It would be hard to believe God too much: it is dreadfully common to believe him too little.
~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon
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 thirty-eight 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.
~ from John 5
Oh beloved, it is true. We like to talk about healing in our bodies. And something in us would like to believe that things like this still happen. And then they do.
And all the wheels fall off of our shiny little theological trains.
The platitudes become certitudes,
The doubts become embarrassment,
The bet on His goodness becomes a big payoff,
The hope becomes reality,
The wishing becomes receiving,
The believing becomes knowing,
The disease becomes wholeness and health,
And somehow, even with all of this, there is this uneasiness about the whole thing. Actually, we have a reaction that is much like the disciples in the boat after the awakened King of The Universe told the sea and the atmosphere to calm down – and they did.
Fear.
And we, like the disciples say to ourselves, “What does this mean?” Somehow, a Person we are just beginning to know, has just bent space and time and tissue in our own bodies – and the thing that was to cause us pain and disease is now gone – just like that. And it is gone in such a way that, in centuries of human effort to cure problems like this, we have not even come close. Millions of man-years have gone into certain cures for human maladies, and we have not even scratched the surface of the problems. And then someone just prays for us, and He heals us.
What does this mean?
Could this fool of a writer venture a guess? We know exactly what it means, and this is why we are afraid. The implications of SomeOne being able to heal us instantly also mean that this Being wields unimaginable power in other realms. We get the fact that a miraculous healing of a human body is an astounding reality. And if this same G_d can instantly fix the most complex bio-mechanical machine in the known universe, it implies that He is able to do even more amazing things in our spirit. Said more simply: His work in our ultra-complex physical bodies shatters the illusion that He could not fix our other problems.
And in seeing that this same G_d is able to fix anything, we come squarely to the problem that the man at the pool of Bethesda had. As this man lay there in his shame and pain and doubt and wishing and hoping – he came face to face with the real problem (and ours).
Do we want to be healed?
Do we want to be whole?
Do we want to walk in victory?
Do we want to be strong?
Do we want to become amazing?
Do we want to reign with Him forever?
Do we want to be Loved?
Do we want to be His friend?
Careful beloved. The implications of your answer are eternal and irrevocable. To receive the healing we must actually obey and stand in His strength, instead of laying there in our own misery.
Do you want to be healed?
