good question

John 5:1 Afterward Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holy days. 2 Inside the city, near the Sheep Gate, was the pool of Bethesda, with five covered porches. 3 Crowds of sick people—blind, lame, or paralyzed—lay on the porches. 5 One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, he asked him, "Would you like to get well?"

  7 "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."

  8 Jesus told him, "Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!"

  9 Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up his sleeping mat and began walking! But this miracle happened on the Sabbath, 10 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!"

  11 But he replied, "The man who healed me told me, 'Pick up your mat and walk.'"

  12 "Who said such a thing as that?" they demanded.

  13 The man didn't know, for Jesus had disappeared into the crowd. 14 But afterward Jesus found him in the Temple and told him, "Now you are well; so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you." 15 Then the man went and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had healed him.


I always thought Jesus' question of the man was a bit odd. Of course he'd want to get well.

But, ya know, that's a valid question. The man by the pool had been there for 35 yrs. Being a cripple by the pool was his identity. It was how his friends & family thought of him. It was how the townspeople identified him.

Jesus challenged him, asking him if he'd like to give up his identity as a cripple & be whole.

I think we're the same way.

Many of us simply have never had any other identity other than being dysfunctional. It's who we are.

And when God offers a way out of that dysfunctional life, it can be scary, because that's who we've always been. We don't know how to be anything but dysfunctional. Being whole is something we've never been before. At least we knew how to act & live as a dysfunctional person. We don't know how to live as a healed & whole person.

Plus, we don't have any excuses - we can't hide behind our dysfunctionality anymore. We can function, so we need to get on with our lives.

I hope that all made sense.

So maybe today, what Jesus may be saying to me & you is NOT so much do we want to be healed but do we want a new identity in Him.

Think about it...