“Now there is in Jerusalem...a pool...Here a great number of disabled people used to lie – the blind, lame, and paralyzed – and they waited for the moving of the waters. From time to time an angel of the Lord would come down and stir up the waters. The first one into the pool after each such disturbance would be cured of whatever disease he had.” John 5:2-4.
This is a snapshot of a day shared between Jesus and an invalid who had been crippled for 38 years. Jesus asked a very important question when speaking with this stranger, ‘Do you want to get well?’ The man explains to Jesus, who was a stranger to him, the reason he could not get healed was because no one would help him get into the water. So disturbance upon disturbance he watched others submerge and gain the healing he so coveted. At that point, Jesus told him to pick up his mat and walk. Much to the man’s surprise, he did as Jesus said and he was cured! My commentary states the man didn’t recognize Jesus as the One who could heal. It seems that instead he was looking to the disturbance for healing instead of the man standing right before him. He had in his mind what his miracle would look like and almost missed the opportunity for complete healing.
This reminds me of a conversation that I had with one of the best friends the other night at her house. We were talking about the despair of not getting the miracle of healing when there is an illness. I remember looking for a miracle for my young sister when she was given 3-6 months to live. I was that man laying paralyzed by this news waiting and watching for a miracle. I watched the waters swirl as healing came to others but not to my sister. When praying to Jesus I remember saying that we didn’t get our miracle. He told me that the miracle for which I prayed was so much less than the miracle He was ready to give her. He was ready to give her everything... Heaven...healing...wholeness...walking through the garden of perfection with the Perfect One...and sweet reunions with other loved ones.
It’s tough when we are the ones left laying by the waters focusing on the disturbance as if replaying it in our mind could bring about our healing. It is only when we take our eyes off of the churning waters and set our gaze upon the Living Waters that our true healing will begin. Jesus knows our pain very well as He was separated from His parent as He hung on the cross. But the story doesn’t stop with death, in fact it begins once the death has happened and the tomb is shattered. I miss my dad and sister so much but I know that to continue to heal in my grief I must pick up my mat and keep walking my own journey towards Heaven. The journey of healing can only be with Jesus.
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