Jesus asks a sick man in John 5:2-9, “Do you want to be made well?” What a question! He is at the pool by the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem, the one rumored to be stirred up by an angel of the Lord from time to time, where the first person to get into the moving water gets healed. Jesus can see this man has been lying there for a long time. In fact, the text tells us that it has been 38 years.
Instead of answering “Yes” to Jesus, the man says, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.” Maybe that is the truth, but it also sounds like an excuse.
Jesus asks each of us the question, “Do you want to be made well?” Often, we are like the sick man, unwilling to act. We think we want to be made well, but we are not always ready to make the changes needed to achieve wellness.
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