Do You Want to be Healed?

We're going to read together in John's Gospel.

We're reading in John chapter 5, the first 18 verses of the chapter.

John 5 · chapter mention

It's page 890 of the Church Bible, if you want to follow there.

The readings also in some of the intimation leaflets,

there's orders of service and the readings there also.

So John chapter 5, reading from verse 1 to verse 18.

John 5 · chapter mention

Let's hear and read together in God's Word.

After this, there was a feast of the Jews and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

Now, there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool in Aramaic called Bethesda,

which has five roofed colonnades.

In these lay a multitude of invalids, blind, lame, and paralyzed.

One man was there who had been an invalid for 38 years.

When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time,

he said to him,

Do you want to be healed?

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 going, another steps down before me.

Jesus said to him,

Get up, take up your bed, and walk.

And at once the man was healed,

and he took up his bed and walked.

Now, that day was the Sabbath.

So, the Jews said to the man who had been healed,

It is the Sabbath,

and it's not lawful for you to take up your bed.

But he answered them,

The man who healed me, that man said to me,

Take up your bed and walk.

They asked him,

Who is the man who said to you,

Take up your bed and walk?

Now, the man who had been healed did not know who it was,

for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place.

Afterward, Jesus found him in the temple and said to him,

See, you are well.

Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.

The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him.

And this is why the Jews were persecuting Jesus,

because he was doing these things on the Sabbath.

But Jesus answered them,

My father is working until now,

and I am working.

This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him,

because not only was he breaking the Sabbath,

but he was even calling God his own father,

making himself equal with God.

This is the word of God,

and to his name be the praise and the glory.

I don't know about you,

but when I was in school,

we were told there was no such thing as silly questions.

Anything is fine to bring before the teacher.

The teacher's happy to deal with any queries you might have.

Maybe it was just my school,

but it did feel like there were, in fact,

a lot of silly questions.

But we are in a series,

a preaching series,

called questions that Jesus asked.

And as David has just read for us,

we read about a man,

Jesus comes and finds this man who's been lying

by a healing pool for a long time.

He's incredibly sick.

He can't walk.

He's in a pretty bad way.

He's hoping for miraculous healing.

And Jesus comes up to him and says,

Do you want to be well?

And it seems to me,

at least on first reading,

that Jesus is actually breaking

the there are no silly questions.

Rule.

Of course,

this man wants to be well.

He's been lying there for a long time,

38 years,

hoping,

just hoping that somehow his paralysis,

his paralysis is going to be cured

and he's going to be able to walk.

We think,

and this is what four years of seminary teaches you.

Jesus doesn't ask silly questions.

And in fact,

Jesus sometimes asks questions,

the kinds of questions that are so clear

and so precise,

they pierce right to the heart

of the human condition.

And I think this is one of those questions.

It's a diagnostic question.

It doesn't prompt a one word answer.

The man doesn't say yes.

The man doesn't say no.

But he reveals so much about who this man really is,

how he sees the world that he is inhabiting,

where his hope is and where it isn't.

I want to show you tonight,

this isn't a silly question at all.

It's a question that Jesus is still asking today,

not to a man lying on a mat 2000 years ago,

but to all of us here in Edinburgh tonight.

We all know people in need of physical healing.

Some people are in very urgent of miraculous healing.

We know,

and we pray for them.

But even if you're relatively well,

even if you were able to,

you know,

run up the steps from the car park today,

you don't have to look too far to see things

that you need to be healed from.

You can see the brokenness of the world,

the fragility of our mental and emotional health.

You know that human relationships are fragile.

They're so easily broken and so difficult to heal.

You've experienced disappointments.

You've experienced suffering.

You've seen greed.

You've seen envy.

You've seen hurt.

You don't need to be a Christian to know

that we all need healing from all of these things.

The story of Jesus healing an invalid by the pool

goes beyond our need for physical healing.

It offers true healing

because true healing doesn't just patch us up for a while.

True healing is complete.

It offers deep,

eternal rest from ever needing to go looking for healing again.

So this passage doesn't just tell us about the wonderful healing.

Also points us clearly to the source,

where this healing comes from.

And it's not a pool.

It's a person.

I've got three points.

The first point is,

what's wrong with you?

John goes up to,

John tells us that Jesus is going up to a festival.

And there he comes to the Sheep Gate

and there's a pool,

a pool called Bethesda.

For a long time,

people who wanted to discredit the Bible

kind of hung on this pool and said,

there's no evidence that this pool actually ever existed.

Notice that the passage tells us

this pool has five porticos.

Those are porches.

And they offered shelter from the sun and the heat

for those who were lying around them.

So we all know, don't we,

that swimming pools are only rectangular,

oval, maybe a circle.

Nobody's ever heard of a pentagon shaped pool.

There's no archaeological evidence

that this pool ever existed.

And John's really specific about where it is,

right beside the Sheep Gate.

It had never been discovered until it was.

And finally, it was uncovered relatively recently

in the 19th century.

Archaeologists think that this wasn't necessarily

a healing pool,

like it's been treated by this man,

but it was probably a Jewish ritual cleansing pool.

There were, when it was excavated,

they found that there was a rectangular pool.

So rectangular pool has four sides, right?

Four porches,

except there was two separate basins.

So the top pool would flow into the second pool.

And across the middle,

there was this wall,

which had a porch.

And there we have it,

five porches,

a five porched pool.

And it proves exactly

what Jotun was writing about is true.

So why does that even matter?

Why does it matter?

Why does it need to be a real pool?

Isn't the most important bit,

the bit that Jesus does?

Well, yes,

the most important bit is the bit that Jesus does.

But if we can trust the Bible to be completely accurate

about a five-sided pool

that people never thought existed,

and the detail that goes into describing

exactly what that is,

then we can trust the Bible to be really crystal clear

about the big important things that it tells us,

like we're going to see tonight who Jesus really is.

So Jesus comes to this pool of Bethesda.

Bethesda means something like house of mercy

or house of grace,

which is bitterly ironic

because it doesn't seem as though

there's much mercy or grace in this place.

It's full of people lying around

completely debilitating,

debilitated,

waiting for a miraculous healing.

There's no grace in this place at all

until Jesus shows up.

And then amongst this sea of sick people,

Jesus identifies one man,

an invalid.

He's lying on his mat,

probably like a reed mat that you can roll up.

And he's been there a long time.

But John tells us that

Jesus didn't need to be told any of this

because he already knew exactly

what the man's condition was.

So the passage doesn't tell us exactly

what the man's disability was,

what was specifically wrong with him.

He had a weakness and he couldn't walk.

But it does show us

that there's more to this man's condition

than his physical ailment.

John's one of four gospels

and they all tell the story of Jesus's life,

but they come at it from slightly different angles.

John's a very precise writer.

He's really clear about what he does.

And he doesn't usually include

specific details by accident.

I think he's deliberately told us

that this man's been ill for 38 years.

And I think that that number

is one of the keys for us unlocking

the meaning of this whole episode

that Jesus has.

Because we find this exact number

in a very particular place

in the Old Testament.

So in Deuteronomy,

we read about how God

had brought the children of Israel

to the edge of the promised land.

Right to the edge.

The land that he promised

to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob,

to these people's forefathers.

And they came right up to the edge,

but they didn't get to go in.

They weren't allowed to enter

the land of rest.

They had to wander in the wilderness

for years and years first.

How many years?

38 years.

They had to wander in the wilderness

for 38 years

until all the people

who were guilty

of not putting their trust in God

had died.

And it was their descendants

who were to enter the land.

They weren't allowed to enter the land

because of unbelief.

They simply didn't trust God

to deliver on the things

that he promised them he would.

And I think this is the connection.

This is one of the connections

John wants us to make

between this man and Israel.

This man is suffering.

He's been suffering for a long time

in a really terrible way.

But underneath his suffering,

underneath his physical suffering,

is a spiritual sickness.

Notice too that Jesus comes

to this man twice.

So he comes to him by the pool

and he sees him when he's unwell.

But Jesus has also come to him later on.

He comes to him at the temple.

And Jesus' words there,

the words that he says to him

are important as well.

In verse 14,

Jesus says,

See your well.

Sin no more,

that nothing worse may happen to you.

Jesus is linking the man's

physical condition to sin.

So he's not doing it

in a mechanical way.

He's not saying,

if you sin,

you're going to get sick.

A few chapters later,

John chapter 9,

John 9 · chapter mention

Jesus explains that that's,

you know,

the idea of suffering

isn't always directly

connected to punishment for sin.

But Jesus is showing this man,

he's showing us,

there's a need for greater healing,

even greater healing

than being paralytic for 38 years.

The final thing to notice on this

is that this need

for a different kind of healing

is in verse 4.

John says,

there are multitudes of sick,

blind, lame, paralyzed people

all around him.

And when we've read the Bible

and we look at that,

we see this is a clear picture

of the fallen world

under the effects of sin.

This man's physical weakness

is not his biggest problem.

His biggest problem

is spiritual helplessness.

And this man's physical condition,

it mirrors the spiritual condition

of all of humanity

apart from Christ.

Apart from Christ,

Christians,

human beings

are in a perilous situation.

You might not have physical ailments

holding you back,

but in Ephesians,

Paul tells us that

apart from Christ,

we're not simply unwell,

we're not simply off key,

we're dead in our sins.

Not limping,

not weak,

spiritually dead.

And that's the diagnosis.

That diagnosis

is much more serious

than paralysis.

So Jesus sees this man,

he sees through

his presenting symptoms

to diagnose

his spiritual desperation.

condition.

We don't know exactly

what the condition

of this man's legs are,

but that's not really

what this is about.

It's about the condition

of his heart.

And it's the same

for each of us.

The problem of sin

is universal.

Everyone,

all the multitudes

lying in the porches,

all five porches

around this pool,

they had it,

they had the same condition.

Each of us has it too.

But saying that you've

got a sin problem

is not an insult.

It's a mercy

because you have to know

what's wrong

in order to know

where to go

to be healed

or more accurately,

who to go to.

So we have a diagnosis

for this man,

for ourselves.

And this is when

Jesus asks the question

that with our understanding

of what sin is

and the same condition

can pierce us

in the heart.

When we read on,

when we read,

Jesus says,

do you actually

want to be healed?

Do you want to be well?

And when we first read this,

it feels a bit confronting,

I think,

confusing perhaps.

This guy's at rock bottom.

Of course he wants

to be well.

It almost sounds cruel.

So this,

you can imagine

this poor guy

is kind of dragging himself

unable to walk

and somebody else

is getting down

and achieving healing

before him.

If you think about it

in those terms,

it's like Jesus is saying,

you're not working hard enough.

Go harder,

go faster.

But that's not

what's happening at all.

Jesus is asking

this question

to expose

the deeper reality.

And when you look

at the man's answer,

I think it reveals

to us a lot.

So first of all,

look at what the man

doesn't say.

He doesn't actually

give a direct

answer to the question.

Instead,

he explains

why it's impossible

for him

to be healed.

He says

he doesn't have anyone

to help him

and other people

are more mobile

than he is.

So these things

might be true.

I'm sure these things

are true.

But why doesn't he

simply say yes?

Why doesn't he say,

yes, I do want to be healed.

He could say,

stranger,

please,

you've come up

and spoken to me.

Hang about a bit

just in case the water

is troubled

and you can help me

to the water

and I can get well.

But he doesn't say that.

And I think that reveals

so much about his

attitude to life

and the identity

that he has.

So for 38 years,

this guy has been

the invalid.

His whole identity

is wrapped up

in helplessness.

He's learned

to explain

his condition

away to people

rather than

hold out hope

for real

change.

In the film

The Shawshank Redemption,

Brooks is the

elderly librarian.

He's been in prison

for 50 years

and eventually

Brooks gets parole

and he leaves prison

and he doesn't

last very long

and he can't

handle life

on the outside

and he takes

his own life

and he leaves

a suicide note

and it says

that at first

the walls of prison

felt confining

but eventually

he became so

familiar with them

that he couldn't

imagine life

outside them.

One of the lead

characters in the

film, Red,

he's played by

Morgan Freeman.

He says,

at first

you hate the walls

around you

and then slowly

you get used to them

and given enough

time

you come to

depend on them.

Enough years

imprisoned

and a person

stops being able

to function

anywhere else.

And do you see

it isn't that

the man enjoys

his broken

condition.

It's that 38

years is enough

time for him

to have built

an entire existence

around his illness.

His habits,

his spot

under the porch,

his place

in the begging

order perhaps.

So when Jesus

says to him,

do you want

to be healed?

The question

isn't true

and it isn't silly,

it's surgical.

Jesus is asking

if this man

actually

is ready

to lose

the whole,

everything

of life

that he knows

in exchange

for a life

that he can't

even imagine.

Jesus is asking

him,

do you want

to build

an entire life

from scratch,

leaving every

aspect of your

old life

behind?

And that's

scary.

I wonder

if you can

see elements

of this man's

situation

in your

spiritual life.

Are there

patterns of sin

in your life

that have

become so

ingrained

that you

can't see

a way of

leaving them

behind?

Maybe you're

caught in

apathy,

in your

devotional life,

your prayer

life,

your time

with God

and that

urgency

that you

once had

to be with

your heavenly

father has

dissipated,

but it's

been so

long,

trying to

change just

seems too

difficult.

Or maybe

there's a

sin in your

life,

you know

that it's

not pleasing

to God,

but you

even stop

praying about

it because

you just

think now

that's part

of who you

are.

Because if

you can see

any hints

of these

things in

your life,

then the

gospel confronts

you with a

stark question.

do you

really want

Christ's

transforming

grace?

Are you

willing to

take the

sins that

you've become

so accustomed

to and

put them

to death?

Okay,

so our

deepest

sickness isn't

physical sickness,

it's spiritual,

it's sin.

And being

healed means

letting go of

the patterns

of sin that

we've become

so comfortable

with.

But here's the

wonderful news.

You're not

alone.

you're not

expected to

do these

things by

yourself.

In verse

seven, the

man says,

sir, I

have no

one.

But although

from his

desperate

situation, his

perspective

looked like

there was no

one to

help.

The man

could only

lie in his

mat, but

Jesus comes

to him.

This man

wasn't looking

for Jesus.

He doesn't

ask to be

healed.

When Jesus

arrives, the

guy doesn't

even know

who he

is, but

Jesus chooses

him.

Jesus'

compassion is

personal and

it's intentional.

And he

asks the

man to

contribute

nothing to

his healing,

nothing at

all.

Jesus simply

speaks the

words and

the man is

immediately

made whole.

Like,

spiritually,

every one

of us is

this man.

God's grace

always precedes

faith.

We don't

climb up

to God.

We don't

have to get

near the

pool in

order to

splash water

in our

faces and

make ourselves

look clean

enough to

be presentable

to our

heavenly

father.

We can't.

We're

spiritually

paralyzed,

unable to

take a

single step

without God's

grace.

We're

powerless to

save ourselves

and we're

utterly

dependent on

someone else

to save

us.

And this

is actually

good news

because the

one who

can save

us will

save us.

He knows

exactly who

you are.

He knows

exactly what

you've done.

He knows

exactly what

you need.

All you have

to do is

believe that

he is who

he says he

is.

And this

leads us to

the most

important thing

I think that

John wants

us to see

in this

passage.

So thirdly,

finally,

can you

see the

sign?

John tells

us right

at the

end of

his gospel

exactly why

he wrote

it.

He wrote,

these things

are written

so that you

may believe

that Jesus

is the

Christ,

the Son

of God,

and that by

believing you

may have

life in

his name.

These things

are written

so you'll

believe that

Jesus is the

Christ,

the Son

of God,

and that by

believing in

these things

you'll have

life in

his name.

All the

miracles in

John's

gospel,

are all

written for

that purpose.

And John

doesn't call

them miracles,

he calls

them signs.

Not simply

to show that

Jesus is a

super healer,

although he

obviously is,

but to convince

you that he

really is who he

claims to be,

the Son of

God.

Look,

we're used to

seeing signs

at poolside.

God.

With the

account of

this man

at Bethesda,

John's

putting up a

big sign for

us to see,

but the sign

doesn't say

no running,

no diving,

no heavy

petting.

The sign

reads,

Jesus truly

is the

Christ,

the Son

of God.

Believe that

and you'll

have something

much greater

than physical

healing.

You'll receive

spiritual healing.

You'll be

made whole

and that

means you'll

be reconciled

with God.

But there's

tragedy,

tragedy in the

second half of

this passage.

The man who's

been healed

walks out

carrying his

mat.

He's been

lying there

for 34

years.

Let's put

ourselves in

that position

just for a

second.

Somebody you're

vaguely familiar

with, you know

that he can't

walk.

He's been

lying there

for 38

years, begging,

desperate,

lonely and

alone.

And he comes

walking towards

you and

what's the

first thing

you would

say to

him?

You'd say,

wow, what

happened?

Who did

this?

I'm so

pleased that

you've been

healed.

This is

incredible.

But the

first people

that this

man meets

don't react

like that

at all.

He meets

the religious

authorities of

the time

and they're

not full of

joy in

any way.

In fact,

they're

outraged.

They say,

what do you

think you're

doing?

It's the

Sabbath day

and you're

breaking the

law.

Jesus has

just performed

miraculous

healing and

all they can

see is a

rolled up

mat under

a guy's

arm.

Now, this

guy actually,

he hasn't

broken God's

law by

carrying his

mat.

The scribes

accused this

man of,

you know,

not resting on

the seventh

day, the day

God appointed

for people

not to

work.

This man

wasn't

working.

He'd just

been made

whole.

He was

going home.

But in

the Jewish

tradition,

they'd

invented,

they'd

created,

they'd

built around

the

Sabbath

law,

certain

rules,

codes that

they had

to live

by.

I think

they were

39.

I'm not

sure.

What they

thought

constituted

breaking the

Sabbath day

and one

of those

rules was

carrying

furniture.

Think about

what has

to happen

for you

for that

situation

to come

about.

Think about

how committed

you have to

be to your

own legal

system,

your own

internal

code to

live by,

the code

that you've

laid down

exactly in

your image

for you

to uphold.

that when

God performs

an unmistakable

miracle directly

in front of

you,

you don't

even see

God.

You just

see an

infringement.

They're looking

straight at

the sign

and they

can't read

it because

they've decided

in advance

what the

sign should

say.

I think

like for

all of us,

those of us

who've grown

up in

church,

who've been

in church

for a long

time,

this is

frightening us

a little

bit.

Because

just like

the healed

man's

condition is

a mirror

to our

spiritual

condition,

these

first century

Jewish

rulers,

they remind

us that

there's such

an easy

tendency

to legalism.

Doctrine

is important.

The Sabbath

day is really

important.

But there's

this permanent

temptation,

I think,

in the heart

of Christians,

people who

take their

faith seriously,

to be so

committed to

our own

codes,

our own

sense of

how Christians

are supposed

to behave,

how Christians

are supposed

to look,

things that

are within

our comfort

zone,

boundaries that

we put

around God,

what is

and what

isn't

acceptable

to us,

that there's

a danger we

miss God

when he's

right in

front of

us,

doing things

that only

he can

do.

The question

that these

guys should

have been

asking

themselves

about this

Sabbath

controversy

is not,

is this

permissible,

but who

can do

what Jesus

has just

done?

Who can

speak a

paralyzed

man well?

On the

spot,

no rehab,

no recovery

period,

instantly

whole.

I mean,

there's only

one possible

answer.

only the

one who

created

human

bodies,

the one

who created

human bodies

in the

first place

could ever

restore a

human body

like this.

Only the

one who

holds the

whole world

in his

hands has

the kind

of authority,

the kind

of power

over broken

flesh and

blood to

take a man

whose legs

are broken

and make

him walk.

That's the

sign.

And the

question that

John's whole

gospel puts

to us is

in this

story, but

in other

places as

well, is

can you

read it?

Can you

read the

sign?

Will you

look in

John's gospel

at what

Jesus does

and see

who Jesus

is?

Or will

you look

like the

authorities in

this passage

and be so

preoccupied by

your own

code,

or your

own comfort

or your

own carefully

curated

conditions,

your own

right and

wrong, that

you miss

Jesus entirely?

So, John

hangs up a

sign by the

pool in

Bethesda, but

it isn't a

list of do's

and don'ts like

we might see at

the local

swimming pool.

It's a portrait

of a person.

Jesus is

pointing us

to the fact

that Jesus

truly is what

he says he

is.

Jesus truly

is the

God-man,

the one

who's so

much greater

than a

pool of

purifying

water.

Just one

chapter back

in John,

John chapter

four,

Jesus meets

a woman

beside a

well and

he said to

her, if you

knew who it

was that was

speaking to

you, you

would have

asked me and

I would have

given you

living water.

Living water

isn't a

special drink

that Jesus

hands out.

Like in our

passage today,

Jesus isn't

the one who

will carry

broken people

into a

healing pool.

Jesus is

living water.

There are so

many water

references in

the Bible,

but I'm just

going to finish

with this one.

In the last

chapter of the

last book of

the Bible,

Paul, in

his vision,

John sees

a river, a

river of

water of

life, bright

as crystal

flowing from

the throne of

God and the

Lamb, flowing

through the

middle of the

street and on

each side of

the river is

the tree of

life and the

leaves of that

tree are for

the healing of

the nations.

This is the

vision of the

future for

everyone who

puts their

trust in

Jesus.

You see,

through his

victory on

the cross,

Jesus undoes

the brokenness

of the world

that we see

around us.

He restores the

beauty and

splendor of the

Garden of Eden

when everything

was perfect.

And the

restored access

to the tree

of life,

that includes

the reconciliation

of people

with God

and the

intimacy of

our relationship

with him.

This is what

Jesus is

bringing when

he returns.

the first

miracle Jesus

ever performed

was turning

water into

wine.

At the end

of his life,

he makes this

astonishing

statement.

He says,

I'll not

drink wine

again until

I drink it

new with

you in

my father's

kingdom.

This is the

great hope

of every

Christian.

This is how

we can move

forward with

joy despite

the trials,

the suffering,

the pain

that this

life so

often hands

to people.

Maybe tonight

you feel like

you're a

paralyzed man

waiting by

a pool,

helpless and

lost.

But put your

trust in Jesus

because this

is his

invitation.

He says,

one day,

come to me,

one day

you'll drink

festival wine

face to face

with the

water of

life.

Let's pray.

Lord,

our God,

help us

tonight to

see clearly

our own

need for

Jesus.

Jesus,

who is

the water

of life,

the living

water who

washes away

our sins.

Help us to

be people of

repentance,

confessing our

sin,

not just with

our lips,

but turning

away from

sin,

so that the

sin that we

know is so

grievous to

you.

We thank you,

Heavenly Father,

for your son

Jesus,

the living

water who

doesn't merely

improve us,

but who makes

us altogether

whole.

Help us

every day to

see the reality

of who

Christ is

and what

he's done

for all

sinners and

for us as

individuals,

specific

individuals,

seeking us

out just like

he did with

this man by

the pool.

Lord,

we ask that

you'd accept

our prayers

in Jesus'

name.

Amen.