Do You Want to Get Well?

Jesus asks a question that sounds almost rude. A man has been unable to walk for thirty-eight years, and Jesus says, “Do you want to get well?”

The scene is the pool at Bethesda in Jerusalem, where many sick people lay waiting for the water to stir. The man had a story ready, and it was a sad and honest one. “I have no one to help me into the pool”. Every time the water moved, someone else got there first. Notice that he never answers the question Jesus asked, he just says why it has not worked, not whether he wants it.

Most of us know that feeling. After years of the same struggle, a stubborn habit, a cold marriage, a fear that never lets go, we can get used to the mat because we know how to explain it. Hope feels risky, and the explanation feels safe.

But look at what Jesus does, He does not argue with the man’s excuse, and He does not scold him. He does not wait for the water to stir or for someone to carry him. He simply speaks: “Get up, pick up your mat, and walk”. The man’s hope was in a pool and in other people, and the One who could heal him was standing right there. The power is in the command of Christ, not in the man’s effort. Jesus gives what He asks for.

Yet the man still had to move. Healing came with a call to rise and leave the old place behind. Following Jesus always starts that way, it means letting go of the mat we have leaned on, and trusting His word more than our excuses.

Here is one step for today: tell Jesus honestly what you have been leaning on, then answer His question out loud in your own words.

Lord Jesus, I have explained my stuck places to You for a long time. Today I say yes, I want to be made well. Give me the faith to stand when You speak. Amen.