The Question

A Series on New Testament Stories
Healing of a Disabled Man
(Click on the link below to read the verses.)
John 5:1-15 

[The Bible is mostly made up of stories. Stories about people’s lives, the struggles they faced and their faith, or lack of it. In this series we will be looking at some of those people in the Gospel of John. We’ll try to learn from their stories about who God is, how he worked in their life and how that applies to us today.]

  

The song, “Lookin’ for Love” was released in 1980 as a part of the soundtrack from the movie “Urban Cowboy”. It has all the earmarks of a classic country song.

 

I was lookin' for love in all the wrong places
Lookin' for love in too many faces
Searchin' their eyes
Lookin' for traces of what I'm dreaming of

 

The story about the healing of a disabled man takes place at the pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem. It was said that at “certain times”, an angel would stir the waters, and whoever first stepped into the pool would be healed of whatever disease they had.

 

Jesus had returned to Jerusalem from Galilee for one of the Jewish festivals. The city would have been packed. As he approached the pool, the scene is described as, “Hundreds of sick people—blind, crippled, paralyzed—were in these alcoves”. 

 

Amongst them was a man who had been disabled for thirty-eight years! That’s a lifetime. As he laid there, he was helpless because he had no one to help him into the water when it was stirred.

 

There are two things that stick out to me in this story. First, is that the disabled man was hoping for a miracle. After thirty-eight years, he saw no other solution. He must have been so desperate to walk that he was willing to do anything.

 

Second, Jesus asked him a really dumb question. “Do you want to get well?”  Duh! Why else would he be there? But Jesus must have realized this. So why did he ask the question?

 

The man didn’t know who Jesus was. He hadn’t heard about the itinerant preacher who healed the son of a royal official in Capernaum or changed water into wine in Cana. He was too busy trying to get into the healing water of Bethesda.

 

It wasn’t until Jesus learned that the man had been disabled for a long time, that he asked the question. However, the question was rhetorical. Jesus was trying to redirect the man’s attention to a healing that was not only physical, but spiritual.

 

Like the disabled man, we all have disabilities. They may be emotional or spiritual, but they’re still a lifetime of disabilities.

 

And like the country singer, we tend to try to meet our needs, our disabilities, in all the wrong places. 

But Jesus will meet us at the point of our need. It may not be dramatic or immediate, but with small steps he will do it.

 

Have you heard him ask you the question?

“Do you want to get well?”

 

Copyright 2023 Joseph B Williams