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Jesus asked the man, "Do you want to get well?"
The pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem (it can still be seen today, just behind St Anne's Church) - the pool had a reputation for healing.
Every now and then it was believed that an angel stirred the water (probably a bubbling actually caused by an underground stream which fed the pool),
and the first person to get into the pool after the stirring would be healed.
And so the pool attracted large numbers of disabled and ill people, who virtually lived there.
The man in our story had been disabled for 38 years! Imagine it!
And he was still disabled.
Because, he said, every time the water was stirred, and he tried to get into the pool, someone else beat him to it.
He had nobody to help him get into the pool. And that was all the man was looking for, that was the extent of his desire,
- to have someone to help him to get quickly into the pool.
Then this stranger came along.
The man had no idea who Jesus was.
And Jesus asked him that searching question:
"Do you want to get well?"
When you have been an invalid for 38 years there are all sorts of subtle reasons why you may actually not want to be healed.
You may say you do, but actually don't.
- You have become so used to your limited lifestyle.
- Your mind has become set in an invalid mould.
- You have become used to being dependent on others.
- To receiving sympathy and pity; to being a victim.
- It could be, in his case, that he had become dependent on begging.
To be cured would mean facing the real world. Competing with other normal folk. Earning a living. Being self-sufficient.
After 38 years to be cured was actually quite a daunting prospect.
How hard had he really tried, to get into the pool first, after a stirring of the water?
So Jesus asked him: "Do you want to get well?"
"Do you really want it, when it comes to the crunch,
or are you actually quite settled in your way of life?"
A choice!
I have met a number of patients, in my 40 years of doctoring, who were professional invalids.
We talk of people who "enjoy good health".
Well these people appear to enjoy ill-health!
If one was to ask the fatal question, "How are you?", their eyes would sparkle, and they would launch into an animated description of their latest set of symptoms!
Cure one problem, and you could be sure that they would be back soon with another.
The man at the Pool of Bethesda hadn't asked Jesus to heal him.
And Jesus needed to know: "Do you actually want to get well?"
He posed a choice. And the man was pinned down by that choice.
Either he did or he didn't want to get better.
Jesus wasn't going to impose healing on him.
The choice was his.
But he couldn't have it both ways.
The Christian life is full of choices.
The Bible frequently mentions choices.
God doesn't impose His will on us.
He has given us free will, choice.
But we have to decide.
Our 21st Century is one that often disapproves of black and white decisions.
Compromise, fudge, grey areas, being all things to all men
- these are the politically correct fashion of the day.
There is no clear right and wrong.
"Do what you feel comfortable with" "Please yourself"
These are the slogans of our pick-'n-mix society.
But that is not the way of the Bible.
Adam and Eve had a clear choice - to obey God or to obey Satan, and they chose the latter.
God said to His people in the wilderness (Deut 30:19):
"I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Now choose life!"
Joshua's last words to the Israelites in the Promised Land (Josh 24:15) were:
"Choose this day whom you will serve - whether foreign gods or the Lord. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!"
Jesus (Matt 7:13) spoke of 2 ways to choose between:
"enter through the narrow gate" He said. "For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.
But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."
To the rich young man Jesus said (Mark 10:21):
"Go, sell everything you have, and give to the poor. Then come, follow me!"
And the man's face fell, and he chose not to, for he was very rich.
Choices!
Jesus said, "Whoever is not for us is against us"
- there's no compromise there.
When St Paul, in our reading from Acts 16, had the vision of the man from Macedonia, begging him "to come over and help us", he had a choice - to go or not to go.
It was a scary decision, but there was no half-way, compromise option.
He went!
Choices!
We too are faced with choices.
There are mundane choices - like "The Howe chair, or the Hayes and Finch?"
Now why on earth did I bring that up! (The PPC have just opted for the Howe chair for Priory)
But much more important choices are about life.
Do we, or do we not, want to be disciples of Jesus?
There are no half-way measures.
There is no place for half-heartedness.
Either we do or we don't.
Do we or do we not want to turn our backs on the sin that spoils our lives?
Jesus' love and forgiveness is vast and all-encompassing, but there is a requirement.
To the woman caught in the act of adultery Jesus said "I don't condemn you, but go now and leave your life of sin."
(Or, as the AV puts it:" Go, and sin no more."
She had a choice - to be set free or not to be set free.
Jesus asked the disabled man, "Do you want to get well?"
And when he indicated that he did, Jesus said:
"Get up! Pick up your mat, and walk!"
Get up? After 38 years?
Carry the mat that had carried him for 38 years?
Walk, when he couldn't even get into the pool?
"You must be joking!" the man might well have thought.
"I can't! I can't possibly!"
But he chose to take Jesus at His word, and he made the effort, and - eureka! - he was healed.
For him that was a huge and scary step of faith.
On Friday I was told that, after 6 weeks and 3 days, I can begin to put a little weight on my broken leg.
And I found those initial steps quite scary.
Would my leg cope?
How do I actually do that?
The crippled man was stepping from a familiar, limited, safe world into a scary real world.
"Take up your mat and walk!"
"Take up your cross and follow me!"
A scary choice.
So, Jesus asks you and me:
"Do you want to be healed?"
"Do you want to be forgiven?"
"Do you want to be changed?"
"Do you want to follow Me?"
If not, stop pretending that you do.
There is no place for pretence and hypocrisy.
Christianity is not a game; it's not a social club.
If you do, then make a move!
Take a risk!
Get up, and come with Me, He says.
Step out in faith!
Give Me your all!
Come on that great adventure which is a life with Jesus.
And the same sort of choice goes for our church.
Do we want to grow?
Do we want to impact our community?
Do we want to influence our 21st century society for good?
Do we want to be a vibrant, living, relevant, real church?
Or are we content to lie on the edge of the pool,
waiting for someone else to do something;
irrelevant and ineffective,
a paralysed relic of times gone by?
If we want to implement our vision statement, in terms of worship, welcome and witness,
then Jesus says to us: "Get up and walk!"
Take a risk!
Step into the real world!
Surely that is Jesus' desire for us, both individually and as a church.
Get up!
Be healed!
Choose life!
Step out in faith!
"Do you want to get well?"
David Webster
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