Do you want to be healed?

Sometimes we like our brokenness. We controlling own lives, even if we can’t control anything. But, hey, if we crash and burn, at least we did it on our terms.

When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, he asked him, “Would you like to get well?” (John 5:6)

Many years ago, on a mission’s trip to the inner city of St. Louis, a student who I had mentored saw a homeless man on the street. He wanted to do something kind, so he went to Subway and bought a sandwich and a drink with his own money. And he took it to the homeless man.

The homeless man threw it away and shouted at him, demanding money rather than food.

It was a hard lesson for this young student to learn that sometimes people don’t want real help. Or at least, they don’t want the help they actually need. They want help on their own terms, whether it’s beneficial or not.

When I was little, I couldn’t understand how anyone could walk away from Jesus. He was all I knew. He’d been my best friend since I knew what a friend was, and it made no sense to me that people would choose to try to save themselves rather than accepting His gift of salvation.

Then I grew up a bit. And there’s something about gaining maturity as an adult that makes surrendering to Jesus so much harder than when you’re a child. Oh, when we’re adults, we really want things our own way. And even when God offers a solution, we’ll reject it because it would mean submitting to His way. Turning over authority and agency and freedom.

So it took me a long time to understand why Jesus would ask this poor man whether or not he wanted to be healed. The dude had been sick for years, 38 of them to be exact. Of course he wanted to be healed. He would have been an idiot to say no.

But as He often did, I think Jesus was asking more than what’s on the page. His words were aimed at something deeper.

This guy had no reason to trust Him. He had no background or examples of who Jesus was. All he had was the superstitions of his time, and they hadn’t worked for him.

The Amplified Version of this passage says the question is really more like “Are you really in earnest about getting well?”

Well? Haven’t you known people who say they want to be well, but they aren’t willing to do anything about it? They say they want to be healthy, but they aren’t willing to live a healthy life?

Sometimes we don’t want healing. We want to stay miserable. We want to wallow in our loss and grief because it distinguishes us. It makes us unique in some way.

It’s the devil you know, right?

Sometimes we like our brokenness. We like having control over our own lives, even if we can’t actually control anything. We convince ourselves that we do. And if we crash and burn, at least we did it our way.

But that way never works. It burns you up, wears you out, steals your joy. There’s a better way.

Do you want to be healed?

Are you tired of trying to make it through life your way?

Will you trust Jesus and God’s Way to satisfy you when it doesn’t make sense that it should?

You have to reach the place where nothing the world has to offer is enough. You have to be honest in accepting that you can’t change your circumstances, that you aren’t strong enough to get through life on your own, and that your problems are too much for you.

Until you are willing to stop going your own way and walk God’s way, there won’t be a relationship.

Do you want to be healed?

I know Someone who can help.

Questions for Reflection

• Why do you think it’s easier to stay the way we are than to make a change in how we live?

• What was the tipping point for you when you decided that this world couldn’t offer you answers?

• How has Jesus brought healing into your life?

Weekly Memory Verse

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