Do we want to be well?

I got to thinking about Tim Ernst’s hiking guides this morning.  He has a designation –SSS- which means Super Scenic Spot.   Generally it is an inspiring view that needs a little time to process and enjoy.  Often it’s a good place to take a short –or not so short-rest from the rigors of the trail.  I find that some trails are just one SSS after another, until the mind can barely be excited about the most glorious sight.

Well in my personal spiritual journey, I decided to copy and paste Personal Soul-catching Passages –I shall call them PSPs- to my journal for later review and study so that I can keep reading and get the total picture and then go back to process and dig into the meanings of words or look up references to quoted passages within the text and such.  As with the trail, some passages are just full of PSPs to the point your mind gets so full, it can barely feel the enormity of the words.

John chapter 5 is one of those passages.  When I finished it, I had almost the whole chapter pasted to my journal.

PSP #1:  There is a man who has suffered for 38 years and Jesus asks him “Are you really serious about getting well?” AMP  What a question!  But for 38 years he has put up with a serious destructive illness –we are not told what it was- and had put his hope in a pool of water that has a legend attached.  He hadn’t even asked Jesus to heal him.  I don’t think Jesus had that reputation yet.  My thought was “Can we go time after time through a crippling situation without trusting the source of restoration and redemption?  Is it easier to trust a rumor than the Savior?  Or do we just not know to trust him with certain needs?”  Does he ever say to us “Do you even want to be rid of this?”  I believe he does in my life.

Another thought evolved from this passage.  The man had been an invalid for so long that it became his way of life.  He was there day after day watching the water trying to be the first one in.  He had no occupation.  His one purpose in life was tied to his illness.  His way of life revolved around his lack of health.  “Do you want to get well?” Jesus asked.  He’s in the middle of a group of invalids and Jesus singles him out.  “Do you even want to be well?”

The man replies that he has no one to help him into the water.  He tells Jesus how he has been trying, but somebody else always gets in the way and steals his success.

Jesus tells him to pick up his bedroll and walk off.  At that moment the guy feels good and does just that and Jesus disappears into the crowd.  It just happened to be the Sabbath.

The next scene is one that is replayed several times in the ministry of Jesus.  The Jewish leaders ask why he’s doing that and he says “This guy healed me and told me to do it.”  Then everyone ignores the miraculous recovery and starts picking apart the peripheral issues.   The complaining-explaining cycle begins.

Jesus finds him later and tells him to stop sinning or it will be worse than before.  The man tells the Jewish leaders it was Jesus that told him to carry his bedroll on the Sabbath.  But that leads to another PSP.

It leaves you with a lot of questions.  It gives you a lot to think about on the journey.