June 16 ~ John 5:5-9
Beside the pool was a man who had been sick for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw the man and realized that he had been crippled for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to be healed?”
The man answered, “Lord, I don’t have anyone to put me in the pool when the water is stirred up. I try to get in, but someone else always gets there first.”
Jesus told him, “Pick up your mat and walk!” Right then the man was healed. He picked up his mat and started walking around. The day on which this happened was a Sabbath.
Scripture taken from the Contemporary English Version © 1991,1992, 1995 by American Bible Society, Used by Permission.
Can you imagine being sick or injured for 38 years and doing the exact same thing every day to try to change this… with no success? Many of you have not even been on this earth for 38 years, so this is probably beyond comprehension to you! And even for those of us who have lived beyond this time frame, the concept is daunting!
I’ve seen several commentaries on this passage. Some suggest that the man could surely have found some way to roll over into the pool in the course of almost four decades. They maintain that he managed to get there every day, so he could surely have fought and clawed his way to the front of the line!
I like the analogy given by Rev. Billy Graham’s daughter, Anne Graham Lotz, in her book… Just Give Me Jesus. Lotz suggests that the man made peace with being a cripple. She further maintains that much of the time, we are just like that man! We grow complacent… tired… frustrated… and we settle for our life as it is. We make peace with our sins. We realize that we don’t honor God with our whole heart… we don’t really trust Him to handle our worries and cares… we don’t fully serve God in everything and represent Him to the best of our abilities in our everyday living. And we become okay with this.
We have a ton of excuses… we’re too tired, too busy, too sick. There was that time when we felt God really let us down because things didn’t go as we had planned. He allowed a loved one to die… we lost our job/home/health/family. Somebody said something to us that really hurt our feelings. We just didn’t have the talent or the energy for whatever God called us to do… and we felt justified in doing nothing. An old habit was too hard to kick… we liked our old friends and unruly lifestyle. We were “good enough”… and we settled.
Lotz maintains that what we and the man at the pool of Bethesda lack is right in front of us… and His name is Jesus. All we have to do is call on Him… wholeheartedly trust Him… and He will give us whatever we lack. He’ll push us over into the pool – and we will be healed. Jesus will give us the courage to do what we thought was impossible… to face the insurmountable tasks and challenges… to change who and what we have become. Jesus will give us a peace like we only dreamed of experiencing…a satisfaction, security, and contentment we would never have believed was achievable. And He is ready to start today.
We have a choice. We can lie down with the man beside the pool and remain stuck there. We can make peace with our sins… or we can choose Jesus. We can live more fully than we ever imagined… with more joy, confidence and serenity than we ever envisioned… or we can wallow and wait for someone to move aside and make room – or to push us over into the “pool.” Neither of these is likely to happen. So what are you waiting for? Aren’t you ready to make peace with Jesus instead of your sins? Will this be the day that you “pick up your mat and walk?”
©2013 Debbie Robus
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