"Get Up and Walk!!!"

Sunday our pastor preached from John 5, the story of the invalid who had sat at the pool of Bethesda for 38 years. Pastor Bill went one direction with the text, and my mind took the other. (That's what happens when you have ADD!) My attention was caught by the response the invalid gave when Jesus asked, "Do you want to get well?"

The question, "Do you want to get well?" should evoke a "yes" or "no" response one would think. There is nothing tricky or deceptive about it, and you'd thought the man would yelled out his response. Instead, the invalid gives a couple excuses. His first excuse is that he has no one to help him to the pool. That really caused me some confusion. How did he get to the pool each day? Surely he did not stay there 24 hours a day 365 days a year and survive 38 years. Someone must have brought him there each day. Why couldn't they just walk a few more steps and throw him in the pool? The second excuse he used was that it was too crowded and someone always got there before him.

I began to think that maybe this lifestyle had become comfortable and safe for the invalid. He was familiar with his surroundings and probably had many friends who were also in the same boat. People, walking by, could have supplied him with alms, enough to support him. If healing came, his whole lifestyle would have changed. He would have to get a job, and most likely new friends would replace the old just because of his change in status. That would be very scary for anyone. Fear of change can keep people from asking for or seeking help to change.

I believe that the invalid did not realize that healing was his for the asking, and the supplier of that gift was standing over him. I believe that Jesus saw the fear in the man's heart and looked beyond it to a real need of physical healing. He commanded the man to "get up, pick up your mat, and walk!"

Jesus had the answer and gave the command. The next part of the miracle was the action of the invalid. He had to have enough faith that he was healed to put physical effort into his leg muscles to stand. Wow! What a difference was made in the invalid's life.

The more I pondered the story from John, I realized how many of us have things in our lives that make us invalids in one way or another. Fear, low self-esteem, past hurts, and many other things keep us from being what God wants us to be. He is standing, looking down at us and asking the question, "Do you want to be healed?" So many times we, like the invalid, make excuses for the condition we're in because it's working for us and change is too scary.

"Get Up! Pick up your mat and WALK!!"


The Healing at the Pool 1Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. 2Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda[a] and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed.[b] 5One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, "Do you want to get well?"
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."
8Then Jesus said to him, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk." 9At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.