Faith Works - In Healing

John 5:1-3, 5-15 NIV 

[1] Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. [2] Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. [3] Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. 

[5] One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. [6] When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” [7] “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.” [8] Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” [9] At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, [10] and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.” [11] But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ” [12] So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?” [13] The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there. [14] Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” [15] The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/jhn.5.1-15.NIV)

A few weeks prior to the time of writing, I was all set to finish this series with the last two verses in James 5. It seemed to me the perfect way to finish off quite a wonderful, but challenging series on what it means to be a Christian, from salvation by grace through faith, to living it out every day. 

But then, during my daily quiet time, I was struck hard by this verse: 

John 5:6 NIV 

[6] When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/jhn.5.6.NIV)

That seemed like an incredible thing to ask an invalid. After all, in those days, people with any form of disability or disfigurement had a life where any shred of dignity was removed from them. They could make no impact on society other than be reduced to begging in strategic locations in the city in the hope that others might take pity on them. 

Who wouldn’t want to get well from that situation? 

But then again... 

The word for ‘well’ here also means ‘sound’ and ‘whole’. 

We have just completed twelve studies on a book that felt like it was holding our spiritual and practical lives up to an x-ray, and the verdict for most of us I’m sure has been that we are spiritually injured or sick. Things are not okay. We are not sound or whole. 

So again, the question echoes in our head: Do you want to get well? 

Let’s explore this passage and find a way back to soundness and health for us, starting with The Situation. 

The Situation 

John 5:1-3, 5 NIV 

[1] Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. [2] Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. [3] Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed.  

[5] One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.  

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/jhn.5.1-5.NIV)

It’s always astounding how long people will tolerate bad situations because they don’t know any different. They are like a child coming to you with an infected wound because they injured themselves and didn’t think to get it dealt with. Or someone living in a bad housing situation because they couldn’t see a way out. Or someone living with a terrifyingly abusive partner because they could see no escape. 

Here we see a man who has submitted to a terrible situation because he sees no way out.

For thirty-eight years this man has kept coming to the same pool to beg. Thirty-eight years!

There is no mention of him seeking medical attention (Mark 5:25-26), likely because he doesn’t have the financial means. Neither is there mention of him seeking the assistance of local healers, because he didn’t have the practical means. 

Neither is he able to seek help through a local legend. 

There is a missing verse in the above quote – verse 4. This verse isn’t in the most reliable manuscripts of John’s Gospel. It speaks of an angel sometimes disturbing the water of the Bethesda Pool, and the first sick person to make it there being healed. 

This man had likely seen it happen – and more than once. He had been there begging for thirty-eight years. He had seen people alert for the slightest sign of the water stirring. He had seen their desperate dash for healing. He had seen their undiluted, unadulterated joy as they were healed and their lives began again. 

But not him. He just a spectator on the lives that other people were living. He’d seen their joy, but that joy was not his. 

Perhaps this is how you feel after our long studies in Galatians and James. You know about salvation by grace through faith. You have heard of it. You have read about it. You have seen others experience it and have their lives changed. 

But it hasn’t happened to you.  

And you know why. You know you are crippled because of your sin and your self-condemnation. Because of that, you feel there is no chance that your life ever could change. 

Well, get ready for things to look a little different as we move from the situation to The Question. 

The Question 

John 5:6 NIV 

[6] When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/jhn.5.6.NIV)

This sounds like quite a shocking question to ask. Some might find it very strange indeed.  

Why would this even make a difference? 

But it does. 

Let me give you an example. Years ago I had terrible back problems. I was offered an operation. Due to the risks, I turned it down. Instead, I opted for months – which turned into years – of physiotherapy and exercise until the situation has mostly resolved itself. Anyone who has physiotherapy will tell you it isn’t comfortable. It’s hard and it’s often painful. You are building up muscles that have rarely been used and they don’t like it one bit! 

To get to a state of being well you have to really want to be well, otherwise you will never be well. 

However, what struck me during my meditation on these verses is that often we actually don’t want to be well. We would rather be sick. We gain sympathy, and even kudos, fro being sick. 

Let me tell you that there have been times when my answer to this question would have been ‘No. No, I don’t want to be well.’ 

Why? 

Because the wounds I carried from having spent seventeen years in a tough neighbourhood and being bullied at school open doors for me that I could not open any other way. 

Because having the same bad attitudes as other people around me made me feel ‘safe’. 

Because I was cherishing sin in my heart. 

My feeling is that you may well find yourself in similar situations. 

But I was wrong. 

And if you are thinking like this, so are you. 

On February 4^th, 1974, Patty Hearst, granddaughter of a newspaper magnate, was kidnapped by a militia. After her addiction, a series of tapes were released by the militia which stated that she had joined their struggle.  

On 5^th April, 1974, she was caught on a security camera bearing an automatic rifle and participating with the militia in a bank robbery. 

She was caught by the FBI on 18th September, 1975 and sentenced to imprisonment.  

We might wonder why on earth the daughter of an heiress might go from being kidnapper to aiding her kidnappers in their criminal enterprises, but this is a classic case of Stockholm Syndrome: where captors empathise with their captors. They feel a sense of purpose and belonging. They don’t want to give that up, even if it means surrendering their freedom. 

Here lies the problem. This is precisely why Jesus asked the question.   

It's also why, when blind Bartimaeus was brought in front of Him, Jesus asked him what he wanted Him to do for him (Mark 10:51). 

The answer to his problem, the cripple’s problem, and ours, might be obvious. James may well have taught it in his stark and direct way. But Jesus is not a bully. To be saved, you have to want to be saved. To be cured, you have to want to be cursd. To repent, you have to want to repent. 

So tell me: now that your problems have been brought to light during twelve posts on the book of James, do you want to be well? 

The crippled man clearly did. 

Do you? 

Now we move on from the situationand the question to The Intervention. 

The Intervention 

John 5:7-9 NIV 

[7] “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.” [8] Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” [9] At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/jhn.5.7-9.NIV)

There are times when something very simple makes a profound difference. 

After years of physiotherapy and exercise, I came across a very simple remedy that seems so far to keep my back pain away: 

Vitamin D. 

We don’t get enough of it in Scotland. That might be why ‘The Sun’ is the name of a newspaper here – it’s the only chance we’ll see it every day. Vitamin D has a role to play in helping us with joint and muscle issues. Once I began to take it, I felt less pain. Now? Hardly any. 

What we see is this man being asked to do something simple, but utterly profound and life-changing. 

But let’s back this up a bit. 

Before we get there, we see A Sad Situation: this man has sat near to the Bethesda Pool for thirty-eight years, and the one thing standing between him and healing has been the absence of help. He is the very definition of why ‘survival of the fittest’ is not a good thing and definitely not a Christian doctrine. 

He is in need. No-one has helped. 

For thirty-eight years. 

That is tragic. 

Yet – and this is the wild thing for me – help was right in front of him and he didn’t ask for it!

Can you imagine?  

Now, while this is thought to be one of Jesus’ earlier miracles, so it is quite possible that the beggar at Bethesda didn’t know who he was, it is still quite something. Sometimes the answers to our problems are complex and difficult to fathom; other times they are simple and staring us in the face, but we don’t see them. 

And Jesus Christ is often that answer. 

But following this we see A Strange Intervention. 

Think about it: this man is an invalid. He has been at the Bethesda Pool for thirty-eight years. He likely has not moved much from his sleeping mat. His muscles would definitely have atrophied. His joints would have stiffened. If he was in a hospital receiving treatment, it would take a long time of physiotherapy to ever get him remotely close to walking. 

Yet Jesus tells him to pick up his mat and walk! 

And this is not the only time in the Gospels when He carries out this strange intervention.  We see the same thing in Luke 5:17-26. Something similar happened through Peter in Acts 3:1-10, and through Paul in Acts 14:8-10. 

In almost four cases, there was a man whose dreadful disability made him what one sailing captain once called ‘a bystander in their own lives’. They were on the outside looking in as other people got on with their lives while theirs stood still. Such a person has lost all hope of ever regaining what they once had, or what other people had. 

Yet that ended dramatically when God broke into their lives. 

Now, I want you to notice something very interesting about all four miracles. They all faced a sad situation and were confronted with a strange intervention – being asked to stand, pick up their bed and leave their old lives behind.  

But they did it. They did as they were told, despite the odds against anything good happening to them. They grasped the promise of these words and they obeyed.  

It was for that act of faith that every one of them, without exception, was healed. 

There is a profound lesson in this. Often we try to blame our situation on anything but ourselves. Each generation has been as masterful as the previous ones at deflecting responsibility for their own mess. But it doesn’t change the reality: we are far from God, spiritually sick and need to be saved. 

James was merely the thermometer that should have shown us what we already know. 

The way we change this situation is not through more church or more religion or more money or more sex or more drugs, it’s more Jesus. We hear His call. We answer His call. We obey His call. Even when it seems to make no sense. Even when it seems impossible. Even when it seems like all hope is gone. 

We obey. 

This man did as he was told. He got up. He picked up the mat in which he had laid for thirty-eight years. He walked away from his old, handicapped life. He joined the rest of the human race. 

Because this man was healed. 

If the James x-ray has shown up areas of your life where you are spiritually crippled and lame, where you have nor been following Jesus, where you have gone astray, then there is only one cure: accept the grace offered to you and repent. Be restored. Even if it seems illogical. Even if it seems impossible. Even if there seems to be no hope. 

Because only in responding to the call of Jesus Christ and obeying it makes salvation and healing possible. 

So we have seen the situation, the question and the intervention. So far this message has been such an upbeat blessing. However, we need to also examine The Reaction to this miracle. 

The Reaction 

John 5:9-18 NIV 

[9] At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, [10] and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.” [11] But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ” [12] So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?” [13] The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there. [14] Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” [15] The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well. [16] So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. [17] In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” [18] For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/jhn.5.9-18.NIV)

I have a few colleagues who come from Liverpool. Last year, Liverpool FC won the English Premier League. They are a very famous football club. Fans from across the world descended on the city and joined in the title winning celebrations. The streets were lined with tens of thousands of fans, who greeted the players like heroes. 

But not everyone in the city was in a celebratory mood. My colleagues are supporters of Everton, the ‘other’ team in Liverpool: less heralded, less well-known. As their rivals paraded their victory through the streets, the Everton fans stayed at home and out of sight. 

There is often talk about how sport unites. But it also divides. I was born in a city divided by sport, between two storied teams: Rangers and Celtic. 

Religion also divides. We should know this very clearly by now. It unites and it divides.

But here, in this passage, we see that Jesus divides, and in a way that should take us aback.  

A man has been healed. Thirty-eight years of poverty and suffering have ended. Any human being with an ounce of compassion ought to be rejoicing, right? 

But some people don’t: the Jewish leaders! 

Why? 

Because it didn’t happen according to their plan and timescale. 

It took place on the Sabbath. 

And that was the problem. 

In the Ten Commandments there is a clear and unmistakable prohibition against working on the Sabbath (Exodus 20:8-11; Deuteronomy 5:12-13). This Sabbath was given to ensure people could rest, reflect and worship. 

However, the Pharisees and other religious teachers had taken that principle of rest and turned it into a day full of rules about what constituted work and what you could and could not do on the Sabbath. It became a day when rest was mandated, but you couldn’t really rest because you would be too concerned about breaking a rule. 

As far as the Pharisees were concerned, a former disabled person walking around with their sleeping mat under their arm was absolutely breaking the rules – even though the original law given by Moses didn’t spell this out. They could not see the great miracle that had taken place. They could not rejoice in a changed life. They only saw a broken rule. 

This is why Jesus quoted this Old Testament prophet about them: 

Matthew 15:7-9 NIV 

[7] You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: [8]  “ ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. [9]  They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’ ” 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/mat.15.7-9.NIV)

The healing didn’t happen within their strict and unbending parameters, and definitely not within their timescale, so they rejected it. 

Worse, and this really should shock us, they rejected not just the miracle but the miracle-worker, for three reasons: 

He broke their rules. According to then, even the very act of healing itself could not take place on the Sabbath, which Jesus later exposed as sheer hypocrisy (Luke 14:1-6). 

He taught others to break their rules. It was Jesus who told this man to carry his mat. That to them was utterly unacceptable. 

He said He was above their rules. Jesus told them that He was following His Father, who is always working. They knew this meant He was making Himself equal to God, and to them this was blasphemy. 

Their understanding of the very purpose of the Sabbath was fatally flawed: 

Mark 2:27-28 NIV 

[27] Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. [28] So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/mrk.2.27-28.NIV)

The Sabbath was designed for rest, relaxation, recovery and worship. It was not ever designed to be an exercise in legalistic box-ticking. The Pharisees and teachers of the law had turned it into something rather was not God's intention. 

But this is precisely the problem. Often misunderstood and misapplied theology becomes the yardstick by which we gauge whether or not someone's ministry or conversion is valid. I have often had polite, but well-meaning discussions from people of different denominations, asking me if I have agreed with or experienced their particular distinctive. Some will even cast doubt on the authenticity of your Christian life based only on that criteria. That is wrong. It is immature. It is narrow-minded. It is thoroughly unbecoming of the people of God and categorically not what the church should be like (1 Corinthians 12:5-26). We are supposed to be a body, not a disembodied limb or a lone eyeball. 

This kind of behaviour can also be seen outside the church. There is a tremendous openness to spiritual experiences in the world today, but perhaps not as much for Christianity. If you find that your life changes (as it should and must) when you follow Jesus, you may also find that your former companions don’t appreciate it: 

1 Peter 4:3-5 NIV 

[3] For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do—living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry. [4] They are surprised that you do not join them in their reckless, wild living, and they heap abuse on you. [5] But they will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.  

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/1pe.4.3-5.NIV)

You are often assumed to be thinking that you are somehow superior to them. This can be, and often is, a source of low level persecution. 

But that doesn’t mean you should give in. 

Imagine yourself on the Titanic. The ship is sinking behind you. You are frantically trying to stay afloat on a piece of flotsam on the icy water. Your memory is tinged with the beautiful music you once enjoyed in the main lounge. 

Do you dive back in to rescue the grand piano? 

Of course not! 

By the same logic, it is foolish to go back to the life that once weighed you down, just because the people around you don’t appreciate the new life God is bring about in you. 

You have been healed. You must stay healed and not go back to the life you once had. Your mat is under your arm. You are walking for the first tine in thirty-eight years. 

Ignore the naysayers and keep walking! 

Conclusion 

John 5:6 NIV 

[6] When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/jhn.5.6.NIV)

People reject medical care for all kinds of reasons. Some refuse blood transfusions or organ donations because of their religious beliefs. Some refuse vaccinations because of their lack of trust in ‘Big Pharma'. Others refuse dietary changes or orders to stop smoking or drinking alcohol because they want to ‘enjoy life’, even though these habits are shortening their lives. 

Mostly, these refusals end badly. Refusals of organ donations or blood transfusions invariably results in death. Vaccine refusal results in outbreaks of preventable diseases that can end lives. Not acting on the advice of your doctor can shorten the time you have left with loved ones.  

Here we see a quite remarkable situation. This handicapped man is lying close to a pool where healing are at least rumoured to have taken place, but he can’t get there. He has help right in front of him that he does not ask for. 

Yet he is so beaten down that he doesn’t take the opportunity. 

Until Jesus commands Him to obey. 

The question Jesus asked this man is still true of us. We have experienced the almost operatic thrill of the theology of Galatians. By comparison, perhaps James felt a bit like a rock concert, or a football match, or Nascar. 

Yet within this short, punchy, direct letter is a detailed prescription of what has gone wrong in our lives. Yes, we are saved by grace through faith. Yes, our works cannot save us. 

But unless we put our faith into practice and work it out into our everyday life, then our faith is dead. And a dead faith is no use to anyone. A dead faith cannot save. 

For many years, this man lay metres from a miracle but could not experience it for himself. That was his situation.  

Then Jesus asked him the question that still echoes down through the ages: ‘Do you want to get well?’ 

His intervention was to order the man to simply get up and walk away from his old life, which he did, and when he did so, he was healed. 

Of course, the reaction from naysayers was predictably pathetic, but these people are never looking out for our best interests and should be ignored. 

The main message here is around that incredible question: ‘Do you want to get well?’ 

James is the diagnosis for our society, and ourselves, that we would do well not to ignore. He has shown us an x-ray of our soul. The view has not exactly been pleasant  

But it will do us no good to simple look on as others hear these words and obey them, and experience a life transformation. 

Christianity is not a spectator sport. If you are not playing the game, quite simply you are not a Christian. 

The question is: are you playing the game? 

These past studies in Galatians and James have taken us from the very nature of the Gospel to what it means to be a Christian. They have taken us through the core truth of bring saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. They have then shown us that if we receive this grace, then we must show it by our good works, and the good works that are required are driven by love. 

There is no doubt that this is a huge challenge. However, it’s not a challenge that we need to face alone. We see this in Philippians: 

Philippians 2:12-13 NIV 

[12] Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, [13] for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/php.2.12-13.NIV)

When we decide to pick up our mat and walk, entrusting ourselves to Jesus and His Word; when we accept his grace through faith and decide to put it to work, we partner with God. We work out what He has already put in. 

As Galatians 5:13-26 taught us, what we need to do is set aside our own fleshly desires and obey the Spirit's call.  

When we do that, then we become the people God has called us to be. When we choose to obey Him, we are truly transformed. 

If you are not a Christian and you are reading these lines, what you will have seen over these past twenty-six posts is the difference faith in God can make in a person's life. I know it doesn’t always happen. Sometimes Christians are the poorest advert foe their own faith. However, here we see what Jesus can do. He is the only way to be saved. Only He can do this. I urge you to follow Him, before it's too late. 

But if you are a Christian, and you have been troubled, or even offended, by the studies on the book of James in particular, I urge you to consider how you can repent and follow Jesus more closely, for your own sake and the sake of the Gospel. 

For all of us, let’s imagine ourselves lying prone on that mat. We have been there for too long. Others have reached out for healing. We have seen it happen, but now it has passed us by. 

And then we hear the call of Jesus Christ: ‘Do you want to be well?’ 

Do you? 

Then hear His call to walk away from your current life and be healed. 

Prayer  

Lord Jesus, I am totally undeserving of Your Grace. I am the cause of my own sin-sickness. I want to repent and walk away from it all. Help me to take that first step and follow You. Amen. 

Questions for Contemplation

• Why did Jesus ask the handicapped man if he wanted to be well? What stopped him from being healed? 

• Why were the Pharisees angry about the healing? What does this tell us?

• Do you want to be well? What does it take to be well? Are you willing to do it?