Wilt Thou Be Made Whole?

The Story

In Jerusalem, near the Sheep Gate, there was a pool called Bethesda, surrounded by five covered porches. Crowds of sick people lay there: the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. They waited for the water to stir, believing that the first one into the pool afterward would be healed.

One man had been sick for thirty-eight years.

Jesus saw him lying there, and He knew how long he had been that way. He asked a strange question: “Wilt thou be made whole?”

Of course he wanted to be healed, didn’t he? But the man didn’t say yes. He gave an explanation. “Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me.”

He had no one to help him. Every time he tried, someone else got there first. Thirty-eight years of almost.

Jesus didn’t carry him to the water. He said, “Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.”

Immediately the man was made whole. He picked up his mat and walked.

Reflection