Do You Wish to Get Well? - John 5:1-9

"And a certain man was there,

who had been thirty-eight years in his sickness.

When Jesus saw him lying there,

and knew that he had already been a long time in that condition,

He said to him, 'Do you wish to get well?'

The sick man answered Him,

'Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool

when the water is stirred up,

but while I am coming, another steps down before me.'

Jesus said to him, 'Arise, take up your pallet, and walk.'

And immediately, the man became well,

and took up his pallet and began to walk."

(John 5:6-9)

Coming off of the heels of seeing the mysterious mercy that weaves its way through great affliction we here find another suffering character described by John's pen. Jesus has come to the pool of Bethesda and there He finds a man who has been in desperate straits for 38 years. 38 years!! This is one who has known suffering and suffering has owned him!

What particularly grabs my attention this morning is verse 6 and what it tells us about Jesus. Jesus SAW this man and Jesus KNEW what he had suffered. Not only that, but Jesus was about to DO something about it.

This is a man who had been neglected and overlooked and laughed at and scorned and ignored and ridiculed for years. He was a forgotten cripple, an outcast, a piece of garbage to the busy world. He was passed by on the streets. He was passed by with their feet and in their minds. No one cared to help him. He was despised by the multitudes but he was NOT despised by Christ! Mark it well, dear one - Christ treasures that which the world trashes!!

'Do you wish to get well?' the Savior asks. 'Well, sure - but how? No one will help me at all. No one! What am I to do?'

What is he to do? Well, Jesus tells him to "arise, take up your pallet and walk.' And miracle of miracles, that is just what he did - he got up and walked!!

This is our Savior! This is our Lord and Master! Here is the merciful and compassionate Friend of sinners! Here is our hope and consolation! Here is our ever seeing, ever knowing, ever acting God! In some way are you crippled this day? Has the world despised and forsaken you? Have you despised and forsaken yourself? Jesus will not, has not and can not! If He is your Savior and Lord He will never leave you nor forsake you and He will make all things beautiful in his time. "Let us remember that Christ sees and knows and can heal if He thinks fit." (Ryle)

"Do you wish to get well?" Do you wish to walk past the excuses that have held you captive for years? Then look unto Jesus and in His strength and power and might take up your pallet and walk!

In His glorious grace,

Lori