Jesus Asked, "Do You Want to Get Well?"

If you are or ever were a Christian, you might be familiar with the story of Jesus healing the man at the pool of Bethesda from the Bible (John, chapter 5). Bethesda was a holy place, a place of healing. It was a natural pool that had been set apart as a place of bathing, cleansing, and over the years, had become a place of tradition. The tradition was that when the waters were stirred, the next person to get into the pool would be healed of whatever ailed them.

People with many different complaints came to this healing pool. Daily, the area surrounding the pool was full of people waiting to be healed. Many of them came back day after day. First, they had to wait for the waters to be stirred. We're not sure how they got stirred - some said an angel came to stir the waters. Who knows? It could have been a breeze or an underground tremor that stirred it, or the intermittent bubbling of a hot spring. Nevertheless, the opportunities for healing were few, and the more able you were, the more likely you were to be the first one to hop in. Some, who were more disabled, were accompanied by others who could watch the pool for them and help them in.

One day, Jesus came by to check it out. Someone who was familiar with the crowd, who knew the individual cases who had waited for healing, some perhaps for years, recognized Jesus and was giving him the scoop. Perhaps the most devastating case he heard about that day was a man who had been disabled for 38 years. The implication is that he had been lying there next to that pool every day for a very long time.

Jesus looked at him and asked the man, "Do you want to get well?"

In response, the man replies - "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."

Let's think about this exchange. At first, Jesus' question seems a bit obvious. But Jesus is not known for rhetorical questions. He is asking the man a soul searching question here - do you really want to get well, or more to, "Do you have it in you to get well?" You see, he anticipated the man's answer.

One would think, after 38 years, this man would have simply shouted, "Yes! Yes! I want to get well." But he doesn't. He makes an excuse. Ahhhh. A bit of insight into his character. Jesus' question was, in fact, quite apt.

Ostensibly, the man did have help. He wouldn't have been allowed to just lie there, soiling himself, dehydrating, and starving to death. No, someone was looking after this man. Someone saw to it that he had a modicum of care, that he was at least fed, cleaned up - perhaps even moved to shelter at night. By day, he came (or was brought) to lie a little in the shade and beg and be fed. He could beg for food, but apparently, he couldn't (wouldn't) ask somebody to help him get into the water. Why? For one of three reasons: 1) he either didn't think it would really work for him, or 2) he was profiting somehow from his disability, or 3) he thought he didn't deserve it.

How do I know about the man's motives? Because Jesus didn't help him into the pool, he didn't lay hands on him, he told the man to get up and walk. The man did so. He ran off to show all his friends that he was healed, and somebody asked him who had healed him. He realized that he didn't know. So he went back to find out. Jesus was already gone by that time, so the guy kept looking. When he found him, did Jesus say to him, "Looking good, Jack. Glad you're doing so well?" No. Jesus said to him, "Stop sinning, or something worse may happen to you."

How much of a sinner could this guy be? He was sorely disabled, and spent his waking hours lying around the pool and begging. Probably not a killer, nor much of a womanizer. Likely he wasn't an out-and-out profaner of the sacred, nor a thief. He probably wasn't cheating anyone in his dealings, nor coveting his neighbor's wife or life. Well, he could have been doing the latter because this guy's sin was a sin of the mind. Probably not, though, because these kinds of thoughts are considered sinful because they lead to sinful acts. This guy wasn't doing anything.

More than likely, his crime was against himself. He would rather have his meager existence than figure out how to get well.

How many people do you know who are like that? How many take their disability or their pain or their illness and make it their badge and banner? Even if their doctor could heal them, they wouldn't be for the exact same reasons as the man at the pool. They are so spiritually, psychologically, and emotionally impoverished that they don't feel they deserve to be healed. Or they are getting much needed attention and sympathy. Or they simply don't believe it can happen to them.

I'm not talking about every ill person. I'm not implying that every illness is psychosomatic. I'm not even talking about those with a chronic illness which could have been prevented years ago but has been allowed to persist until it has completely wasted their body. I'm talking about those who prefer to feel sorry for themselves, or make excuses, instead of hearing what it might take to truly get well. What did it take for the man at the pool to get well? Simply to pick up his mat and walk. By the way, picking up his mat has some major implications as well, but maybe we'll go into that another time. For now, let it simply be seen as his willingness to do something for himself. But when Jesus saw him again, he warned him that unless he changed his mindset, that his healing would only be temporary.

Do you want to be well and happy? Then change something that will lead you to health and happiness. Sometimes it means changing an outward circumstance, but it always means changing an inner attitude, toward yourself first, and then toward others. Do you really want to be healed? Then figure out what is within you that is keeping you from doing so.

Do you want a rich life, or do you merely covet the life of others, feeling sorry for yourself, seeking sympathy, or acting out of jealousy instead of being proactive in your own life? Only you can make the necessary changes.

Be healed. Be filled with prosperity. Be rich. Live rich. Live life to its fullest. Be healed.

Julian Greene is a freelance writer living in Southeastern Arizona. Look for more articles like this one here and at julianjade.wordpress.com. Providing quality counselling articles, hynotherapy writings and other mind help resources online.