Context No. 2544 of 4322 · John
Context · Reflection
John 5:1-6: in context
1After these things, there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2Now in Jerusalem by the sheep gate, there is a pool, which is called in Hebrew, “Bethesda”, having five porches. 3In these lay a great multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, or paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water; 4for an angel went down at certain times into the pool and stirred up the water. Whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was healed of whatever disease he had. 5A certain man was there who had been sick for thirty-eight years. 6When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had been sick for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to be made well?”
By the pool called Bethesda, surrounded by the sick and the blind and the lame, lies a man who has been an invalid for thirty-eight years. Jesus sees him, knows how long he has been this way, and asks a question that sounds almost strange: do you want to be made well?
On its face the question is obvious, of course a sick man wants to be healed. But thirty-eight years is a long time, long enough for an affliction to become an identity, a settled way of life with its own routines and even its own excuses. Jesus does not assume; he asks. There is such a thing as a brokenness we complain about but have quietly made our home in, so that being healed would mean losing the familiar. The question cuts to whether the man truly wants to change or has come to terms with staying as he is. It is a question worth putting to my own long-standing wounds.
Is there a brokenness I say I want healed but have secretly settled into, and if Jesus asked, do I actually want to be made well?