December 20
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DO YOU DESIRE TO GET WELL?
A poem by ILMA
Afterward Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holy days
Inside the city, near the Sheep Gate, the pool of Bethesda had 5 covered porches
Crowds of sick people—blind, lame, or paralyzed—lay on the entrances
One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight long years.
Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time
He approached the lame man and asked him “Would you like to get well?”
“I can’t, sir for I have no one to put me into the pool when the water bubbles up
Someone else always gets there first ahead of me and I don’t get a chance”
Jesus approached and told him, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!”
Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up his sleeping mat and began walking!
But this miracle happened on the Sabbath, so the Jewish leaders objected
They said to the man who was cured, “You can’t work on the Sabbath!
The law doesn’t allow you to carry that sleeping mat!”
The cured man said, “The one who healed me told me to ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’”
“Who said such a thing as that?” they asked but the man didn’t know for Jesus left
Later, Jesus found him in the Temple and told him, “Now you’re well; so, stop sinning
The man went and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had healed him.
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MEMORY VERSE
When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, he asked him, “Would you like to get well?” – John 5:6
Read: John 5:1-15
It is interesting in this controversial miracle of Jesus on the Sabbath that angered the Jewish leaders that he asked a question that he already knew the answer. “Would you like to get well?” Why? When we desire to get well, God wants us to have an active part in it and a desire to do so before He can actually heal us.
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REFLECTION
• Why is it necessary for us to have an active part in getting well before we even ask for healing?