Almost Healed

Either you get there or you don't.

After this 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. -  John 5:1-15

We will all reach the end of our race. We may not all make it to the finish line.

What do I mean by that?

Showing up is not enough. This guy showed up at the pools of Beth-zatha, having been ill for years. But he didn't make it to the water when it was stirred up.

He was present, but he wasn't immersed in the healing waters. He was a bystander at best.

John tells us these stories in a way that seems like the parables Jesus told, in that, they make us think of who we would be in this picture, or what we would do if we were that guy.

Somehow, this man managed to get to the pools, but he couldn't get himself to the water.

Is he not committed enough? Does he fail to have enough faith? What's his problem?

I know that sounds harsh. The man is crippled. But he managed to get there. Maybe his friends dropped him off, or he took an Uber. The point is he got there. That's step one.

Now comes the hard part. Take action.

No one gets credit for being almost healed. Either you're healed or you're not. 

Jesus is telling this man that he may be saved, but he is not healed, not yet. His faith needs to carry him forward. 

This is true for all of us as well. Showing up at church is great. Doing something with our lives is how we become healed.

We may not realize that we are sick. We seem okay. We go about our business each day feeling fine, but something is missing, something that longs to be in the spiritual waters with God.

Until we experience God's presence as the Holy Spirit in our lives, we are just going through the motions. We are not being healed.

We will all turn to God when we do get physically or mentally ill. Then we complain, like the man at the pool. Then, we have a particular vision in mind of what healing means. True healing is soul-based. It begins there and grows into us until we are able to stand on our own and walk.

More to come...