Jesus heals a man paralyzed for 38 years, read John 5:1-15

Chapter 5 finds Jesus back in Jerusalem, 90 miles away. All this walking amazes me. He went to a pool called Bethesda. Dozens of people are around the pool to be healed when the water is stirred. This story is interesting to me because Jesus could have healed them all, but He chose to focus on one man.

Choosing that man is intriguing to me is because he almost acts like he doesn’t want to be healed. He only has excuses. He has been an invalid for 38 years. Verses 6-7 tell Jesus’ interaction with him.
6 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, He asked him, “Do you want to get well?”
7 “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”
He has no one to help, but he obviously has eaten in those 38 years. Someone brings him food, brings him to the bathroom, etc. How can there be no one to put him in the pool?

Jesus cuts to the problem when He said, “Do you want to get well?” Does he? That makes me reflect on all of us today. Do we want to get well? Do we have issues that we just don’t deal with? Do we want things to change in our life or is it just easier to stay the same? Do we want to get well?

Verse 8 totally changed the man’s life.
8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
After 38 years of being an invalid, he was cured, made whole. He can no longer beg because of his disability. He will need to learn how to earn a living. This man has no skills due to his disability. His whole life is upside down.

Everywhere he goes he is a testimony of God’s mercy. No one can deny God’s intervention in his life. What happened to him is undeniable. I wonder how people that knew him treated him after that. I can relate to this thought. I had polio when I was 5 years old. Everyone that knows me knows me with a withered right arm. After reading healing stories in the Gospels, I wondered what the reaction of those that knew me would be if suddenly my arm was normal. Would I be scary to them? Will they treat me the same way they always have? Could I just go on with my normal life? I doubt it. I wonder what his life was like after the healing? Certainly, totally different!