WILT THOU BE MADE WHOLE?

This quote came up on a recent social media feed as I was browsing and it stopped me in my tracks! I paused for a minute to contemplate the truth of it. And then my mind went to certain individuals that I know that seem to be the epitome of this quote. I was immediately reminded of a man who laid by a pool in the Bible. I really imagine that this thought is what came to the mind of Jesus when He encountered this man...'some people don't wanna be fixed because being broken gets them attention.' The story came flooding back to me as I was challenged to ask myself the titled question.

In the book of John chapter 5 verses 1-15, we read the account of a man who laid sick and crippled by a pool called Bethesda. The name of the pool is said to be derived from the Hebrew and Aramaic languages. Bethesda means either house of mercy or grace. This meaning is appropriate since the location was seen as a place of disgrace due to the presence of people like this man. The sick, the blind, the invalid. A place of DISGRACE but also a place of MERCY AND GRACE due to the granting of HEALING! Everyone near this pool was there because they knew that from time to time an angel of the Lord would come and stir the water and whoever jumped in was healed from whatever infirmity they had. The troubling thing is that this man was laying by this pool waiting for a healing....for 38 years! In all that time he never tried to wiggle, crawl or drag himself into the pool even though he lay very close to it. So, when Jesus sees him and he starts making excuses for why he's still there Jesus asks him "do you want to get well??" (vs.5) I like the glamorous King James version..."wilt thou be made whole?" No matter how you ask the question, I hear Jesus asking him why no attempts had been made, on his part, to get in the pool.

At some point, we have to take responsibility for our brokenness. We know we're broken so the onus is on us to seek and get help. Help thru prayer, fasting, support groups, therapy (etc.). Why didn't this man ask someone to help him in the pool? Everybody there wasn't lame. He could've easily asked some passerby to pull him in or throw him in. Why was he content laying there for so long? Because it's exactly like the quote says. Sometimes like this man, we "like" the brokenness because it serves us. We like the dysfunction because it gets us attention that we otherwise wouldn't get or it "protects" us. We like the drama because that's the way we've always been, and we are comfortable in it. We simply don't want to get well. And that was the plight of this man. But Jesus saw right through him, and He sees through us too.

What we can gather from this passage are three things:

1. There is healing for all. No matter what situation, mess or circumstance we find ourselves in and no matter how long we've been in said mess, Jesus can show up and change the situation around. He sees us, just as He saw this man (vs. 6).

2. The question we must ask ourselves is, DO WE WANT TO GET WELL? Or are we comfortable where we are, the way we are? Jesus can provide healing from whatever ails us, whatever makes us uneasy, uncomfortable, worried, anxious or depressed even if we, like this man, have made a pallet of it and laid with it for years! But we must crave, desire and yearn for that healing. We have to hunger for it and want it!

3. Only when we acknowledge our need for healing and become willing to do what it takes can it be/will it be declared over us to "stand up, pick up your mat and walk!" (vs. 8). And we will be (continually) set free from whatever has us bound!

~Dania Roberts