He didn’t believe anymore that good things would happen to him. How much had he prayed? How long had he sat here and God had done nothing? Worse. He was alone. Other people had those who cared and loved them and helped them into the water. But he had no one.
He was hurt. Alone. Hopeless. And sad.
He was really, really sad.
When Jesus came along, it was just like everyone else. It was the promise of hope. One that he did not even hear anymore because hope did not come to fulfillment for him.
What was the point of hope?
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.”
I wonder if Jesus asked him the question if he wanted to get well as the man was drowning in self-pity. Did he really want to get well? Or was he more attached to his self-pity and sadness?
The man did not answer with the affirmative. Instead, he pointed out that he was alone. No one cared. So what was the point?
Jesus had mercy on him anyway. And he didn’t just say to him, “be healed!” He gave him an action to follow with his healing.
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.
It didn’t stop there. At once, the opposition came. The leaders wanted to know who healed him, especially since the healing was on a Sabbath. That was “work” after all and it should not be done on a Sabbath.
The newly healed man truly did not know. Jesus had slipped into the crowd before he found out.
Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.”
Interesting.
Stop sinning.
This is interesting on several levels. First, invalids often receive a lot of pity. But it doesn’t mean they are not sinners. This man was an invalid, and his sin was so great it still was the focus of Jesus’ words.
Secondly, what was his sin? It looks like he had been an invalid almost from birth. Was his sin something he was doing? Or was it his self-pity and lack of faith?
This story hits home more than I would like. Sometimes in life, we feel so alone. We get discouraged by the thousands of prayers that seem to go unanswered. Sadness can creep in.
But there’s Jesus. He isn’t just coming. He came. And he gave us a reason to hope. That reasons transcends and goes above our circumstances. It goes above feeling very alone in life. It goes above the thousands of unanswered prayers that we do not understand. It goes above our faithlessness.
Do we truly have faith that he will never leave us or forsake us, that we are never alone?
Do we truly believe that he loves us even when our prayers remain unanswered?
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John 5:1-15
Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. 2 Now 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. 3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. [4] 5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 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?”
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.”
8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 10 and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”
11 But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”
12 So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?”
13 The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.
14 Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” 15 The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.