Do You Want to Be Made Well? Jesus' Question at the Pool of Bethesda

Where Do We Turn for Healing?

People today have the same needs that they did when Jesus walked the earth. But do we think about Him when we are in the midst of our problems or sin? We serve a God who offers us healing, both spiritual and physical. Do you need healing? Who do you go to when you need to be healed? Do you look to Jesus?

Do You Want to Be Made Well?

Jesus asks us the same question today, "Do you want to be made well" (John 5:8). Think about that question for a moment. Who would possibly not want to be made well? In this story, the man by the pool of Bethesda had been unable to walk for 38 years. He had lain by this pool with no one to help him enter the healing waters. He had "no friend" he told Jesus. Yet in his hopelessness, Jesus approached him with a surprising question.

The Healing We All Need

Although Jesus would heal the paralyzed man's body in John 5, His question reaches much deeper than physical illness. Every person carries wounds that cannot be seen. Sin, guilt, bitterness, fear, and hopelessness all leave us in need of a different kind of healing. We all need to be healed, either physically or spiritually, or sometimes both.

And so our Savior, who is "a friend who sticks closer than a brother", offers him hope (Proverbs 18:24). But before he does, He asks that question. Deep in this man's heart what was stirred by that question?

Perhaps he had given up to the point where he had lost any real desire for healing. Maybe he was blaming others for his troubles. The other sick people at the pool who got in the water ahead of him, the lack of friends, and the extent of his illness all became reasons he remained unable to walk for 38 years. Or maybe he knew that there really was no hope without an intervention from someone who was bigger than his problem. Jesus’ question forced the man to confront a hard reality: change can be frightening.

If you have been in a bad place for many years, whether physically or spiritually, it becomes our familiar place. It becomes who we are. Jesus was asking him essentially, "Do you want change?"

Oh and change can be hard. If the man became well, his whole life would be altered. Don't be too hard on him if he hesitated in his heart. But we are just speculating. Scripture doesn't say anything about his heart, but there are hints.

We do know that the man never said yes or no. He offered explanations for why he hadn't been healed but he rather ignored Jesus' direct question. But Jesus knew his heart. He knew the outcome before he ever saw the man.

The Power of Christ's Word

After Jesus heard the man's story He told him, “Rise, take up your bed and walk"(John 5:8). Now look at what the man does. He is immediately healed and with no hesitation picks up his mat and walks. So, this man who presumable knew nothing about Jesus, did exactly as he was told to do. He didn't say, "But sir I can't." When Jesus spoke those words, he must have felt them all the way to his bones.

He didn't hesitate because he knew he was well. His obedience was as immediate as his healing. The man trusted Jesus for his physical healing. You and I, when we know Jesus as our spiritual healer and our Redeemer, we can also trust God completely and immediately. He also gives us a command. He tells us to love and this we must do because we owe Him everything. Unlike the man that day, we know exactly who Jesus is — our Redeemer and healer.

If we aren't a Christian, maybe we are still asking the most important question we will ever ask, "Who is this Man?" Do we really want to wait a life time to find out? Seek Him out, don't wait 38 years or even one more moment, but look to the One who offers hope and healing.

Jesus Cares About More Than Physical Healing

Later, Jesus finds the man in the temple. This would be the first time in 38 years the man could do such a thing. Being paralyzed in the first century Jewish world meant being restricted from the inner areas of the temple. As a healed man, going to the temple would have been done either out of religious obligation or thanksgiving for his healing. We are not told which it was.

But it was in the temple that Jesus saw him and spoke once more. “See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you” (John 5:14). There is an implication in what Jesus says some interpreters believe. It seems that his physical ailment may have been brought on in some way by sin in his younger days, although Scripture never explicitly says so. What is clear is that Jesus was concerned about something even more serious than the man's physical health: his spiritual condition.

After being reminded of his physical healing, Jesus firmly tells him, "Sin no more." Whatever may have caused his problems so many years ago might tempt him again. We often see the same pattern in our own lives.

We should remind ourselves after receiving our physical or spiritual healing to be thankful and praise God for who He is. Both come naturally at first but over time we begin to take our blessings for granted. This leads to foolish complacency and spiritual drift.

We start to forget our blessings and the very sins that caused us so much heartache. Perhaps these sins were even the source of our physical suffering. Sadly, old sins may begin to tempt us again. But if we return to sin and abandon God, Jesus says a worse thing could happen to us. Sin often brings a heavy price.

Look back at where the healed man was when Jesus spoke to him. He wasn't out enjoying all the things his newly healed body could do. He could have been anywhere, but he was in the temple. When we are at church or in private moments of prayer, does Jesus remind us that we have been healed? Does the Holy Spirit convict us of sin and warn us, "Don't go there?"

How Will You Answer Jesus?

He asks us the same question as He did the paralyzed man. "Do you want to be healed?" And what is our response? If we have lived many years only for ourselves it can be frightening to realize that if we say yes to Jesus, everything in our life will change. Maybe we are complacent in our sin and don't really want to be healed. But if we want a life of true joy then we will not even have to say, "Yes." Jesus knows our heart. When He asks, it is not with the lips that we respond but our heart.

The Healing That Lasts Forever

Even if we are never healed from a physical infirmity in this life, Jesus offers healing spiritually, and ultimately physically, that will last for an eternity. He calls us, "Do you want to be made well?" and like the paralyzed man, our response should be immediate. The paralyzed man didn't walk because of his own strength but the power of Christ working in him. This power is given to us today. We can walk in the light of Christ but only through His Holy Spirit. That should give us real hope.

Our weakness and inability to do for ourselves leaves us open to Christ working in us. Our friends can't save us. Our own determination can't save us. Only Jesus, precious Jesus, can save us. The old hymn writer Louisa Stead expressed that trust beautifully.

Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus (1882)

'Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus,

and to take him at his word;

just to rest upon his promise,

and to know, "Thus saith the Lord."

Refrain:

Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him!

How I've proved him o'er and o'er!

Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus!

O for grace to trust him more!