Do You Want to be Healed?

Do you want to be healed? [Whether physically, emotionally, mentally, or relationally.]

It feels like an unnecessary question to a rather obvious answer. Who wouldn’t want to be healed if given the opportunity? And yet, Jesus took the time to ask this very question to a man who had been physically disabled for 38 years. Let’s look at the interaction, found in the book of John.

“After this, a Jewish festival took place, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. By the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem there is a pool, called Bethesda in Hebrew, which has five colonnades. Within these lay a large number of the sick—blind, lame, and paralyzed [—waiting for the moving of the water, because an angel would go down into the pool from time to time and stir up the water. Then the first one who got in after the water was stirred up recovered from whatever ailment he had].”

-John 5:1-4, Holman Christian Standard Bible

The pool of Bethesda was commonly believed to heal physical ailments. At times, the water would be stirred up by an unseen force and, the belief was, whoever stepped into the water first would be healed of their ailment.

(Some Bible translations—like the HCSB above—include verse 4 with this explanation of the stirred water while many other translations don’t, due to the debated beliefs of Bethesda’s healing properties. The pool waters may have been stirred by an angel and healed people, or they may have been stirred by natural causes and the healing was a superstition. But either way, people at that time believed the healing could happen; and belief is all the motivation they needed to wait at Bethesda for their miracle.)

Those with ailments would hang around the pool and wait for the moment they had a chance at healing in the stirred water. These people would be the outcasts of society; they were deemed “unclean” and would be viewed as shameful and inadequate—unable to work, provide for their families, or live independently. But if they could be healed it would entirely turn their life around! So they came to Bethesda, desperate for healing, and waiting for a miracle.

Among those at the pool was one particular man who had lived with his condition for many, many years.

“One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, ‘Do you want to be healed?’”

-John 5:5-6, English Standard Version

It’s pretty clear to us, just by a quick reading of this passage, that this man was looking for physical healing. He was at the pool of Bethesda with a condition that prompted him to be there. This would also be apparent to Jesus, who saw the man lying there and knew that he had been there a long time.

So why, then, would Jesus ask the man if healing was something he wanted? Did He really not know? Of course not. Jesus knew the hearts and the lives of everyone He interacted with (look back a chapter in John 4 where He talks with the Samaritan woman at the well).

Jesus asked the man, “Do you want to be healed?”, because He had a purpose behind the question. Jesus didn’t ask unnecessary or surface level questions, He always spoke carefully and with intentionality.

{Pro Bible study tip: anytime Jesus asks a question in the Bible there is always a deeper purpose behind it. Dig into these questions and search for their meanings!}

Before we can know why Jesus asked this question, we need to first see the man’s response.

“‘I can’t, sir,' the sick man said, ‘for I have no one to put me into the pool when the water bubbles up. Someone else always gets there ahead of me.’”

-John 5:7, New Living Translation

“I can’t”, the man says.

“I can’t get better. Nobody wants to help me and I can’t help myself. It’s not fair. Woe is me…” I admit, that was my initial [ignorant] interpretation of this man’s response. But I think the more realistic, and compassionate, interpretation is that this man had been unwell for so long that he lost hope for his healing.

Time and time again he dragged himself towards the pool, but never made it. Some people probably tried to help him but gave up after a while. Others likely pushed him aside so they could get themselves to the water. Over and over this man tried to get healing the only way he knew how, but he always came up short of the prize.

He exhausted his energy, his resources, and his hope. He was not being pessimistic or making excuses, rather, his spirit was so distraught that he genuinely didn’t believe he could ever be healed. And that is exactly why Jesus asked if the man wanted healing!

Jesus knew the man’s desire to be healed and He knew how diminished his hope was. By asking this question, the hope of a cure would be stirred up in the man’s heart. “Do you want to be healed?” implies to the man that Jesus has the means to bring about the desired healing.

After stirring up hope with a few simple words, Jesus then performs a miracle with just a few more.

"Jesus told him, 'Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!' Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up his sleeping mat and began walking!"

-John 5:8-9a, NLT

With only a handful of words Jesus changed this man’s situation, and his life, forever. No longer was he an outcast, dependent on others and shamed for his inabilities. He had a new life and a powerful story to tell as he walked away with his mat that day.

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Do you ever—maybe currently—feel like the man in this story (before the miracle)? Struggling with a condition or a situation that needs healing. You’ve done everything you could and you’ve exhausted your efforts and your resources. You so desperately need a miracle, you’re just waiting on God to show up and make it a reality (preferably with the same immediacy as at Bethesda).

It’s not easy to hold onto hope in these times. An unhealed condition can eat away at any optimism for normalcy or better days ahead. Chronic pain—physical or emotional—can destroy the will to live. Repeated unanswered prayers can plant unbelief in our hearts. All of these can affect us in so deep a way that we give up on trying to be made well anymore.

This leads to us sharing the same condition as the man at Bethesda—not his physical disability, but his diminished spirit of hope. We stop believing that healing is possible because we’ve gone so long without seeing it in our life. But we are never beyond the possibility of God’s healing work in our lives.

I, of course, can’t promise that you’ll receive every healing you pray for, in the way you want it, or as quickly as you want it. I’m sure you know that by now. But I will offer this encouragement: you will be far more likely to see the healing work of God in your life if you can keep yourself from becoming numb to the hope and possibility of healing.

Keeping our hearts open to hope leaves room for God to bring healing.

We learn this from the man at Bethesda. Despite his diminished spirit, it’s clear that he hadn’t lost ALL hope. He was there at the pool after all. He still had a glimmer of hope that, just maybe, that would be the day he got healed. And what a day it turned out to be for him!

Although this story is not about what the man did right or wrong to initiate or deserve the healing he got, we can still draw a lesson from his actions. Because if the man had not done two very critical things, he would not been positioned to receive healing.

1. The man showed up at the pool, at the place that could offer healing. This meant allowing his disability to be publicly visible to others. He could have stayed home and hidden inside, never to let others see the shame of his condition, but there was no possibility for healing at home. So he kept going to the pool, showing his weakness and his need for healing. This opened him up to the possibility of others helping him to the water or, as we read, the arrival of Jesus who would bring healing to him there.

2. He was receptive to Jesus’ healing and obedient to His command. He could have ignored Jesus’ question or told Jesus to leave him alone. He could have scoffed at the command to stand up and walk, choosing instead to stay lying down on his mat. But he didn’t. He kept his heart and his condition open to the possibility of healing. He trusted Jesus and obeyed His command; and that led to his healing.

In the same ways, we must keep ourselves open and receptive to the possibility of healing in our lives. First, when we allow our weaknesses and our need for healing to be visible to others, it creates space for others to offer a helping hand and to aid us in finding healing. The people around us don’t often know, or see, when we’re struggling unless we tell them.

Recognizing and admitting our need for healing also shows God that we are not hiding it away or burying it deep. We can’t be positioned to accept healing if we can’t accept our need for healing.

Yes, it can feel shameful to showcase that need. And we don’t need to share it with the whole world. But we cannot find healing unless we first bring our needs out into the open, both among trusted friends and in the presence of God.

Second, we have to be receptive to God’s healing and obedient to His commands. If we allow doubt to take over, or we lose trust in God, we will be unable to receive healing from Him. Not because we don’t have enough faith or didn’t work hard enough for it, but because we likely won’t be listening when He offers us healing.

Additionally, obedience is a must. If God asks us to “get up and walk” then we get up and walk. That might look like, “go apologize to this person” or “go to therapy”. If we don’t, that relationship may never be healed, or our trauma goes on unhealed.

God’s ability to heal works in cooperation with our willingness to obey. He does not ask for our obedience to restrict us and make us miserable, He asks for our obedience to commands that will free us and lead us into healing.

So what do you say? Do you still want to be healed? Then keep holding on to hope. Let your heart and your situation be open to the possibilities of God’s healing work in your life.

-Stephanie Lauren Jordan