In John 5:2-9 Jesus asks another question: “Do you want to be healed?” On the surface, this seems like a strange question to ask a man lying by the pool of Bethesda, waiting to be healed. This man had been an invalid for 38 years. Like the others around him, he was waiting and hoping for healing.”
Let’s read the account together.
John 5:2-9
2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades.
3 In these lay a multitude of invalids-blind, lame, and paralyzed. (Some manuscripts insert wholly or in part, “waiting for the moving of the water, 4 for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred the water. Whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was healed of whatever disease he had.”)
5 One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.
6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?”
7 The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.”
8 Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.”
9 And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.
Some of you reading this may also be longing for healing. I know I am. For many years I have dealt with back issues. I have been diagnosed with DISH – Diffuse Idiopathic Skeletal Hyperostosis, also known as Forestier disease – a condition in which ligaments, tendons, and joints calcify and ossify, particularly along the spine, causing pain, stiffness, and reduced mobility. As a result, I have four fused discs in my lower back, as well as fused discs in my neck. I also have AS – Ankylosing Spondylitis – in my upper back and neck, an arthritic condition that causes pain and immobility.
I desire healing. Yet long-term brokenness can become so familiar that we may even grow comfortable with it. Since tearing the quadriceps tendons in both of my legs, I have continued to struggle, particularly with my right leg. This too I have learned to live with.
In some ways, these disabilities have brought me closer to Jesus, teaching me dependence in ways I might not have learned otherwise. At times, I simply accept them as God’s will because I have not been healed. I have prayed, others have prayed, and I have been anointed with oil and prayed over by the elders, and my pastors, yet I still have not seen healing. In this account, Jesus’ question draws out the man’s helplessness and exposes the limits of the hope he had placed in the pool.
I can identify with this man. Jesus’ question may seem almost cruel, yet it is a question we too may be asked. Do we truly desire Jesus’ intervention in our lives, or are we willing to remain as we are? That is something we must come to grips with. This does not mean that every person who remains sick lacks faith or desire; Scripture never treats suffering so simplistically.
In this account, Jesus’ question may seem almost strange, perhaps even painful: “Do you want to be healed?” But Jesus was not being cruel. He saw the man, knew how long he had suffered, and drew out the helplessness of his situation. The man’s answer revealed that his hope had been tied to the pool, but he had no one to help him reach it. Then Jesus showed him that the true source of healing was not the stirred water, but the Savior standing before him.
And yet, in a sense, the man’s very efforts to get into the pool answered Jesus’ question. He did want to be healed. Graciously, Jesus simply told him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” At once the man was healed, and he got up and walked.
We too may feel trapped by our infirmities, yet God is able to minister to our deepest needs. We must never allow hardship or suffering cause us to lose hope. Even the psalmist says, “Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God” (Psalm 42:11)
It’s possible that the Lord may have special work for us to do despite our condition, or maybe even because of it. Many have been able to minister effectively to hurting people because they have triumphed over their own hurts. Our needs may be physical or spiritual, but we must never lose hope.
Of course, the fact that someone remains unhealed does not mean they lack faith or desire. Many faithful believers continue to suffer while trusting God deeply. Yet Jesus’ question still invites us to bring our need honestly before him and to remain open to whatever work he wants to do in us.
“Do you want to be healed?” Yes! But I also fully trust in a loving sovereign God who controls all my circumstances.