Do you want to be made well?

Afterward Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holy days. Inside the city, near the Sheep Gate, was the pool of Bethesda, with five covered porches. Crowds of sick people—blind, lame, or paralyzed—lay on the porches. 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?” “I can’t, sir,” the sick man said, “for I have no one to put me into the pool when the water bubbles up. Someone else always gets there ahead of me.” Jesus told him, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!” Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up his sleeping mat and began walking! – John 5:1-9

There are so many key points within this Scripture. First, we read how a pool called Bethesda had porches full of people in need of healing. The special part about this pool was that when an angel came at the appointed time to stir up the pool, it became a supernatural place for someone (the first one in the water) to be made well.

Can you imagine being sick and rushing in to be the first? Thinking maybe today would be the day that you would beat the others and instantly receive the miracle you’ve been waiting for your whole life.

The Scripture doesn’t tell us who made it in first that day because it shifts to our ultimate Healer who saw a man with an infirmity lying there desiring for someone to help him in the water – someone who would think enough of him to allow him to receive the miracle without ever touching the pool.

But Jesus saw him.

What I love about this story is how Jesus proved Himself to be Lord over any situation. He showed how the restrictions of the pool didn’t matter once He was there. He is the Creator of all. Lord of all. He is a healer.

I wonder what it felt like for the others to watch this man who had suffered thirty-eight years pick up his mat and walk. Did their perspective shift beyond the pool to see Jesus as a healer?

This story is a sweet reminder of how things can change instantly when in the presence of Jesus. Whatever you are faced with today, you can confidently take it to the One with all the answers. He desires to heal you. He desires to provide for you. He desires to assist you and meet you at your place of need. But it is up to us to muster up the faith to believe that He can and will for us, no matter what it looks like.