Stuck!

John 5:1-9a

 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. 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. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 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?"

"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." 

Then Jesus said to him, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk." At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.

I was in college in an upper-level German class, it was exam day, and I was stuck.  I loved German language and literature, but this was essentially a political science class, and I was – shall we say - under interested in this topic.  The exam asked for us to locate and name the states of Germany on a map.  I just sat there at my desk, stuck.

Have you ever been stuck?  Maybe it’s an exam where you hadn’t studied the right material (or you had studied the right material but you just couldn’t recall it).  Maybe it’s a situation where you don’t know what to do, where you know what is right, but you know it will be much easier to do what isn’t.  Maybe it’s a relationship that’s going nowhere – and has been going nowhere good for way too long.  Maybe it’s something physical.  But whatever the case, you’re stuck.

The Bible is full of stories of people who are stuck. Noah was stuck in an ark. Moses and the Israelites were stuck in Egypt.  The prophet Jeremiah was stuck in a pit.  Jonah was stuck in the belly of a fish. Daniel was stuck in exile and in a lion’s den. And a certain invalid was stuck by a pool called Bethesda, waiting for a miracle which wasn’t going to happen.

He had been an invalid for 38 years.  The average life expectancy for a male in the ancient near east was only 40 years. Talk about stuck.  Then a stranger approached him and asked him if he wanted to get well.  What kind of question was that? Doesn’t this joker know that of course he wants to get well? Why else would he be spending his time by the pool, waiting on a superstition, grasping at straws?  Didn’t the stranger know that there were places where a beggar could make good money, but those places didn’t include Bethesda?  After all, who wants to be one of “a great number” of disabled?  That’s just not good business.  You want to be the only invalid in a busy area, perhaps by a different one of the Temple gates, maybe where people are coming with money, not in the midst of a whole bunch of other beggars.

But that question had to haunt him.  Did he really want to get well?  Did he have any concept of what “well” might mean?  He was stuck.  Does he want to be well?  Jesus asked the honest question, “Do you want to get well?”

Did you notice that the invalid never answers Jesus’ question?  Instead, he deflects Jesus with his excuse.  "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." (John 5:7)

He never says, “Oh yes, I want to get well.  I want it more than anything.”  He just tells Jesus why he never got healed.  I wonder if he had gotten a scroll saying, “In Jerusalem there’s a pool called Bethesda by the Sheep Gate, and the angel of the Lord comes down and stirs up the waters. If you’re the first one in the pool after each such disturbance, you will be cured of whatever disease you have.  My great uncle Phil had a growth on his leg and was the first in, and the growth is gone.  I checked it out on snopes – it’s true.  You can check it out in John 5:4.  Now forward this scroll to eight of your friends or horrible things will happen to you.”

He was grasping at straws, holding on for a miracle, banking on superstition.  But because he was an invalid, he couldn’t get into the water.  I wonder why he even bothered showing up at the pool – maybe he just never left.  Whatever the case, he had every right to not expect to get better.  A lifetime of being an invalid, no chance to get that healing.  He is stuck.

And he didn’t have anyone to help him. There are other stories in the scriptures about people whose friends or family members were there to help.  Remember the guys who brought their friend to Jesus, cutting a hole in a roof and lowering him down?  They cared so much that they went to every length to get him to Jesus.  But this guy didn’t have anyone.

And it’s pretty clear that this guy didn’t know Jesus either.  Unlike the woman who sneaks through the crowds just to touch Jesus’ garment, the woman to whom Jesus says, “Your faith has made you well,” he doesn’t even know Jesus. When the crowd asked him “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?” The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus has slipped away into the crowd that was there. (John 9:12-13)

While we can partially attribute other healings to other people, this is all on Jesus.  While the guy doesn’t even know Jesus, and while the guy is making excuses as to why he wasn’t well, Jesus goes ahead and heals him.

Why would Jesus do this?  Because that is his character. 

Jesus’ character is one that loves the lost, the overlooked, the marginalized, the foreigner, the stranger, the widow, the orphan, even the enemy.  Jesus is the Good Shepherd who goes out searching for the one lost sheep and proclaims:  There will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent. (Luke 15:7)

This is why Peter can describe Jesus as “not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9).  He wants everyone to be saved.  He wants wholeness for everyone.  This is why he went to the cross once and for all. For everyone. That’s why Romans 5:8 says But God demonstrates his love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Jesus is still asking the same question to all of us who are stuck.  Do you want to get well?  William Barclay says, “The first essential towards receiving the power of Jesus us the intense desire for it.  Jesus comes to us and says: ‘Do you really want to be changed?’ If in our inmost hearts we are content to stay as we are there can be no change for us, the desire for the better things must be surging in our hearts.”

This is why Jesus asks the question “Do you want to get well?” Because the first requirement to receive Jesus’ power is to want it.  He doesn’t force wellness on us.  He asks us if we want to get well.  Do we really want to get well?

When I was a high school student, I took a trip to Chicago to see my brother.  We went into Chicago on the el, and as we were riding into the city, a panhandler approached us asking for money.  When I looked up at him, I realized he had been horribly burned.  Honestly he looked like something from a horror movie.  I was so shocked at his appearance that I didn’t do anything.  And I felt guilty for it for a long time.  But a few years later, I read a story in the newspaper about this man, how doctors had offered him free surgery, but he turned it down. He simply made too much money panhandling.

There are people who don’t want to get well.  Turn on the television and you will most likely find a reality show that would lose a lot of its luster were the participants suddenly to get healthy.  If you’ve seen the show “Hoarders” you’ll find a hidden group of people who are holding on to “stuff” and actively not getting well.  But their advantage is that someone, usually a family member or friend, has identified them as needing help.  But the invalid in today’s story doesn’t have that. 

This moves us from the realm of the individual to the realm of the community.  There are people among us and around us who are desperately in need of healing.  Maybe you know who some of them are, but maybe they are invisible to you.  There are people who want to get well, but they just don’t know how to.  There are some who don’t want to get well, but maybe they just don’t know how to access Jesus’ power. 

When I was in college, my friend Nick and I were going through a Bible study on evangelism. One question asked, “Where are the places where ‘pagans’ gather?” I answered, “Kresge Hall” where I had lots of my classes. We knew where the place was on campus where they gathered.  In today’s passage from John, one of those who desperately needed Jesus’ healing was by the pool called Bethesda, by the Sheep Pool.  Do you know where people gather, people who desperately need Jesus?

Are you willing to go to them? 

Understand that Jesus’ healing wasn’t just something he did and then left.  He did it as an example for us to follow.  In John 14, he tells his followers to believe in him, “or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves.” (John 14:11b).  So when you see his miracles, the end goal is for us to recognize Jesus through them.  Don’t just pass by a miracle – when God does something, give Him glory!

Jesus goes on to say “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.” (John 14:12)  Do you realize what Jesus is saying?  This is an amazing statement!

Do you believe this?  I mean, do you really believe this?  There are times when I wonder, because sometimes I often don’t see much difference between the church and the world.  But we are the ones in whom the Holy Spirit lives! There’s no reason for us to end up being the ones who are stuck!

Here’s the thing: we have the power of the same Jesus who told the invalid to get up and walk.  So why don’t we see the same healing?

We are mortal.  I want to get this out first and foremost.  This life is hard and ends in death. There are times when we pray fervently for someone to be delivered, yet they still die.  This is the curse of this sinful world, but the promise of Christ is eternity where He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. (Revelation 21:4) Unfortunately, we have to wait for this.  There are all kinds of times when I wonder what God’s up to.  There are no easy answers for a parent who has lost a child.  We have no answers for why one person’s cancer is gone and another’s has come back with a vengeance.  These are all indicators that there are problems in this world.  These are reminders that because of sin, everything in this world is out of order, and we’re in desperate need of Jesus.

Sometimes we’re stuck due to our own disobedience. James tells us that the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective, that if we are in trouble, we are to pray.  If we are happy, we are to sing songs of praise. If we are sick, we should call the elders of the church to pray over us and anoint us with oil in the name of the Lord.  And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.  The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.  Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years.  Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops. (James 5:13-18)  

Perhaps the most amazing part of that scripture is this last section; Elijah was a man just like us. He was one of the greatest heroes of the faith, but he wasn’t fundamentally any different!  His prayer was powerful… and so is ours!

So do we pray, really pray, for each other?  Are we confessing sin to one another and praying for each other?  Sometimes we sit around and question God when in truth, we’ve failed to be obedient.  Did any of you ever lose a privilege because of your disobedience?   I remember getting grounded from the car as a teenager for leaving without telling my parents where I was going and being out too late. Then did I rail about the horrible injustice?  Well, if I did, it was dumb, because the truth was, justice was served. 

What makes us think we somehow deserve to reap the rewards without being obedient? When the Bible gives us clear instructions, we have two choices: we can obey, and reap the rewards, or we can disobey and not reap the rewards.  One of the choices isn’t to do whatever we want to and expect God to bless it, no matter if it’s within or outside of his will.

Sometimes we’re stuck because we aren’t looking at the big picture. The Apostle Paul attributed this, in his own life, to God keeping him from becoming conceited.  He tells of “a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment him. “Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’”  (2 Corinthians 12:7-9) Maybe your pain is for God’s good.  Maybe God wants to use you in spite of your weakness.  Maybe God wants to use you as a healer.  Maybe God wants to demonstrate His strength in your weakness.

Whatever the case, I believe God’s plan for all of us involves healing.  Otherwise Jesus’ ministry would have looked very different.  Jesus proclaimed himself the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy. He read Isaiah’s word: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” After he read this, he said to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:18-19, 21).

I believe that some of us desperately need healing, the kind that only Jesus can give us.  I invite you, as we sing our final song, to come forward to receive prayer.