At first it kind of comes across as a really weird question to ask. You gotta be kidding me . . . did He really think there was more than one answer to the question? But then, as I think about it, it’s a bit haunting . . . one of those questions that can penetrate soul and spirit.

Reading in John 5 this morning. Jesus goes up to Jerusalem to participate in one of the feasts of the Jews. By the city’s Sheep Gate there’s a pool . . . apparently a pool with a reputation of being a source of miraculous healing if one can get in the waters after the they have been “stirred up.” So it’s not the celebrities who are hanging out around this pool . . . no lounge chairs with tanned somebodies wearing sunglasses and getting on a tan. No, the people hanging out around this pool are “a multitude of invalids–blind, lame, and paralyzed” . . . aka beggars. These are the outcasts . . . these are those with no means of their own . . . these are those beyond having any capability to stand on their own two feet — some, literally!

And as Jesus comes upon this pool He notices one man. A man who had been an invalid for 38 years. For almost four decades . . . since before Jesus was born . . . if it was today, since 1974 . . . this guy had been ravished by a chronic illness . . . the disease sapping him of all his strength . . . his limbs rendered almost entirely useless . . . so weak that for years he had tried to crawl into the stirred waters but couldn’t move quick enough and was always beaten out by another. And Jesus takes notices of this guy . . . locks on him . . . knows his current, hopeless situation . . . knows everything about his past which brought him to this place . . . and then asks him the question. The weird question . . . the question that you think there can be only one answer to . . . the question that starts to penetrate because the obvious answer has implications.

One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be healed?”   (John 5:5-6 ESV)

Really? Do you want to be healed? Do you want to be made well? Do you want to be made whole? That’s the question? Yup, it is.

If you think about it, there’s some implications around being able to stand on your own two feet. For starters, you need to carry your own mat rather than have someone carry it for you . . . and maybe take some flack for doing so (5:9-11). You’ll need to work to feed yourself rather than rely on the labors of others for handouts. Not that the man would be left to do it on his own. Jesus was the one who would heal . . . Jesus was one who would give strength . . . Jesus was the one who would provide direction saying, “Get up and walk” . . . He’s the one who would show the way to long term victory, “Sin no more” (v.14). But still, you can see where it might have been easier for the guy to say, “I’ll pass, thank you . . . I think I’ll stick with my well known status quo.”

And so the question penetrates. Do I want to be made whole? Jesus is wanting to do a work in me . . . to continue the process of healing the scars from the disease of sin . . . to come alongside to strengthen feeble legs as He calls me to walk in a manner worthy of my calling . . . to work from the inside, through the indwelling Spirit, that I might serve Him in resurrection power. Do you want to be made well . . . do you?

I do. I want to know legs made strong by the Savior . . . I’m willing to carry my mat even if it’s not popular . . . I want be what He’s called me to be . . . I want to do what He wants me to do.

But I can only “I do” by His enabling and abiding presence. And so, by His grace and for His glory, I’ll get up and walk . . .