Do you want to be healed?

I had to learn to be very careful when it comes to offering things to people. I've had people come to me who are in trouble or in need and they are more than willing for me to pick up their load and let me solve their problem. They want nothing more than to leave that trouble, that bill, that situation, or that lack on my doorstep and allow me to find the resources to relieve them of their burden. People can attach themselves to you like a tick on a dog until they bleed you dry. So I weigh my words very carefully so that they will not mistakenly think that I am going to carry their responsibility and solve their problem which will probably be the same problem they will come back with the next month.

Not so with Jesus. Jesus just has an awful habit of waiting into the middle of huge messes. You often find Jesus with the messiest of the messy. In John 5 he wades into an area of Jerusalem that is littered with the homeless, the helpless, the unloved, the unwanted, the unclean, the sick, the tired, the battered and the broken. He finds a man who had been lame for 38 years and asks him, "do you want to be healed?” Why would he even ask that question? Then Jesus doesn't even pray for him, he just commands him to get up, “take up his mat and walk,” and he does! That is the power and grace of Jesus.

This same Jesus is the one commodity that I can offer endlessly to people. The hope that Jesus gives, the grace he displays and the power he performs transforms even the messiest of situations. He is not just here to tend to the immediate affliction that we think is causing our stress and unhappiness; Jesus comes to "set the captives free" and to tend to the deep underlying mess within our souls. And with Jesus, the more that you need him the more of him that is available. You can't suck him dry!

Why would Jesus ask a paralyzed man "do you want to be healed" unless he had the ability to do something about it? Why would Jesus seek you out unless he had the ability to do something for you that you could never do for yourself? That is the gospel in a nutshell; Jesus doing for you what you could never do for yourself. I never get tired of offering that to people.

"Do you want to be healed?” That is a good question. I must confess that many times I've gotten so comfortable with my afflictions, my excuses, my resentment, my pity parties, my anger, my blame and whatever else has immobilized me that I'm not sure if I do want to be healed. May the grace of God deliver us from that mess as well!

#grow #healing #hope