John 5:2-9 "Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Bath-zatha..."

 "Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Bath-zatha, which has five porticoes. In these lay many invalids—blind, lame and paralyzed. One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, 'Do you want to be made well?' 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 making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.' Jesus said to him, 'Stand up, take up your mat and walk.' At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk" (John 5:2-9 NRSV).

Comment:

Jesus teaches consistently that choices have consequences: the choices we make, based on what we believe in our consciousness, become our experience. Here he emphasizes that the same truth can be stated in reverse: consequences have their roots in the choices we make. If we are unhappy with the consequences, we have to change our choices. And in order to change our choices, we have to change the belief out of which the choice is made.   The man at the pool believed that he was crippled, and he believed that the only way for a healing to occur was to be the first person to enter the pool after an angel had rippled the water. He's been holding on to those beliefs, and making choices from those beliefs, for 38 years. That could be okay—there are rich lessons to be learned through such physical challenges—so Jesus first needs to know if the man is content with his lot. Hence the question, "Do you want to be made well?" If the man were honest, he might say “No, not really; I'm fine as I am; I'd rather continue to be a victim than to actually have to do something useful with my life, like get a job.” And that would be fine, as long as he realized that the problem was of his own making.   But the man says he truly wants to be healed, and so Jesus simply says, “Stand up and walk.” In obeying that instruction the man essentially changes his belief about himself. He believes that he is a whole person who can stand and walk. And he does. Once we shift our belief in limitation to a belief in infinite possibility, and make a new choice from that new belief, the healing is inevitable.   Blessings!

Rev. Ed