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Be careful what you ask for

John 5
The Healing at Bethesda

After these things there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porticoes. In these lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered, waiting for the moving of the waters; for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water; whoever then first, after the stirring up of the water, stepped in was made well from whatever disease with which he was afflicted. A man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had already been a long time in that condition, He *said to him, “Do you wish to get well?” The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I am coming, another steps down before me.” Jesus *said to him, “Get up, pick up your pallet and walk.” Immediately the man became well, and picked up his pallet and began to walk.

Now it was the Sabbath on that day. So the Jews were saying to the man who was cured, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not permissible for you to carry your pallet.” But he answered them, “He who made me well was the one who said to me, ‘Pick up your pallet and walk.’” They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Pick up your pallet and walk’?” But the man who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away while there was a crowd in that place. Afterward Jesus *found him in the temple and said to him, “Behold, you have become well; do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you.” The man went away, and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. (NASB)

This passage is from today’s Daily Office. It comes at the beginning of the Christian year, just after Advent, while we are still celebrating the birth of the Christ child who has come into our midst to save us from ourselves.

It reminded me of the stories of the ten lepers, of the blind man who could see for the first time, and all the others who were healed for the glory of God. The glory does not stop at the healing though.

What we are left without is the story of what happens to these persons who have had their lives radically changed in a moment. Lepers were lawfully bound to warn anyone who came near them that they were unclean so the approacher would know to stay away. The lame, blind, mute or otherwise disabled were forced into a lifestyle of begging if they were not fortunate enough to have family able to sustain them. It must have been a difficult existence at best. Or if they only suffered from a short-term disability.

But the ones who had been born with a disability had to have lived a meager, haunted existence. Then Jesus enters their lives, physically for a moment perhaps but spiritually forever. Once asked for and then granted healing, their lives would have to be fraught with dilemmas and difficulties for which they needed to turn to Him again and again – to the everlasting glory of God.

Imagine if you are blind from birth. Not only have you never seen your family’s faces but you’ve never seen a knife to butcher animals, a loom to weave cloth, a stylus to keep accounts (or however it was done back then). The same for the lame or mute. You would have never participated in everyday life to the extent of being responsible for a family, for making a livelihood. The rudimentary skills you would have learned as a child you must now learn as an adult. Can you imagine being deaf all your life and suddenly being able to hear – the cacophony of life sounds. It must be overwhelming. Or being blind and suddenly having the noonday sun reflecting off the dry desert sand filling your new field of vision.

Faster than you can spin a dime, new worlds are opened up loudly, brightly, vividly. And once the wonder and surprise of it all begins to slow down, the reality of your life has to change. Responsibility awaits you. Men were bound to work to feed their families, pay taxes, and participate in community life. No more begging for food and clothing and shelter. And your peers would be light years ahead of you in skills. What trade could be learned in midlife with any hope of dexterity? And women, it would be cooking with utensils you’ve never seen or felt; cleaning a home whose cracks and crevices you were never aware of; cleaning clothes where you can’t tell the color of the fabric from the color of the dirt you’ve never seen.

Gifts are undeniably blessings whether we ask for them or not. The man in today’s lesson did not answer Jesus’ question directly. At the very least, he is 38 years old. I don’t know what the lifespan was in the first century but I recall when I was younger, men’s lifespan was in the early sixties. But there are other accounts in the Gospels which relate men and women asking for healing; some of whom had been whole previous to their infirmity, some not. I’d like to think the one of the ten lepers who returned to thank Jesus (Luke 17) had an idea of what he was in for while his fellow lepers who had been shunned for life had no clue as to what lay after their celebration of entry into everyday society. But that one thankful leper? He was a Samaritan and he already knew what it was to be shunned and hated. He had been doubly shamed but now he could at least earn a respectable living and have a family.

We are blessed with gifts without earning them. They are given to us for His glory. The lame man of today’s Daily Office reading would be spending much time on his knees in prayer to Y-H-W-H for help in his newfound abilities as he struggled to learn new skills. I’d like to think the healed man was a true example of what Jesus asks for us in both word and deed. He spent time in the Temple praising Him and worshipping Him with every fiber of his being. And he spent time walking the roads to and from his annual pilgrimage telling everyone the good God did for him.  To the glory of God.