Freedom to Heal

John 5:1-9, NRSVue

1 After this there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2 Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha, which has five porticoes. 3 In these lay many ill, blind, lame, and paralyzed people. 5 One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. 6 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?” 7 The ill 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.” 8 Jesus said to him, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.” 9 At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk. Now that day was a Sabbath.

Intro

This morning, we continue our worship series, The Cup of Freedom. Throughout the Easter Season, we will explore how the resurrection of our Lord calls us to respond by moving into a culture of freedom as the cross liberates us. This Easter season, we will explore how we are freed to step into Christ’s resurrection and live as resurrection people. We will dive deeper into how we accept the freedom and power God gives us to live as Easter people. On Easter Sunday, we began as we explored our freedom to move forward, to encounter God where we are and share God’s love with all we encounter, for God’s story continues to unfold all around us. Next, we explored our Freedom to Follow as we named both our differing ways of getting there and our freedom to let go of our failures and shortcomings as we follow after Jesus. Last week, we explored our freedom to rise again and found that we must lay aside our preferences, understandings, plans, and judgment. We must lay aside how we have always done things and, at times, even our Biblical interpretation, as we trust God to raise us to new life in Jesus Christ. This week, we continue as we explore our freedom to heal.

This morning's text starts with a startling question from Jesus: “Do you want to be made well?” Some see this question as harsh, or maybe it confirms our biases towards those who cannot care for themselves. They view this question from Jesus as an accusation that this man is not trying hard enough. Yet, this question from Jesus is not meant to be rude but to spur a moment of self-reflection. Do you really want this? It will change you. Do you really want to be made well? Because, after 38 years, it might be more comfortable to live life the way you know how. It will spur on different hardships like reintegrating back into society or finding gainful employment. Forming a new identity can be hard, as you have to learn your strengths and weaknesses. All of these things will come with new challenges. 

I often think God asks us the same questions. We tell Jesus that we want to grow, we want to do new ministry, we want this or that….but Jesus might be looking at us, going Do you really want me to shake things up? Growth comes with growing pains. You and I will be forced to look at how we do ministry and really question whether or not this portrays the transforming power of God. We will be asked to examine things and question why we do things the way that we do. We might even have to confront the fact that what we have always done is not going to work anymore, and moving forward, finding healing, revisioning, is hard work. Learning to move again is going to take work. It might be more comfortable just to stay as we are.

One commentary notes, “When Jesus reaches out for us with the question about being 'made well,' our responses are not automatic. We realize that if we receive this gift, our institutional lives and personal lives can be greatly altered. Do we want to be made well?”

Interestingly, his answer on the surface indicates that the man had not put much thought behind his answer. “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.” However, his words speak to the powers that have kept him from being healed. He tells Jesus that he longs to be healed, that the church and the world have put stumbling blocks in the way that prevent him from being healed. He has been invalidated and rejected by the world time and time again, and, when that happens often enough, when we hear it enough, we begin to believe it. Maybe I am worthless, maybe I am invalid, maybe I am not worthy of healing. Maybe this is the best that it's ever going to be.

Another commentary notes “After thirty-eight years of this, he has perhaps come to accept this dehumanizing view of himself, that his primary definition is not “child of God” but rather “invalid.” He has internalized society’s view of himself, and he no longer sees any possibility of becoming a “valid” person except through a miracle, which always seems beyond his reach.”

If we are honest with ourselves, our response, like that of the man, is rooted in the deep anxiety that we feel inside. We aren’t sure how to answer Jesus's question this morning because we aren’t sure how we feel about ourselves. We desire to belong, to feel connected, to let go of our past, and to find acceptance in our present. We know we want to be made well in all matters, but we do not feel worthy.

Instead, we spend our lives searching for worthiness. And yet, this is not what God intends for our lives. As one theologian frames it, “We spend much of our time and energy in a search for things that will make us feel valid and feel accepted. Some of us attach ourselves to money, some to racial classification, some to gender; this litany of attachments seems endless. This passage in John suggests a different approach: to turn our anxiety over to God. Jesus comes to this man not when the man has faith in him. This man does not even know who Jesus is and indeed cannot identify him after the healing. This is not a heroic story about the power of faith. He does not joust with Jesus, as does the Syro-Phoenician woman in the story about the crumbs from the table. He does not demonstrate deep faith like the woman with the flow of blood, who just wants to touch the hem of his garment. This story suggests that God is coming to us, just as the prologue to John puts it: ‘the Word became flesh and lived among us.’”

Yet if God is coming to us, if God sent his own Son into the world to take on flesh and live among us, why aren’t more being healed? Why does the man not make his way into the pool? The truth we must confront is the blockers and stumbling blocks in our lives. When Jesus asks the man in our text if he wants to be healed, the man engages in honest dialogue about what has blocked 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.” No one would help the man. Others stepped ahead of him, blocking him from receiving healing. 

If we are honest with ourselves, there have been times in our lives when we have let things stand in the way of a genuine relationship with our healing God. Other times, we have stood in the way of others receiving healing. At the same time, we must acknowledge the ways in which the church has blocked individuals from receiving healing. And if we are even more honest with ourselves, we must acknowledge the ways in which the church has not received the healing it needs because we refuse to acknowledge new ways of being in the world around us. 

In a world where we allow so many other powers to define us, where the gap between the “valid” and “invalid” grows wider and wider by every passing day…this story reminds us that God is the one who makes of valid, God is the one who brings about healing, God is the one who brings about growth in the life of the church. The growth that God longs to bring about is hindered by our self-reliance, and individualism…it is hinder by the belief that God’s healing powers are confined to rules and boundaries. Let’s be clear here, our healing, our moving forward as a church, our growth does not begin with “having faith.” Jesus heals the man in the absence of faith.

It is found in the fact that God in Jesus Christ comes and breaks through the barriers. One commentary notes “A cure is a one-time event undertaken by an expert; healing is a negotiation that involves a story. Cure means immediate removal of the condition; healing is a movement toward wholeness that involves psychological dynamics such as acceptance, negotiation, and trust. In an encounter with Jesus, healing is deepened in conversation.”

Healing is a process by which we stop letting past mistakes and the world's labels define us. It is letting someone reach across those barriers that have held us captive. It is recognizing that we need help, acceptance, and hope. It is an ongoing journey where we strive to accept the love of Christ made known in others and then live out the perfect love of Christ …not for the sake of survival, not with some expectation, but purely out of a sense of who God calls us to be. 

Why are churches across America dying? Why are we not finding healing? It is because we have lost the vision of Jesus Christ. We have lost the vision to go out and make disciples. We have lost the vision to say it doesn’t matter who you are, it doesn't matter what you have done, you are loved and valued. In Jesus Christ, the barriers to healing are removed. It doesn’t mean we will be healed in the way that we expect. In our text, the man expected Jesus to take him to the pool. Yet Jesus simply tells him to stand up, take his mat, and walk. It doesn’t mean that our church will suddenly see revival tomorrow. It does mean that we keep going to the pool, striving for God’s vision, and working to remove the barriers between others and Jesus. It means we keep setting aside our failures and shortcomings. We lay down our feelings of inadequacy and unworthiness. We must come together as the body of Christ and seek God’s vision anew. For it is only by being grounded in God’s vision that we might find healing.

This is hard work. It is humble work. It is not my work. It is not the work of a committee or group. It is not the work of the leadership team. It is not the work of the staff. It takes all of us, every one of us gathered in this room, and every person worshipping online. We must all come together to live out God’s vision for our lives as individuals and for this church. For in living out this vision, in embracing God’s call on our lives, in truly submitting ourselves to God’s ways, we might finally let all of our walls down, reject the world’s nos and receive God’s yes. Healing will come. It might not be in our timing. It might not be in the way we expect. It might not even be in this lifetime, but God’s healing will come in our lives.

May we be a people of faith, trusting that God has come, is coming, and will continue to come. May we remove the stumbling blocks in our lives and cease to be stumbling blocks and barriers to others. May we continually seek God’s vision that we might find the freedom to heal and find wholeness in Jesus Christ. 

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.