I am often amazed at some of the things the Lord said to people in the Bible. Sometimes he doesn't appear to understand a situation and can say some off the wall things.
Or is it that he understands far better than we ever could?
Reading John 5 this morning. This illustrates one of those times.
"Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, "Do you want to get well?" John 5:5-6 (NIV)
Why would Jesus ask him that? The man had been an invalid for 38 years! Isn't it obvious that he wants to get well? Isn't that why he is at the pool?
But notice the man's response.
"Sir," the invalid replied, "I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me." vv7
Jesus asked a very simple question, yet the man does not answer it. He points Jesus to what he sees as the problem. He has been so focused on that pool being the only way God can heal him that he cannot answer a very basic question.
Do you want to get well?
Don't we all do that at times? How many times do we say things like, "Jesus, If only I had more money, if only I had a better job, if only... (fill in the blank)"
Yet underneath those requests are the real issues we are dealing with. And Jesus can see through to those issues, every time.
Jesus never addresses the man's perceived problem. He does not help him into the pool. He simply heals him.
Have we cluttered our minds and our hearts with the only solutions that we can see? Or are we open to simply let Jesus cut right to the heart of the matter and bring us the healing we need?
