"Do You Wish to be Well?"

 By: Joanne Viola

We find in Scripture the story of the pool of Bethesda. The sick would come and sit there, and wait for the waters to stir. The one who was able to get in the waters would receive healing from whatever was ailing them.

An ill man was there one day. Jesus knew from his condition he had been ill for a very long time, and Scripture tells us it had been thirty eight years.

A long time indeed to not feel well, day in and day out. It wears on one’s spirit. Hopelessness can set in as no relief is in sight.

Yet Jesus asks him a very peculiar question:

“He *said to him, “Do you wish to get well?”
(John 5:6, NASB)

Like who would not wish to get well?

Humans are fixers by nature. We repair, mitigate, ease, and soften.

There is a difference between fixing and healing.

Fixing implies a one and done action, as in, we fix the leak in our faucet. Healing can come one of two ways – instantaneously or over the course of time.

Our problem is that we grow impatient.

We want our problems fixed as then we won’t need to deal with them any longer. But sometimes, change comes through a healing process, like chemo, which happens over a span of weeks or months.

Sanctification, the action of being free of sin, is a healing process. It takes place over the course of our lives. It is also a process in the lives of other people.

Jesus knew the man had been ill for a long time. He knew the man longed for healing, to be freed from the sickness which had a grip on his life.

Yet He still asked him, “Do you wish to be well?”

Jesus offered him compassion and relationship before He brought about the healing of the man’s physicality.

He does the same today for us. He enters our situations, illnesses, friendships, and addictions with compassion, offering us the gift of a relationship with Him. He walks with us and talks with us, bringing hope into our impossibilities.

And we need to do the same for others. Enter their situations, walk through with them, and offer compassion. We cannot fix them. But we can bring them to the One who can heal them.

“Do you wish to get well?”
Let’s not grow impatient with ourselves,
or others.

“Let us not lose heart in doing good,
for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.
So then, while we have opportunity,
let us do good to all people,
and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.”
(Galatians 6:9-10, NASB)

 

 

Reflection:
Do you grow impatient with waiting for healing, or change, to come into your life?
How can we grow more patient as we wait for healing to come to the lives of those we love?

 

Image by Jean photosstock from Pixabay