John Chapter 5 verses 1-15 (NIV).
It was a day like every other day, for the past 38 years. Lying by the pool, along with a great number of other invalids, all hoping to get into the pool of Bethsaida, was a man who needed help. Up until this day, his only hope was to wait for an angel to come and stir up the waters. If someone was quick enough to be the first one, they would be healed.
Have you ever been in a stuck place? Maybe a job you no longer like, a relationship going no where, an illness that has limited your life in many ways? Somehow, you feel stuck and wonder how things will ever be different?
It seems incredulous that over 38 years had gone by. The man had tried but had made little effort to position himself to be the first in the pool. Surely he had had some opportunities to do so; over 38 years of opportunities? We can all speculate as to why he appeared to be reticent to leave the side of the pool.
Could it be he was comfortable to remain in his current condition? Being surrounded by others, maybe the social aspects of lying by the pool was enough for him? Maybe he lacked confidence and couldn’t muster up the faith to believe he could or would be healed? Or maybe he had seen his identity, in being an invalid? Is it possible that he wouldn’t know who he was or what he would do, without his affliction? Or could he have been using the invisible crutch of self pity?
Jesus came across him lying there and learning he had been in this condition for a long time he asked the man, “Do you want to get well?” (John 5 verse 6, NIV).
Verse 7. “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”
Jesus was not buying this man’s apparent excuses. Jesus was about to make a very big stir, not in the pool, but in the life of this invalid. Jesus was about to deconstruct a lifestyle that this man had constructed.
(Verse 8 NIV) Then Jesus said to him, Get up! Take your mat and walk.” At once, the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. I wonder what the reaction was of the onlooking great number of invalids?
Later on in John 5 verse 14 NIV, Jesus finds this man at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. (I wonder if the man had been bound by self pity as Jesus said to him stop sinning or something worse will happen to you).
Jesus also said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10 verse 10 NIV) Jesus could see that what this man had constructed held little meaning and certainly no fullness.
Jesus chose to approach a single man who had been an invalid for 38 years. He didn’t want him held captive by his excuses of self pity or whatever possible trauma had held him in the same place for 38 years, for one more minute. Jesus spoke with authority and the exclamation mark after the Get up! makes me wonder if he said what he did, in a loud voice. Jesus came in his new covenant authority to construct a new future for this man.
How about you? Do you receive invitations to pity parties? I’ve been to many myself but accepting way less invites these days. Self pity is a dead end street. It promises much and delivers nothing but wasted opportunities to do good. Have you got a situation that needs a word from Jesus to shift? He can! And He will. If you want to be well!