DO YOU WANT TO GET WELL?
John 5
“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.”
It would seem that here is a man who had given up. He is alone with no one to help him and when he did make an attempt, he was too slow.
It cannot be that he was completely helpless—you cannot survive 38 years completely helpless. There is every likelihood that he had a place to go to; after all, where would he have gone after he was healed? Yet he tells Jesus that he is a victim of his circumstances. “It’s not my fault; my circumstances prevent me from doing anything about my situation.” And so he lies there everyday, gazing at the possible answer to his situation, but no longer attempting to do anything about it.
In a metaphorical sense, that man could be anyone of us, believing ourselves to be victims of our circumstances. We are in a crippling situation and there is something really wrong with us, damaging us to the extent that our lives are at a standstill; yet all we can offer are excuses.
“Do you want to get well?” Jesus asks.
What we need to do is to obey the voice of Jesus. He had taken the initiative to reach out to us. Will we respond to him?
Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.