Do You Want To Be Healed

It takes a moment to realize at times, sometimes it requires a significant moment in our lives to reveal it, but what we attach ourselves to create identity. It can be a variety of things that we derive our identity from… what we do, what we possess, what we value.

Sometimes it is what has happened to us creates an identity. Or maybe that which has been done in our presence defines us.

As a pastor there are times where it is helpful to be identified as a pastor and use the gifting, knowledge, and opportunity for care and comfort in a situation

Nursing home, hospital, emergency scenes

There are times where being a pastor is not helpful because of how someone has been abused by a pastor in the past and there is a lack of trust, so if I want to minister to someone who would be off put by my mentioning of my title, I don’t use it.

In Pakistan, in general when I sense hostility from people towards God or if it wound unnecessarily complicate an interaction.

Then there are times where it can get weird and awkward

Interaction with someone on the plane

Who are you? What is your identity? Is it any different than when you encountered Jesus? What do you derive meaning and worth from? Who do you say that you are? More importantly (that we’ll look at today), who does God say you are?

If you have your Bibles, or on your devices, please turn with me to our text this morning, John 5:1-9a. If you are able, would you stand with me while I read God’s word this morning. Pray. Thank you, be seated.

Where do we find ourselves?

Jesus is at a feast in Jerusalem. John the apostle narrates this for us in verse 1

John the apostle describes for us a very specific place (you can still go to today) where Jesus intentionally goes to, what looks like seeking this person out.

There is a man there that has been there for 38 years. No doubt, people know who he is. Every year that people go up to the Passover feast, or any of the other required feasts, they would see him.

An invalid who was waiting for this particular pool to be stirred by super-natural means… what we understand is that this community of people (blind, lame, and paralyzed) were hovering around this pool because of the widely held belief, when the pool was stirred (probably by natural spring), it was believed an anger stirred it and it had healing properties.

Jesus seeks this man out.

This is noteworthy. Pastor Josh in his TED Talk last week used this quote from our Church History talk.

“When I speak of incarnate marginality, what I mean above is that Christians must acknowledge that our proper place, both as individuals and as the church, is not necessarily at the center… without rejecting the inheritance that we have recieved from so many centuries of official and extra official support by the state and society at large, we must affirm that the proper lace for those who follow Jesus Christ is the margin rather than the center; it is the valley rather than the hilltop; it is the cross rather then the throne.” -Justo Gonzalez, The Changing Shape of Church History, pg. 153

The reason Justo Gonzalez believes Christians should be in the margins is because Jesus goes to the margins to seek out this invalid, who for the last 38 years has been in this place. Along with those who can contribute very little to this society… the blind… the lame… those who are paralyzed).

Maybe it’s at this point you can relate. There is something that is in your life that makes you feel lame, unworthy of love, affection, a pariah to the community around you. You have believed it, and now operate in it. That not only people can’t, won’t, or don’t love you but that you have put that on God.

Be encouraged, church, that Jesus sought this man out. He is seeking you. He is here. He is with you.

We’re not given any information on how this man became lame, only in that it has been 38years. It could have been something that he did to himself. Maybe it was something that others did to him. Or possibly he was in the wrong place at the wrong time and was deeply affected by it.

Jesus’ question is what is important next...

Do you want to be healed?

Jesus asked if he wants to be healed (John 5:6). The interaction is fascinating from an outside perspective… you’d think that in a narrative, if a question is asked, the answer should connect to the question.

Though, as we live life, often the answer doesn’t line up with the question. His response is, John 5:7 “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 going another steps down before me.””

The man offers Jesus an excuse.

Almost as if Jesus is rebuking this man for being lame.

Sadly, when we think of our own pain, shame, and brokenness, there is a temptation to hold onto it and make excuses for it. This is not to shame us further. But the reality is that we know the pain, the infirmity, the things that we’ve done, that has happened to us… those things done in our presence. We understand it, it’s familiar, and healing can actually be scary.

“Like pain of almost any kind, chronic pain diminishes our ability to hope—not simply by making healing or restoration seem like impossibilities, but by becoming an essential part of our identity. We don’t just experience pain and brokenness; we are pained and broken people. As such, it is possible to experience restoration not as a return to wholeness, but as a loss of self.” -Kutter Callaway, Asst Professor of Theology & Culture at Fuller Seminary.

Shame is an identity word. It is a feeling that comes when we’ve done something wrong (sinful), or when something has been done to us, or when sin has been committed in our presence. In each of these instances, shame can come in.

The first time we see shame in the Bible is in Genesis 2 when Adam and Eve are united together and it says that they were naked and not ashamed. The next chapter they partake of the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam and Eve believed they knew better than God in what was right, good, true, and beautiful. In sinning against God, the relationship was broken. Death of relationship was real.

When they took of the fruit the Bible says, Genesis 3:7 “Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.”

God comes into the garden and He calls for them, Genesis 3:8-11 “And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?””

“Who told you that you were naked?” - God

There was no shame, but because of sin, shame entered the world.

I am so grateful for God’s response… “who told you that you were naked?”

Adam and Eve fashioned coverings that were inappropriate and not-helpful… God in His great love, grace, and kindness fashioned clothes for them out of animal skin.

It was there and then that shame and brokenness entered the world. God would cover, care, and lead Adam and Eve even in their brokenness… the promise is that He would come and crush the serpent… his work, his affects, and bring it to nothing.

This is what Jesus is doing in our text and what He is doing among us.

Jesus is our good hope

Jesus speaks to the man and says, “Take up your bed, and walk.” The man is healed.

The man did nothing to deserve it. The man didn’t warrant it. Jesus did it because that is who God is.

Church, what is our identity… who are we? Are we identified by what we have done? Are we getting our identity based on what has happened to us? Are we broken because of something that has happened in our presence, being at the wrong time and at the wrong place?

Do you want to be healed?

Jesus is the great healer. If you have shame covers you, or even those in your life that you love, shame can be toxic… it can lead to self-loathing, pride, or even rage. It destroys relationships and hinders growth.

Shame in a godly sense leads to humility, recognize our limits, and the ability to cry/reach out

Jesus asks, “do we want to be healed?”

There is an inner heart work that God wants to do.

We would be neglectful if we did not recognize that this man had a physical impairment. Maybe that is you.

Maybe God will heal you from your physical pain… or maybe He won’t.

There are people who say that God wants to do whatever you want to have happen. They say this in regards with finances, health, and possessions. If you have just enough faith (SO DANGEROUS). The work that Jesus is doing is making us whole from the inside out… He will first do the greater work in you and allow your circumstance to bring Him glory, you peace, and others hope.

If your infirmity has become your identity… Jesus wants to have you fix your eyes on him… to receive your identity from who He says you are, not what your ailment says you are, or what has happened to you dictating who you are.

You are loved. You are worthy of love. You have a future. You are not alone. You are not worthless, no it is the contrary, God uses the weak things of the world to confound the world! God showed His love to us in this way that He sent His one and only Son, that whoever believes on Him will not perish but have everlasting life.

It may be that God in His wisdom and grace allows a pain or ailment. Paul describing his journey to the church in Corinth said this to them, “I asked the Lord three times about this [thorn in my flesh], that it would depart from me. But he said to me, “My grace is enough for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Cor 12:8–10 NET)

Paul would write later to the church in Rome, “Not only this, but we also rejoice in sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance, character, and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” (Rom 5:3–5 NET)

The love of God has been poured out in our hearts.

This is in fact the point of communion. Why we do it every week. This devotional practice is hope-filled not because it does away with our pain, but because it requires us to bring our hurting bodies to the table in order to become one with the hurting body of Christ. To hope in a Christian mode is to enact and perform our collective suffering as it participates with the One who suffers with the world.

When Jesus says ‘Get up!’ the word is one regularly used in the New Testament to describe the resurrection. Here is part of the inner secret of Jesus’ work. He isn’t trying to use one force within the existing creation to put right something else that’s gone wrong within the same old creation. He is bringing a new life, a new creation. It bursts through into the present world, bringing healing and new possibilities.

“The deeper truth is that . . . Your pain is the concrete way in which you participate in the pain of humanity. . . . Jesus’ suffering, concrete as it was, was the suffering of all humanity. His pain was the pain. . . . Once you discover that you are called to live in solidarity with the hungry, the homeless, the prisoners, the refugees, the sick, and the dying, your very personal pain begins to be converted into the pain and you find new strength to live it. Herein lies the hope of all Christians.” -Henri Nouwen, The Inner Voice of Love: A Journey through Anguish to Freedom . pgs.103–4

Would you stand with me...

If you would like prayer, if you would like someone to pray with you for healing (inwardly or outwardly) there will be people to pray with you. Know that Jesus has come to set you free. To set you up as an instrument of hope, of peace, to receive from Him the depth and abundance of His goodness… All of it!