Wednesday, April 14, 2021
“One of the men
lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him and knew
he had been ill for a long time, he asked him, ‘Would you like to get well?’” (John
5: 5- 6, New Living Translation)
Like most kids, I was always a
little afraid of medical needles when I was a child. But at my age now, I have
had enough surgeries, IVs, blood tests, flu shots, etc. that it no longer
really bothers me although I will admit that I wish the TV news would stop
showing people getting jabbed in the arm every time they have news about the
vaccines.
Some people are still wary of getting
the vaccines for various reasons. The stupidest
reason is the conspiracy theory that the government is implanting some sort of
tracking device or mind-controlling device. Sorry, but we already have those - they’re
called cell phones and the internet. Why would the government even bother?
Others are just being stubbornly
defiant for no good reason or still in denial that the Covid pandemic is as bad
as being made out to be. Some are concerned about the possible side effects but
all vaccines carry a little risk, even vaccines for chicken pox, mumps and
polio. But we need to get them just the same.
Slightly adapting Jesus’ words to
the man with an undisclosed illness for 38 years, I ask you: Wouldn’t you like
to be well?
It is hard to imagine what those
38 years were like for that poor soul. He was totally dependent on others for
everything he needed, food, drink, shelter, being carried to the pool and hoping
that someone would help him enter the healing waters at the right moment. Some might
want to pat him on the back for his relentless faith in the waters for all that
time, for all the good it did him. I don’t doubt for a moment that his infirmity
was real, imposing a life-time burden. It would have impacted his life in a
negative way continuously.
So, it is an odd question, in
some ways, which Jesus put to the man, “Do you want to be made well?” The
man may have reacted accordingly. Of course, Jesus, what a foolish thing to
ask. Do you think I like living like this? Do you think I have any choice? Do you
think I have any alternative? But nobody is willing to help me and I remain what
I am. I expect that he has become such a fixture at that pool side, he was
easily ignored and forgotten.
It makes me think that any of us
can become inured to the realities of life, even if painful and unpleasant. We can
get stuck in the same old paralysis of our human existence. Not everybody, of course, maybe not all the
time, but enough of us find ourselves in routines, ruts and circumstances,
maybe beyond our control, through which we find ourselves persevering, enduring,
even suffering, and at a loss for how to find relief.
Jesus’ question in challenge for
the man to consider a new solution because the old ones weren’t working and
never had. Jesus’ question is an invitation to trust in a new alternative, which
is to say trusting in Jesus. Jesus’ question reaches into the man’s heart, soul
and mind and eventually his physical nature to test his true resolve to change
his life. The man is out of excuses; he is out of options; he is out of new opportunities.
He needs to take this one which Jesus is offering or forever be condemned to
futile, pool-side living.
This Covid pandemic has only
felt like 38 years sometimes. It has affected the way we see and experience “normal”.
We wonder whether life will ever be normal again. Many of us feel stuck at the
pool-side of this Covid cesspool. But getting our vaccines is a ray of hope and
possibility; so please, everyone, go get your vaccine when available!
Why wouldn’t you want to be
well?
Dale
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