Jesus’ Words in Red "Do you want to get well?"

Jesus’ Words in Red

"Do you want to get well?" 

Desire

"Do you want to get well?" 

Relocate

"Get up! Pick up your mat and walk." 

Stay on target

"See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you."

There are a lot of other things in life we may want to set our sights on

But those things will keep us from being “whole”

So pick up your bed, move closer to the target where you can get a better shot

Keep in mind healing is being whole

Spirit, Soul, and Body

"Do you want to get well?" 

Jesus, while in Jerusalem, went to the sheep gate.

We are not told, in the text, this is where the sheep enter.

We are told this is where there were a lot of sick people.

The belief was the pool of water
had healing power.

 It would bubble up from time to time by an angel, when
 this happen the first person in the water would be healed.

We find Jesus attracted to only one of the sick people there…

A man who had been an invalid for 38 years.

Whatever his affliction was he said he had no

one to help him when the waters were bubbled,

his own efforts could not get him to the water.

Some might think Jesus asked a dumb question…

"Do you want to get well?"

 

Jesus never asked a dumb question

or spoke a word off the cuff.

Every word Jesus ever spoke had meaning.

We naturally think Jesus is asking

about his physical condition.

And truly Jesus is, but Jesus sees beyond

the 38 years of suffering and limitation.

 When we look at the question, the word

“well” could better be translated “whole”.

Jesus’ compassion for this man

went beyond his physical condition.

In light of this, we have to face the real question…

“Do you want to get whole?”

We should also note the word “get”.

Rick Warren published an article May 21, 2014.

Healing Choices: Do You Want To Be Healed?

 In this article he says…

“Long ago and far away I was diagnosed with clinical depression

and began the hard work of deep, lasting, Jesus-led recovery.

One day Jesus asked me, “Do you want to be healed?”

….It seemed like such a ridiculous question. Of course, I wanted to be healed!

But, then, I knew what he meant. Was I willing to make a healing choice?

Was I willing to do the hard work of facing painful situations,

uncovering bitterness, and admitting to deep, resentful anger?

Was I willing to give up my stubborn excuses that allowed me to stay the same, 

somehow seeing my sickness as more secure than my health?

Was I willing to give up control, let God be God, and admit that I can’t,

but he can; or would I rather insist that I can, even though I can’t,

holding myself in a cycle of helplessness and hopelessness?

In my life of helping people, I find it too common

that people want to be healed but hang on to things that

keep us from wholeness, which I see in my life, too.

I can’t tell you how many people I tried to

help that did not want to be helped.

You can’t help someone who

does not want to be helped.

Maybe that is why Jesus only healed

one man at the Sheep Gate that day.

Jesus asked the question,

then Jesus gave the command…

"Get up! Pick up your mat and walk." 

This man had to relocate.

He was never to sleep, relax,

make his home there again.

He had to move.

Now up till this point the invalid

man did not know who Jesus was.

Later Jesus knows where to find him because his healing

required him to go to the temple and make an offering.

Jesus after finding the man says…

 "See, you are well again. Stop sinning or

something worse may happen to you."  

It is here we see Jesus gave the man

more than a physical healing.

Jesus made him “whole”.

Now we must realize to stay

“whole” he must “stop sinning”.

Sin means to miss the mark.

This man to remain “whole” must

keep his sights on the “mark”.

The mark is “be perfect as your

Father in Heaven is perfect”.

"Do you want to get well?" 

                                                                          

It means keeping your sights on the target.

There are a lot of other things in life

we may want to set our sights on.

But those things will keep us from being “whole”.

 So pick up your bed move closer to the

target where you can get a better shot.

Keep in mind healing is being whole…

Spirit, Soul, and Body.

Scripture Reading

John 5:1-15 NIV

5:1 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. 2 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. 3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie — the blind, the lame, the paralyzed.   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 Jews 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."