“Do you want to be healed?”

John 5:15-18, 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?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath.

It seems like a strange question for a man who had been seeking healing beside the pool for so many years! But this man thought he knew the way to his healing by getting himself into the pool at the right time. He was committed to his way, for he had been there a long time. And he interprets Jesus question in the light of the only way he knows. And Jesus doesn’t wait for an answer, but heals him and asks him to take up his bed and walk. The man immediately recognizes that Jesus is the way to his healing, and obeys His command to rise up and walk. And later he comes to know Him as the way, the truth and the life!

We look to You as the way, the truth and the life, Lord Jesus!

ESV Lectionary