everything is multi-faceted. And it really only makes sense for it to be that way because that is how the Holy Spirit can grab different people during all different walks of life. It's amazing. The more I scrutinize, the more I get out of it...and equally, the more I think He has run out of things to show me to rock my world, the more violently He rocks it.
The Pharisees--oh, the Pharisees. I could sit here and whine about how much I detest them and how much I hate their pride and petty perfectionism, but truth be told, they served an enormous purpose...they wouldn't be talked about in the Scriptures so much if they didn't. Their blind ignorance is one of the biggest ways that Jesus' glory was revealed. They didn't know it, but they were working right alongside the disciples painting that huge, neon, flashy billboard with arrows and fireworks directing attention upward to His heavenly majesty. Every time they tried to call Jesus out for healing on the Sabbath or spending His time with "the least of these", I imagine the King, omnipresent and powerful as He is, laughing to Himself a little bit. Their attempts were so feeble and self-righteous, I can't imagine that He would respond in any other way. Man does He love them, but boy were they off. The reason I bring up the Pharisees is because without their obnoxious tattle-taling and nitpicking, they would not have drawn more attention to the miracle that Jesus executes.
Which brings me, I suppose, to John 5. Jesus is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate at a place called the pool of Bethesda. In Hebrew, Bethesda means "house of grace" or "house of mercy". The pool of Bethesda is where the sick, crippled, and paralyzed would go because of its rumored healing powers when the water stirred. They would lay there, some, for copious amounts of time, outcasted by society, simply waiting. Jesus' miracle in John 5 is about a man who had been lying at the pool for thirty-eight years. Thirty-eight years. Can we just pause for a moment and try to comprehend that amount of time? I know I at almost nineteen years old can't even come close. My parents were in elementary school! I do not know how old this man was, but to have been laying in this one place for almost forty years, what could he possibly have to go back to? His home was the pool of Bethesda. Whether he liked it or not, that pool inhabited by the rejects and the sickest was essentially his. Thirty-eight years is more than enough time to make this man, or anyone for that matter, sick in the head as well. He was accustomed to the life he was forced to live. He was rendered useless in contributing to a society so what does he do? What would you do? We cannot fully comprehend because that isn't necessarily how America is, and obviously we have the gift of medicine and therapy to help heal some of the consequences of our human condition. But for this man, perhaps he went to the pool of Bethesda as a child, believing with all of his heart that this pool contained the rumored healing water to rid him of his repulsive state--to make him clean. How long does one hold on to that hope? What about his family or friends? They could be the most supportive of any group of people that has ever lived, but they couldn't stay there with him. He was alone. Dehumanized, ostracized, and left for dead. Can hope hold on for nearly a lifetime?
Jesus walks up to this man, stretched out by the pool, and asks him a question that is far too often overlooked:
"Do you want to be healed?" (v. 6)
Do I want to be healed? Are you joking? Do you have any idea the misery I live in, day in and day out? I have been a slave to as close to unbearable pain as you can get for thirty eight years. I am incapable of getting into the pool of Bethesda when the water stirs because I have no one to help me in. Every day of my life I wonder if it will be my last and on most days, I really hope it will be my last, because me merely existing is a nuisance at best to everyone. Do you, sir, know what it is like to be a man and not have the ability to even get in a pool of water? I can't do anything on my own and even if there were someone here to help me it wouldn't matter because I would just create a bigger burden in his life. But you know what? After nearly forty years of the same exact mundane, painful, and utterly useless things every day, I almost believe that even if I were healed, for me to start over would be almost, if not already, impossible. I've completely lost touch with anything that happens outside of this place and I would be dreadfully lost were I to see it again. On the other side of healing there is self-restoration and that restoration doesn't come easily.
Jesus' miracles always mean something and they are always symbolic. The beauty of the multi-faceted nature of Jesus and His work is that the symbols can change even when Jesus never does. We are the scattered around the healing pool of Bethesda. The sickest of the sick, the empty, the worthless, the broken, the useless, the most repulsive, and the hurting. Some of us have been sick for what feels like thirty eight years...some of us have been sick for maybe a week, some our entire lives, but it doesn't matter.
Do you want to be healed?
Be honest with yourself as I am honest with myself: do you sit in your misery and complain about the dreadful pain you're in or the seemingly worthless nature of your life? Stuck in a sinful cycle that never seems to end? Does it seem to just be one negative thing after the other? Can't catch a break? What about when the opportunity arises to be made well, whole, clean, pure? It seems obvious in this man's case that he would immediately say yes, right? It also seems obvious that in your hurting state and in my hurting state that we would jump on any opportunity to have the brokenness put back together. Jesus is Healer. He is the Healer. But He doesn't do your life for you. Do you want to be healed? You have the choice.
Jesus tells the man in verse seven, "Get up, take your bedroll, and start walking." After thirty-eight years of painful paralysis, YOU figure out how to get back on your feet. It's painful, son, and yes, you are quite a bit rusty. But I promise you that there is life and life abundant beyond the perimeter of this miserable place, and I promise you even more that yes, it's going to hurt and yes, it's going to be hard, but if you put your faith in Me, your life will flourish more than you can even begin to imagine. So get up, man; I am right here to catch you when you fall.
