Do You Want to Get Well?

Jesus Asking: A Lenten Series by Seedbed

John 5:1-9a: 

Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades.  

Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.  

When 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?” 

“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.” 

Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.  

Transcript
Please forgive any errors in this automatic transcript. Thank you!

Let's pray together. Dear Heavenly Father, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be pleasing to you, O Lord, our rock and our Redeemer. Amen. We've been on a journey of sorts throughout lent. We've been to a lot of really historic biblical sites. In a way. We've been on Transfiguration Mountain, where Jesus was transfigured, and Moses and Elijah showed up and Peter's like, I gotta do something. Do you want me to build a tent? So I got to do something. This is too incredible to just sit and behold. We've been to Jesus baptism, where we see the fullness of the Trinity. We have been to the home of Mary and Martha. We've been many other destinations too. We imagined ourselves actually in Martha's living room, and imagine where we would be sitting in that interaction with Jesus. And now it's our it's our last destination for lent because lent is coming to a close and we are in Jerusalem. We're at a point in a place in Jerusalem that is supposedly a healing pool. And I say supposedly for a reason. I think a lot of superstition surrounded this pool that it was not actually a healing pool. But aren't we pretty good at sometimes convincing ourselves that things help when they don't because we just want it to be true so bad and so sick? People would come and they would sit by this pool and they would go in and supposedly some were healed. So that's the story here. That's the scene. We're surrounded by sick people around this pool that supposedly will heal them. Now, I've already expressed my, uh, my skepticism that this is a healing pool, but let's just roll with it a minute because that is what the people of the day believed. Where do people in our day gather who are sick and ill. I'm thinking more of those long term issues I'm imagining. Actually, an urgent care, or maybe even a surgery center where someone comes hoping that this will be the thing that finally cures them, that makes everything better. And so let's imagine, I imagine most of us have been in surgery centers at some point or another, and the doctor comes out and tries to be reassuring, but they're not in there like normal doctor clothes, right? They look like a surgeon. And that's a little intimidating all by itself. They're like, oh yeah, yeah, this is, this is okay. This is going to be good. This is going to be good. You're going to psyching yourself up for it. At least that's how I am. And so the doctor comes out and says, hello, sir. Hello, ma'am. How are you feeling? Are you ready for this? And we go, yeah, I'm ready. I'm gonna be I'm here. Let's do it. But you know something I don't hear them say. Is them coming out and genuinely looking at you in the eyes going, do you want to get better? And you're like, I'm here. I'm in the waiting room. I've given you half of my bank account. What else could show you that I want to get better? You know, if they if they came out and asked us that, do you want to get better? We might think it's rhetorical. Like a pep talk, like, oh, yeah, yeah, I want to get better. Let's do this. But if they really, really meant it, we're like, that is the most ludicrous question I've ever heard in my life. Of course, I want to get better. And this is how I hear Jesus's question the first time I read this text. Do you want to get well? And I think the man thought it was a little ridiculous too, because he was like, I can't. It's basically what he says. And yet Jesus asks it for a reason. We're going to look at that today. So I wonder, what are the pools in your life where you go, where your loved ones go, seeking healing. It could be places like an urgent care or a surgery center, or I'm taking my daughter to the pediatrician tomorrow because she's bumped her head so many times this week. I just need a doctor to tell me she's okay. Yeah, I just I just need that. And so we have these these official places we go to seek healing or to make sure we're doing okay. But we also have our, our pools that are less, let's say, dependable. We've got our supposedly magical pools we go to as well sometimes. People find themselves, maybe many of us at different seasons find ourselves in bars because we're just so lonely. We just need somebody to talk to. And the alcohol numbs that feeling of loneliness a little bit. We just need an escape from how hard work was that day. We go to places like Target and Walmart, Amazon.com, then you don't have to go anywhere. You can just sit on your couch, pull up your phone, and suddenly you're in this magical land called Amazon retail therapy to fill the void of that sense of, I'm not enough. I don't have enough. I'm missing something trying to fill in that little bit of happiness. And by the way, unless you think I'm judging you, I've done these things. I have done the retail therapy, and yes, I've done the go to bars because I'm lonely thing. I've been there before. I know what that's like. I'm right there with you. There's other things we do to try to, to. Make ourselves feel better by these pools that supposedly heal us. But but they don't. There's binge eating, there's binge drinking. There's looking at content on our phones or our laptops or our computers that we know are not good, just to name a few. We go to these pools because for a moment we do feel better. For a moment it helps. It numbs us. We escape from whatever it is that just doesn't feel right. So I wonder, what is your pool? Or where is your pool that you tend to go when you need healing? And even though you know it doesn't really work and often it makes it worse. You just keep going there. And again, I am not this is not me coming down judging you. I am in this with you. I have had those pools. And so we were watching this man at this poolside. He must want to get well or he wouldn't be there. And yet he. His question, his answer to Jesus is so, so interesting. He doesn't say yes or no. He just starts going in with reasons. And I actually, when you really start thinking about it, How reliable is this? We all know we need to change this man after thirty eight years, I'm sure would have loved for whatever was causing such problems to be over. But he doesn't say yes. I want to get well. He just says why he didn't. So I'm again, I'm imagining this scene. Jesus and his disciples are walking up to this man, and I just see his disciples being like, he's been here a long time. Jesus is like, really? Tell me, tell me more about that. And trying to, you know, like we get when we're trying to be secretive, even though we're not being secretive at all. We're being very obvious is what I'm imagining with the disciples. Yeah, he's, he's been here a long time. He said, well, how long has he been sick? He said, thirty eight years. Jesus started his earthly ministry at thirty years old. He went to the cross at thirty three. That means this man had been suffering from this illness longer than Jesus had been human man. And I bet that struck Jesus too. Like, wow, that's even longer than I've been doing this thing. And he feels compassion on him. And while his disciples are like, just leave him alone, it's fine. The Bible doesn't say this. I'm imagining here. Jesus is like, no, it's not fine. And he walks up to him and talks to him. And he looks at him with compassion. And I know what every single person watching this scene was thinking. I have no doubt that this every single person watching this scene was expecting Jesus to walk up to him, help him up and help him to the pool because supposedly that's where healing is found. That is not what Jesus does. Sometimes we have an idea of how Jesus ought to fix our problems, ought to heal what ails us, and sometimes he does not do it the way we expected. And I bet this man was expecting that too. I think that's part of his reaction is like, oh, I need someone to help me. This is your hint. Jesus. But what this man didn't understand was that Jesus saw him. And that is more powerful than any healing pool. He was making eye contact, looking deep into the eyes of the creator and the healer himself. And he sees us too. He sees us by our pools. He's looking at us going, I know this is hard. And even if your pool contains something that is sinful that you're sitting beside, Jesus is still looking at you with compassion, saying, I know this is hard, but this isn't. This isn't the way. There's a better way. Do you want to get well Again, this question just seems odd to me at first till we we go a little bit deeper. Of course I want to get well and yet that's not what he said. He says, I have no one to help me into the pool. I think Jesus, sometimes when he steps into our brokenness, he steps into our troubles. He steps into what ails us. And at first we're like, that is not what I wanted. This is not how I was wanting you to fix it. I don't know if you were listening, Lord, but when I prayed, I asked you to do this, and now you're doing that which is not this at all. At first, when Jesus steps into our brokenness, it seems like foolishness. At first we're like, that's not, that's not it. And yet, Jesus speaking hope into our hopelessness. Speaking, creating life where there was death. These things that don't make sense at first, that's exactly what Jesus does for us. speaking the wisdom of God into our lives might seem like foolishness at first, and I like the hats because we're surrounded by hats and we don't know where they are, and they keep moving and and then we get a glimpse of, of where they are. And but then we are blindfolded again, and then they've moved. And I don't know what to do anymore. It's just we get hopeless. I'm never gonna figure this out. Surrounded by these daggum hats. That's not going to make any sense when it's posted online without the context of the service. But that's okay. Um. Jesus. He sees the hats. He knows they're there. He knows when they move. And it's not really even about getting around the hats. It's just about looking to Jesus and doing what he says. Imagine if Maggie had said to Addie, okay, take one really big step forward and really tall, really big step forward. She would have missed the hats. It wasn't because she was unblinded. It was because. There was someone telling her what to do. And sometimes, even in the midst of our blindness, Jesus is telling us what to do. And we're like, that doesn't make any sense. But we're not the ones who can see Jesus is. So again, we're at this pool with this man who's looking up at Jesus, I think with a combination of hopelessness. Maybe he's a little insulted that Jesus would even ask the question, wondering why he's not helping him into the pool. He doesn't even say yes, but I need some help. He doesn't say yes, Lord. He didn't say no, I don't really. I've given up. He just goes into straight why he isn't well, which he thinks is because he cannot get to the pool. And yet here he is, Explaining to the healer and the creator of the universe that he can't get well because he can't get into a magic pool. That healer doesn't need need the pool. And Jesus says to him, get up, pick up your mat and walk. And at once the man was cured. He picked up his mat and walked. But what if. What if it had gone like this? Jesus was with this man. He was. He was taking. He was talking to him. He was fully seeing him. Man was wondering what Jesus is doing. And Jesus says, get well. Pick up your mat and walk. And he was cured and he didn't move. What if he had lost hope that anything could ever change? That even though he was fully healed, he just stayed. And I think sometimes that's an example of us as Christians. We know we're we know we have Jesus in our hearts. We know that God is changing us. We know that transformation is there, And yet we've tried so many things, sat by so many pools. Ways that we hope that will change. And it hasn't worked. That when Jesus looks at us and says, get up your mat, you're healed. We're like, there's no way. I don't even want to hope for change anymore. What if he didn't even move a muscle? Have you ever thought, yeah, I'd love to kick this habit. And I've tried one hundred different ways and nothing works. Why will a transformation of Jesus be anything different? I've tried to do it Christian ish ways before. Oh yeah, I'd love to be free from this illness, but after so many doctors and medications, I've given up. Or I'd love to, to, to quit dealing with whatever issue we're fighting with the thorn in our flesh. But we've convinced ourselves change isn't possible. And people don't change. What if he never took the massive leap of faith to move a single muscle? And I want to acknowledge that sometimes when Jesus steps into our brokenness and our sickness, he doesn't always do what we want him to. Which is funny because the man just wanted to get to the pool and Jesus offered full healing. And sometimes we're praying for full healing, and God is instead teaching us how to endure and through the struggles for his light and love to shine through your brokenness. Sometimes that full healing does come. Sometimes it comes miraculously. Sometimes it comes through doctors or that surgery center. Through the prayers of the people around you. And sometimes that healing comes when we get to heaven. And then we fully experience that healing. And until then, God has been teaching us what it means to rely on him, to trust him through the suffering. And to demonstrate that faith by continuing to move our muscles, continuing to live as his people, one tiny movement at a time. Even if our faith and the amount we move our muscles. What is it? Faith the size of a mustard seed, if that's all we've got. Jesus says, that's enough. As a reminder, this is not a series about how we need to do more in our faith. We've been talking about consecration, transformation, and demonstration. In a way, this man was consecrated with Jesus when he spoke to him, and they they spoke to one another even though Jesus wasn't doing what he expected. And then he was transformed the moment that Jesus healed him. And then the moving of the muscles. That's what came last. That was the demonstration. It all starts with Jesus. The change comes from Jesus. And the demonstration that follows that we do comes from the change that Jesus did in us. But we have to have the faith to move our muscles. So I wonder, do you think Jesus sees you by your pool, or do you think you're not important enough for Jesus to see? Do you think Jesus sees you by your pool? Or maybe he saw you a long time ago, but apparently he's forgotten. Do you feel that way anytime. It's like Jesus used to see me, but I don't. I don't know that he does anymore. Maybe he's moved on. Even though we know we're like, I know that doesn't make sense biblically, but it's how it feels inside. It's like Jesus has moved on. Hopelessness is a really powerful. A powerful thing that can just drag us down against rationality, against what we know to be true about God. It can just drag us down to where. It's not even that we know if we want to be healed anymore. We've just given up even wanting to have the desire to be healed, because it just hurts too much when it doesn't come. And yet, I think Jesus is looking at you today saying, do you want to get well? Do you want to get well? Asking me, Leah, do you want to get well? Do you really? Or as the hopelessness dragged you down so far that even if I healed you, you wouldn't move a muscle? Do I want to get well? I put a place. I believe I put a place for that in your bulletin where you could write your own name and really think about what your answer is. And when you go through these, these questions in your bulletin, answer them honestly. You know, you don't need to say, oh, of course I want to get well, I've got faith if you don't. You could say, you know what? No, I have no hope. I have no hope. Yes, I guess I want to get well, but I'm not willing to hope for it. Be honest. The man was honest with Jesus, even though that wasn't Jesus plan to take him to the pool. He was honest. Do you want to get well? And then beyond that, do I actually believe Jesus sees me by my pool? Is change even possible? And here's the thing. Yes, change is always possible. We don't always get to decide the demonstration piece. We consecrate ourselves to Jesus. He does the transformation. And the demonstration that comes is based on the transformation. Jesus gets to decide what that looks like. But am I willing to accept whatever it is? AM I willing to believe that he can fully heal if he wants, and praise God if he does, or continue to praise God if he doesn't heal? And I learn to praise him through the suffering and teach other people to do the same. He does see you. He does see you. And so I hope as you, you pour yourself out to God, perhaps through these questions, perhaps, um, you pray to God as you're driving to work or sitting in the car, heading to school before bed in the morning, whenever you tend to pray to God, I hope that you will tell him honestly. Yeah, I want that change or I'm too afraid to even hope for it. And you can even just say, God help me want the change because it's God's work in you. The demonstration from us comes last. As I wrap up, I was reminded working through this passage of a very simple song, Jesus Loves Me, a very simple song, Jesus Loves Me. It's actually in most hymnals, but most adults don't sing it unless we're leading children and singing it. And when my oldest child was a baby, I started doing this, um, this singing lullabies to her at bedtime. And the first time I tried to sing Jesus loves me to her. I could not do it. I wanted to sing Jesus loves you. This I know, for the Bible tells me so. But saying it about myself just felt a little weird. Just me. When we're all together and we sing Jesus loves me, it feels more collective. But just me. Jesus loves just me. Sometimes we get a very particular idea about what Jesus love and transformation looks like. For instance, now I still sing that song to my kids every night we say a prayer and then that's the last song we sing. And sometimes I change the words to the songs. Like when we do not, Not Jesus Loves Me, but I'll change the words to the songs to be silly. But this time I would change the words to Jesus Loves Me a little bit. But not to be silly, sing Jesus loves me. This I know. For the Bible tells me so. Little ones to him belong. They are weak but he is strong. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves Savannah. Yes, Jesus loves Mama. The Bible tells me so. And I thought I was just being a really sweet mother in that moment, my oldest child looks to me and goes, those are not the words. Sometimes we have to be willing for God to to change the song and directed at us and say, Jesus loves you. Jesus wants change for you. Jesus wants to do incredible things through you. When he changes the lyrics, we get a little confused at first. But Jesus loves you. He wants you to be transformed. And love is actually what we will be focusing on for Easter Sunday. First Corinthians thirteen. So I hope you all will be back for that and invite a friend those flyers in the back. Take them with you. Invite people to come. It'll be fun. We're talking about love next week. About how when we are consecrated, we're consecrated and loved. We are transformed in love. And the demonstration that follows must also come from love. So, do you want to be well? Do you want to get well? Can you even hope for it? I hope you'll answer those questions to Jesus. Let's pray together. Dear Heavenly Father. Jesus loves me, this I know. For your Bible tells me so. All of us little ones. From one to a hundred. To you belong. We are weak. But he is strong. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves every person here. Let that truth. Go deep into our soul so that we really believe it. And may that light and love shine out of us. So that when people we interact with throughout the week see us, they're going. There's something different today. What happened? And you can say, Jesus loves me. This I know, for the Bible tells me so. And he loves you too. In Jesus name, Amen.