John 5:1-9
Introduction
Picture it’s a hot sunny day… Ok, not the easiest thing to do in March, but give it a shot. It’s a hot sunny day, on the equator, and you’re burning up while laying on the hard concrete deck of a nearby pool filled with crystal clear, cool blue water. It’s right there, just feet away, and all you need to do to find relief from the scorching and burning you are suffering is to simply jump in. But you can’t. Even though you are so close, you are unable to reach the water.
What’s more, there are people all around you, and everyone knows you’re there to get the relief you need, but yet no one helps you. You’re just left to scorch and burn. And this happens day after day after day… for years.
Finally, after an unimaginable length of time, someone, a stranger, comes and asks, “Hey… you look like you’re pretty hot… do you want to take a dip in the pool and cool off?” What do you say? How would you answer that question?
This is what is happening in our text for today. A man is suffering from an ailment and struggling to make it to the pool to get the needed relief he is yearning for. But no one helps him. No one helps him rise up. Or in this case… dive in. But then along comes Jesus. And everything is about to change. Or is it?
Move 1
The setting is the pool of Bethzatha, which had a well-known local myth about it that explained “an angel of the lord, went down at a certain seasons into the pool, and stirred up the water; whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water was made well from whatever disease that person had.”
And so for years this man had been trying to be the first into the water after it was stirred so he could be healed, but always, no one helped him, and someone got in before him. Then one day, Jesus comes to this pool, sees the man, and asks, “Do you want to be made well?”
On the surface we see this simply as Jesus doing his thing—seeing the struggles and illness of people, and healing them. And maybe for some preachers that would be enough—“Jesus is always asking us if we want to be made well, and all we have to do is say yes! Amen. Let’s go have lunch.”
But that is not all there is to this story. We need to go deeper. And truthfully… if we are ever going to move all the way through the wilderness wandering we are on and get to the transformation we are aiming for in this Lenten season, and be able to say, “And still we rise” we have to go deeper. We are going to have to not only hear what sounds like a no-brainer question that Jesus asks, we’re going to have to give him an honest answer.
Move 2
When we go deeper into this text, the short conversation between the man and Jesus reveals two odd things. First, the fact that Jesus asked the question at all, and second, the fact that this man who had been sick for 38 years never actually gives Jesus a direct answer about whether or not he wanted to be healed.
Jesus asks the sick man a seemingly obvious question. Why else would a sick person be hanging around this pool known for its healing properties. So why did Jesus ask? Could it be that Jesus knew something beyond the obvious? Or could it be Jesus knows something we know too, but we don’t want to admit it?
*******
Monty Python’s Life of Brian a 1979 British satirical comedy tells the story of Brian Cohen, a young Jewish-Roman man who is born on the same day as—and next door to— Jesus. The opening scene of this sardonic and, as some say, blasphemous film, Brian is mistaken for the newborn king, complete with the Wisemen first giving their gifts to Brian, only to retract them when they realize there error, setting a despondent tone that will follow Brian throughout his life. Fast forward to adulthood, Brian and his mother are walking through a crowded city when suddenly they are approached, and pursued relentlessly, by a beggar, who happens to be muscular, fit, and healthy.
I thought about showing the scene, but when I watched it again for the first time in years, I decided it’s just as effective to read the scene.
EX-LEPER: Spare a talent for an old ex-leper, sir.
BRIAN: Did you say ‘Ex-leper?’
EX-LEPER: That’s right, sir. Sixteen years behind the bell, and proud of it, thank you.
BRIAN: What happened?
EX-LEPER: I was cured, sir.
BRIAN: Cured?
EX-LEPER: Yes sir, a bloody miracle, sir. Bless you.
BRIAN: Who cured you?
EX-LEPER: Jesus did. I was hopping along, when suddenly he comes and cures me. One minute I’m a leper with a trade, next moment I’m cured and me livelihood’s gone.
BRIAN: Oh go away.
EX-LEPER: Look. I’m not saying being a leper was a bowl of cherries. But it was a living. I mean, you try waving muscular suntanned limbs in people’s faces demanding compassion. It’s a bloody disaster.
BRIAN: You could go and get yourself a decent job, couldn’t you?
EX-LEPER: Look, sir, my family has been in begging six generations. I’m not about to become a goat-herder, just because some long-haired conjuror starts mucking about and just like that says, “You’re cured.” Bloody do-gooder!
BRIAN: Well, why don’t you go and tell him you want to be a leper again?
EX-LEPER: Ah yeah, I could do that, sir yes, I suppose I could. What I was going to do was ask him if he could … you know, just make me a bit lame in one leg during the week, you know, something beggable, but not leprosy, which is a pain to be quite blunt.
BRIAN: Fine. There you are.” (Dropping a coin in the beggar’s cup.)
EX-LEPER: Thank you sir… (Disgruntled) …half a denarii for my bloody life story!
BRIAN: There’s no pleasing some people.
EX-LEPER: That’s just what Jesus said.
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The satirical scene depicts the ex-leper’s ingratitude to being healed because why would anyone react that way? Did the film miss major points about how Jesus actually acts in our lives? Yes, of course. Theological accuracy was not the intent. But this scene, as irreverent as it might be, actually shows an example of why Jesus asks his obvious question, “Do you want to be made well?” Jesus wants to know whether or not we want to be transformed.
Because if a person is not truly ready for it, then the blessing and miracle of transformation are wasted. The ex-leper wants the conveniences of his new life—good health and an able body—but he wants the perks and comforts of his old life—the sympathetic attention, keeping the family business going, not having to learn a new craft.
So while the movie misses the point about both God and us being a part of transformation, the early Disciples of Christ understood the point that transformation involves being truly ready and open to transformation. It involves knowing with transformation everything changes—there are new gifts as well as new responsibilities, and yes… new expectations.
So while Jesus’ question “Do you want to be made well?” might seem like a no-brainer kind of question, drill down into the implications of being made well and we find there is an implied “Really?” “Do you want to be made well? Really?”
Jesus’ question is not the obvious no-brainer we think it is because some people don’t want the responsibilities and expectations that come with saying “Yes” to Jesus. Some would just rather stay where they are because it’s comfortable, or they don’t have time, or transformation is for someone else, or that’s not the way we’ve always done it.
And with that mindset, we never have to rise up, or dive in.
Move 3
Sometimes our sense about transformation is that we are in complete control of it, that we call all the shots. I suspect we have all had times in our lives when we wanted something to change and we’re determined to do it on our own. But what were the results? Maybe it would be better to ask what were the results when we watched others try to change their lives on their own.
The church is supposed to be in the transformation business… how are we doing? Are we creating any? Are we being transformed? How are we answering Jesus’ question, “Do you want to be made well?” The only way transformation really works is when we work with God, claiming and owning our own role in the transformation. Jesus did not force an agenda down the sick man’s throat; he asked what the sick man wanted.
In the same way, Jesus doesn’t just plunge into the chaos of our lives and decide for us what we are to do. He asks us if we want from him what he is offering, and gives us the strength for it… if we want him to. Which means, Jesus is always asking us the same question he asked the man in our text … “Do you want to be made well? Do you want to be made well…really? Or do you want to be made well on your terms… in the way you want to be made well? Which is it? Really”
Conclusion
Transformation has two sides. On the one hand, we cannot experience complete transformation by sheer force of our human will. Transformation requires God’s action in our lives.
The beggar wanted to get to the pool, and kept trying to do it by himself, but was always beaten to the water by someone else. His healing required Jesus’ involvement.
On the flipside, though, transformation requires something of us. There is no point in God, doing it without us because then we’re not fully and faithfully part of it. Otherwise, Jesus would have just healed the sick man without any conversation, or he would’ve just thrown him in the pool.
Getting well, being transformed, requires we give up our status as victims. It requires we give up believing we can’t make a difference or have an impact. It requires we give up excuses for not being full and faithful followers. It requires us to stop thinking, “I’m sure someone else will do that.” It requires we take responsibility for our future that will be totally different from our past.
Transformation… being able to faithfully say, “And Still We Rise” we have to really want it and then be part of it. All of it. Really. Amen.
Pastoral Prayer: March 12, 2023, Lent 3
Gracious and loving God, how many times have we been the beggar in this story. Stuck in a place, unable to get where we want to be, unable to gain relief and healing, all while we watch others ignore and forget us, leaving us feeling neglected, frustrated, and victimized. And stay stuck in such a place long enough, though we never admit it, we become comfortable. And when we become comfortable, even in discomfort, we hear Jesus’ question, “Do you want to be made well?” but never answer.
Why do we do this O God? Why do we accept a place even though we long for some place else? Why won’t we fully step into the opportunity for transformation you and your Son are always offering? Is it because we know the costs of being transformed? Is it because we know we will have to leave the old behind and we are scared of the new? Is it because we have convinced ourselves, like the beggar, that we can’t? Is it because we know it will be a struggle to rise up?
Remind us O God, that Jesus was never content with excuses. Remind us that Jesus promises the transformation will always be worth the effort, the discomfort, and even any pain and struggle.
Help us hear these assurances, and then embolden us to take the risk to answer Jesus’ question “Do you want to be made well?” with an emphatic “Yes! Yes, I do really want to be made well. Show me the way Jesus.”
And help us hear these assurances not just as individuals, but also as a church. And again, embolden us to take the necessary risks for us to believe you will help us and show us the way to rise up to be the church you would have us be today.
We may have reasons to hesitate or not even answer Jesus’ question. So make us like the beggar after his transformation, after he rose up, and see Jesus can, really, change everything for the better.
Hear now we ask, the prayers within our hearts and spirits, as we share them in this time of Holy Silence.
All this we pray in the name of our healer and savior, Jesus the Christ, who taught us to pray saying, “Our…”