Heal Thyself

Sometimes I think we may be waiting for something we had all along.

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. Therefore the Jews started persecuting Jesus, because he was doing such things on the sabbath. But Jesus answered them, “My Father is still working, and I also am working.” For this reason the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because he was not only breaking the sabbath, but was also calling God his own Father, thereby making himself equal to God. - John 5:1–18

I don't think I am being a spoiler if I talk about Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz.  Many know the story, some by heart.

The lesson Dorothy learns is that she had the ability to go home the whole time she was searching for it.

Is that the message Jesus has for us as well?

The man who was cured only had to believe to be able to stand and walk.  

Is it that simple for us as well?

If Dorothy had learned early on that she could click the heels of the ruby slippers and go home, there would have been no story, no great journey through Oz.  It would have been boring.

So it was with the man who had struggled for thirty-eight years.  His healing was all the more meaningful after that struggle.

Now that doesn't mean that God gives us the challenges we face in life just to prove to us we can overcome them, but it does make one think.

If I can do this simply by believing, then is it my fault if I cannot make it happen?

The man believed the only way he could be helped was to get to the waters.  Jesus could have helped him get to the waters when they were active, and he could have been cured that way.

But Jesus showed him he had the power of the healing waters within him.  Maybe the message is that we should not put all our faith in one approach, but believe in the outcome.

If I believe I will be cured, I live in hope and my faith will carry me.

But if I doubt, then there is no hope and the outcome will be the same as if I did nothing.

More to come...