Jesus Asks a Question: “Do you want to be healed?”

Jesus Asks a Question: “Do you want to be healed?”

“Have I been with all of you for so long a time and you still do not know who I am? Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father. So how can you say then, ‘Show us the Father?’ Do you not believe that I am in the Father and that the Father is in Me?” (Jesus asking three straight questions of His disciples in John 14:9-10).  

Messiah Jesus was a Master of asking questions: some were open-ended, others were very pointed; some were out of curiosity, others were challenging; some seemed rhetorical, others seemed painfully obvious; some were to reveal Himself, others were to guide the other into self-understanding; some were intentionally provocative, others were to kick-start a conversation; some questions were asked to explore a topic to deepen understanding and stretch toward the truth; some were leading questions that He designed to suggest a particular answer, and others were questions in response to questions asked of Him; some were hypotheticals to stimulate the imagination, other questions were used  by Him as stepping stones to think logically from one point to the next. Jesus used questions to dignify the listener, letting that person know that He is taking that person seriously and listening carefully. Many of His questions were acts of friendship and used to pursue a more profound intimacy with someone. Jesus asked very few yes-no questions, and since time was usually irrelevant for Him when He was with people, He rarely asked a “when” question. Several biblical scholars have studied the gospels with Christ’s questions in mind, and they have literally counted a total of 307 questions in His various conversations. It seems that a worthy spiritual exercise when considering the many questions of Jesus is that we should take them personally, as if He was asking us that question right now.

The Question. “Do you want to be healed?” (John 5:15).

 The Seven Signs. St. John organized His Gospel around seven miracles of Jesus, what he called “signs.” At least in the first half of the gospel, everything else seems to either lead up to a sign or develops out of a sign. Sometimes the first twelve chapters of John are called the Book of Signs. John was very clear about why he focused so heavily on these seven miracles. He thought the signs were vivid, God-revealing proof of Christ’s status as Messiah, and that these miracles have a good chance of eliciting faith in the readers of his book. In all these signs, John says, there were eyewitnesses, since they were accomplished in their presence.

The seven pivotal signs, when Jesus “manifested His glory” (John 2:11),  in the Gospel of John are:

1. Changing water into wine (John 2);
2. Healing the royal official’s son (John 4:46-54);
3. Healing the man at the pool of Bethesda (John 5:1-11);
4. The feeding of the 5,000 (John 6:1-15);
5. Walking on the water (John 6:16-21);
6. Healing the man born blind (John 9:1-12);
7. Resurrecting Lazarus (John 11).

Seven. The number seven was an important number for John, and for all Judaism. It symbolized perfection, completion, fulfillment, wholeness. John’s liberal use of seven is seen in his seven signs, the seven I AM’s, the seven major discourses, and the seven life-changing conversations in the gospel. Seven also implies of course the seven days of creation, when creation was completed and found to be good. Eugene Peterson suggests that John, through his seven signs, has implied that Jesus continued creation through His miracles, that He revealed His divinity as Co-creator. Through the seven signs, Jesus can clearly be seen at work still in creation, He is continuing the work that God began in Genesis.

“Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Aramaic, Bethesda, having five covered porches. In these porches lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had. One of the men lying there had been paralyzed for 38 years. When Jesus noticed him and realized he had been lame for a long time, He asked this man, “Do you want to be made well? Do you want to be healed?” (Please read the entire story in John 5:1-15).

Jesus the Healer. We can’t put Him in a box with this part of His ministry. Consider this… there is no can’t-miss formula; no magic words; no consistent style; no lack of variety of people and occasion and brokenness. His mercy is deep and sometimes mysterious. Sometimes faith seems to be needed. Other times faith didn’t seem to be a part of the action at all. Sometimes he touched, sometimes He was touched, sometimes He spit, sometimes He just spoke the healing into existence. Sometimes He forgave sins during the healing, and sometimes He didn’t. Sometimes He was thanked. Often enough He was forgotten soon after the healing. Sometimes He told everyone not to say a word about the healing, and sometimes He told them to spread the word. Most of the healings were immediate, but there was a time when there seemed to be more of a gradual process (Mark 8:22-26). Jesus was an equal opportunity healer, confidently healing unexpected people in unpredictable ways. He loved to heal, to bring wholeness, whenever He had the opportunity. After all, Jesus is love.

The Sheep Gate. This is the gate through which the sacrificial lambs were brought into the Temple area. The water from the Bethesda pool, sustained by vast underground springs, was used to wash down the sacrificial lambs before they were slain in the Temple sacrifice. It is poignant to realize that certainly Jesus as the Lamb of God understood the symbolic setting here – a pool of mercy used to cleanse the lambs of sacrifice, near the Temple, on the Sabbath day.

Bethesda. While in Jerusalem on the Sabbath, Jesus happened to stroll by a big pool of water that was a local gathering place for those with disabilities – the lame, sick, crippled, blind. This place, Bethesda, which means House of Mercy or House of Loving Kindness, was often seen as a miraculous pool that healed the sick. It was thought that when the natural spring in the water caused a bubbling on the surface, it was a healing angel stirring the water. The disabled were desperate to touch the water during the bubbling up, and were looking for any hope they could find to be cured. This pool of Bethesda has been discovered by archeologists recently, only 100 yards from the Temple in Jerusalem.

Paralyzed Man. There was a man lying near the pool who had been lame for 38 years. We never know his name. He was hopeless, in his own mind, because no one had ever helped him touch the bubbling water for healing. There’s a good chance that being lame for this long meant that his condition had become a lifestyle, a way of living, that he had grown accustomed to. No doubt his own identity was wrapped up in his crippled condition. Being crippled for that long probably meant that this is how he sees himself, it’s a part of how he defines himself.

“Would you like to be made well? Do you want to be healed?” (John 5:6).

A Strange Question. Jesus seemed to have eyes only for this lame man as He approached him and asked him a question… “Would you like to get well… Do you really want to be healed?” The lame man lying there helplessly on his mat could be excused for thinking, “What?! Of course I want to get well! Why would you even ask a question like that? Do you think I like being crippled? I have been living in shame for too long!” Jesus must have had something in mind particular to this man when He asked that question. It’s as if Jesus was asking this paralyzed man a loaded question, just for him. Perhaps that question implied these deeper questions from Jesus that the man needs to answer for himself:

• Your self-identity has been intimately connected to having this disability. That is how you see yourself. Your disability has probably been accepted as an essential component to how you define yourself. Are you ready to let go of that part of your identity? Are you ready to see yourself differently? Are you ready to define yourself differently?
• Everyone has accepted you as a sad, forlorn victim. And no doubt you have accepted that status. And truth be known, you have grown to like the attention it brings. You have been accepting charity and sad looks and pity for so long, you don’t remember what it’s like not to be a victim. Are you ready to remove that victim label? Are you ready for others to look at you differently, to see you as an equal and not as a mere unfortunate? Are you ready to let go of whatever self-pity you may have been feeding on?
• You have not had to take responsibility for your life for so long that it will be difficult for you to be healed. All these years, your friends have fed you, clothed you, and carried you from one place to another. Taking responsibility for yourself will be a foreign experience. You’ll have to work, feed and clothe yourself, and find your own way in life. Are you read to take full responsibility for your own life, and not be dependent on others? No more reasonable excuses. Are you ready for that kind of independence? Are you ready to make your own life-defining decisions?
• You no doubt have learned to be helpless and hopeless. You have developed a lifestyle and mindset that expects the worst. That is not a life of faith. I want this healing to stimulate your spiritual faith, not merely heal your physical body. Are you ready to develop a hopeful faith in God as a result of your healing? Are you ready to acknowledge that the Lord has healed you and that He therefore deserves your trust and faith?  Are you ready to follow me? Can you remember that your healing is not the end of the story?

Healed. Seeing his hopelessness, yet sensing a Yes to His question, Jesus had mercy and healed the lame man, right where he lay. Jesus simply told him to stand up, pick up his mat, and walk. So that’s what the man did! All it took was a word. Jesus never touched him that we know of. After lying on his mat for all those years, it was a miracle that he could even stand. One wonders what words this man would have used to describe his sudden, miraculous healing after 38 years. Soon after the healing, Jesus disappears into the crowd, without even telling the man His name. One wonders why Jesus just disappeared like that. No doubt, the Lord knew He was going to see him again soon in the Temple.

The Law. Sure enough, no one is better at raining on a parade than the rigid Temple leaders, the self-appointed religious police, who are all about keeping all the tiny details of Jewish tradition. They were more concerned with their petty rules, like carrying a mat on the Sabbath, that the fact that a miracle has been done in their presence! The Pharisee leaders thought that the broken rule was more important than the fact that a broken man was healed. This particular law wasn’t even in Scripture, the leaders made it up, and it was one of hundreds of laws they added to the Old Testament law. With this healing, Jesus implied that people are more important than irrelevant or empty rules.

Interesting Comment. Jesus saw the healed man in the Temple a little later, and He told the man to stop sinning, or something worse may happen to him. In other words, God’s forgiveness of sin is much more important than physical healing. Or perhaps his lameness was the result of an unfortunate and unhealthy habit of some sort, or his paralysis is from a sinful decision the man had made earlier in his life? Maybe this word from Jesus is an example of what He once said, that in life you reap what you sow?

His Question is Personal. So the strange, rather obvious question that Jesus asked the lame man turned out not to be such an obvious question after all. And when we ask God to heal us or to help us make a major change about ourselves, Jesus is asking the same question of us, and we need to take His question personally. Do I tend to define myself by what needs to be healed? Am I ready for others to see me differently? Can I claim a complete self-identity without focusing on my deficits or challenges? Can I reject the victim label and take responsibility for my life? Will I recognize God the Healer as also Savior and Sustainer?

Victimhood. Psychological studies show that those who are stuck on being victims become dependent on others, bitter and unforgiving, and pessimistic. According to the studies, victims tend to blame others, are stuck in the past, and don’t have the ability to overcome difficulty. According to psychiatrist Edith Eger, in her book The Choice, rather than holding on to victimization, it is healthier and more life-giving to choose to be a survivor, choose to escape the past, choose to go from “trauma to triumph.” She says that permanent victims become their own jailors and will always be enslaved by their victimhood. They will never rise above whatever difficulties they faced. Speaking as a Jewish woman who was a prisoner in Nazi death camps, she says victimization is optional.