The Reading
John 5:1–18
There was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha, which has five porticoes. In these lay many invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be made well?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.” Jesus said to him, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.” At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk.
Now that day was a sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been cured, “It is the sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.” But he answered them, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Take up your mat and walk.’” They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take it up and walk’?” Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had disappeared in the crowd that was there. Later Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you have been made well! Do not sin any more, so that nothing worse happens to you.” The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. Therefore the Jews started persecuting Jesus, because he was doing such things on the sabbath. But Jesus answered them, “My Father is still working, and I also am working.” For this reason the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because he was not only breaking the sabbath, but was also calling God his own Father, thereby making himself equal to God.
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| Christ healing the paralytic at Bethesda, by Palma il Giovane, 1592. |
The Reflection
Thirty-eight years. The sick man had been at the portico for thirty-eight years! My heart goes out to his pain and suffering. How many people had walked right past him? How many times had he been ignored, overlooked, or more likely: avoided since he was considered "unclean." His pain was evident, yet Jesus asks him, "do you want to be made well?" Even when we are in dire circumstances, when we've been down in the pit for so long, we may choose to stay down because getting out is so hard. We have to want it. Many times we have to reach out, we have to ask for help. "Look for the helpers," the modern-day-prophet Fred Rogers said. There are always helpers if only we look. Do you want to be made well?
Lord, sometimes it's easy to lay beside our chance for healing, wishing and wanting. Give us the strength to reach out, to ask for help. Give us the inner hope to want to get better and trust for the people who want to help us. We know you put helpers on our path. Help us see them. Amen