John 5:1 After this, there was a Judean festival; and Yeshua went up to Yerushalayim. 2 In Yerushalayim, by the Sheep Gate, is a pool called in Aramaic, Beit-Zata, 3 in which lay a crowd of invalids — blind, lame, crippled [, waiting for the water to move; 4 for at certain times an angel of Adonai went down into the pool and disturbed the water, and whoever stepped into the water first after it was disturbed was healed of whatever disease he had.] 5 One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. 6 Yeshua, seeing this man and knowing that he had been there a long time, said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” 7 The sick man answered, “I have no one to put me in the pool when the water is disturbed; and while I’m trying to get there, someone goes in ahead of me.” 8 Yeshua said to him, “Get up, pick up your mat and walk!” 9 Immediately the man was healed, and he picked up his mat and walked.
Now that day was Shabbat, 10 so the Judeans said to the man who had been healed, “It’s Shabbat! It’s against Torah for you to carry your mat!” 11 But he answered them, “The man who healed me — he’s the one who told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’” 12 They asked him, “Who is the man who told you to pick it up and walk?” 13 But the man who had been healed didn’t know who it was, because Yeshua had slipped away into the crowd.
14 Afterwards Yeshua found him in the Temple court and said to him, “See, you are well! Now stop sinning, or something worse may happen to you!” 15 The man went off and told the Judeans it was Yeshua who had healed him;
“Do you want to be healed?”
This has to be one of the most powerful statements anyone could ever hear. The obvious answer is clear but the actual answer is far from it. I think we all like the idea of being healed, but do we really want it?
Consider the changes that must take place in this man’s life. I doubt he has a marketable skill since he’s been ill for 38 years. What does he do tomorrow when it’s time to go to work?
What does he do when someone asks him to do something, like serve others? He has a long history of being the victim and now he’s going to have to abandon that altogether.
Do you know how NOT easy it is to quit being a victim? Of course you do.
“Wait, I’m not a victim, you prick.”
No? Then why all the unforgiveness?
You’re clearly a victim because you have granted full access over your life to someone that doesn’t know and most certainly doesn’t care. These people hurt you and they are going to get away with it. See? A victim.
Now that we’ve established your victimhood, what would your life possibly look like tomorrow if you truly forgive those people today? We’ll likely never know because you had rather sit around that pool waiting for the magic to happen, right? The trouble is that you know it never will. And there’s comfort in that.
If there is an illusion that you want to be healed then you can get through each and every day with a sense of doing what you could on your end. But alas, it was not meant to be -- so you’ll try again next week.
How does this look to everyone else? About like the guy by that miracle pool.
For 38 years, people saw this man time and again make the move towards that pool. He was likely pitied early on but then it just became the norm. Sitting around hoping to be healed, people would just walk on by. Over time, this man had migrated out of the culture and into an area that was full of other people just like him. Miserable. All of them hoping for some mystical churning of water that may make them better. I wonder if this man ever even saw someone actually get healed -- or perhaps they were just rumors. He’s all in either way.
It doesn't take true healing to get people to flock together. An illusion will work just the same. When you get a group of wounded people together, guess what happens. They fight over which one deserves to be healed the most. A competition begins and they go tit for tat on the misery of their lives. There is no joy whatsoever, but jealousy definitely makes an appearance.
So here you are -- many years of wallowing in pain, claiming you want healing, and grouping yourself with others like you. Not grouping with them for support, but for justification. Doing your best to secretly stay a victim while slowly dragging yourself towards the next healing opportunity.
But healing isn’t in the pool and you need to face that reality. It’s real churchy to say the pool is stirred up by angels but that’s a lie and you know it.
“Well, God can only heal one person at a time and today just isn’t my day.”
If that isn’t a lie, I’m not sure what is.
You don’t need the pool stirred and you don’t need to sit in a crowd of other people needing it stirred either.
There’s a Man walking about that is looking for you. Are you ready for Him to come to you?