January 29
Bible Reading: John 5:1-17
John 5:6, “Do you want to get well?” (NASB)
“Do you want to get well?” What kind of question is that to ask of an invalid? But that’s exactly what Jesus asked the man lying beside the pool.
The man had been an invalid for 38 years. He suffered from paralysis and was completely alone and helpless. He joined a multitude of other desperate souls waiting there—blind, lame, and paralyzed. Some manuscripts insert the following explanation: “waiting for the moving of the water for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred the water: whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was healed of whatever disease he had” (John 5:4). Apparently, there was some kind of superstition regarding the healing powers of that pool.
So, in the Bethesda pool “lottery” the first one into the water won. The prize was for the swift or those invalids having friends who would help them get there first. But this man had no one to help him. When the water was stirred up, and while he was going, another stepped down before him (John 5:7). The man had been an invalid for nearly four decades. Jesus saw the man and “that he had already been there a long time” (John 5:6). And Jesus said to him, “Do you want to be healed” (John 5:6)?
Every human malady is rooted in original sin, although not every sickness or malady directly results from sin. No descendant of Adam is untouched in life by the grievous consequences of the curse. And in response, man is prone to look to all kinds of supposed solutions for deliverance.
“Do you wish to get well?” There is a sense in which God asks that question of us all. In response to our sin problem, we look to a variety of solutions and rationalize or excuse our sin-sourced infirmities with an array of explanations. A multitude of the spiritually paralyzed gather at the “pool” of superstitious and humanistic solutions to man’s besetting ills. But if we do want to get well—regarding being cured from sin—Jesus stands ready to heal us!
Jesus healed the man—compassionately, instantly, and perfectly. Without an angel’s help. He required no “stirred up” waters. He told the man to “get up, take up, and walk,” and that’s what the man immediately did (John 5:8-9). Jesus can do the same with the sin-paralyzed (Ephesians 2:1). He is willing and able to forgive, cleanse, and re-birth them so that they might walk “in newness of life” (Romans 6:4). It matters not if they’ve been a spiritual invalid for many years or few. He alone can heal us “from all our soul’s diseases.”
Only Jesus can give wholeness to a broken life.
NO, NOT ONE
There’s not a friend like the lowly Jesus–
No, not one! no, not one!
None else could heal all our soul’s diseases–
No, not one! no, not one!
Refrain:
Jesus knows all about our struggles,
He will guide till the day is done;
There’s not a friend like the lowly Jesus–
No, not one! no, not one!
No friend like Him is so high and holy–
No, not one! no, not one!
And yet no friend is so meek and lowly–
No, not one! no, not one! [Refrain]
There’s not an hour that He is not near us –
No, not one! no, not one!
No night so dark but His love can cheer us–
No, not one! no, not one! [Refrain]
Was e’er a gift like the Savior given?
No, not one! no, not one!
Will He refuse us a home in heaven?
No, not one! no, not one! [Refrain]
LookingtoJesus 