“Do You Want To Be Made Well

“Do You Want To Be Made Well?”

Text: John 5:1-9

© May 13, 2007 by C. Edward Bowen at Crafton United Presbyterian Church.

Water is something we pretty much take for granted. But without water, we wouldn’t be able to survive. We wouldn’t be able to live. For instance, if the amount of water in your body drops just 1% below what it’s normally supposed to be, you start to feel thirsty. If the amount of water in your body drops 5% below normal, you start to run a fever. At 10% below normal, you aren’t able to walk. And if the amount of water in your body drops just 12% below what it’s normally supposed to be, you can die. (Anyone feel like they need to run out and get a drink?) It’s not something we usually spend too much time thinking about, but we need water to live. It’s not something we usually spend too much time thinking about, but we need water in order to remain healthy and well.

In the reading that we heard today from the Gospel of John, we encounter a man who desperately wanted to be made healthy and well, a man who spent a great deal of time thinking about water. In particular, he spent a great deal of time thinking about the water that was in a certain pool in the city of Jerusalem, a pool that was called the pool of Bethzatha. You see, that man had been ill for 38 years. We aren’t told exactly what his affliction was, but it seems that he was paralyzed or had some other condition that made it difficult for him to be able to move and get around.

So day after day that man was brought and laid on a mat next to that pool of water. He did that because the belief was that from time to time God would send an angel down to stir up the water in the pool, and they believed that whenever that happened, whoever got into the water first would be healed of whatever affliction they had. But day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year went by, and that man was never able to be the first one to get into the water. It seemed that no matter how hard he tried to drag himself into the pool, someone else always get there before him.

But day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year he kept lying there on his mat and thinking: “I can do this. I know that if I just set my mind to it and try hard enough, one of these days I’ll get myself into that pool first and then God will heal me – if I get myself into that pool first, God will have to heal me.” But day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year went by and he found that his plan for healing himself just wasn’t working.

But then one day Jesus passed by that pool. And when Jesus saw that man lying there, he healed him. He didn’t wait for the water in the pool to get stirred up. He didn’t pick the man up and toss him into the water. No, Jesus just healed the man. He looked at him and said, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.” And the next thing you know, the man was healed and he stood up, took his mat, started to walk.

Now notice how this healing story is different from most of the other healing stories in the gospels. In most of the other healing stories, the person asks Jesus to heal them, or the person expresses some kind of faith in Jesus, and then Jesus heals them. But here in this story you have none of that.

Notice: that man lying next to that pool in Jerusalem didn’t ask Jesus to heal him. And at no point in his conversation with Jesus did the man say anything about having faith. At no point in the conversation did the man say anything about believing in God or in Jesus. And after he was healed, the man didn’t even thank Jesus. It turned out that the man didn’t even bother to ask Jesus what his name was, because later on when people asked him who had healed him, the man was forced to admit that he didn’t know.

And so that might lead us to wonder: why would Jesus bother to heal someone like that? After all, that man seemingly didn’t have faith, he didn’t have gratitude. What about that man would have made him deserving of Jesus’ help? What about that man would have made him deserving of Jesus’ healing touch?

But maybe that’s precisely the point that this story wants to make. Jesus doesn’t heal us – Jesus doesn’t save us – because of who we are or what we do or what we’re like. No, Jesus heals us – Jesus saves us – despite who we are, despite what we do, despite what we’re like. That’s what we call grace. Grace is that love and care and mercy that Jesus extends to us, even though we’ve done nothing to deserve that grace.

Now, in theory, most of us here believe in grace. If you ask people what their favorite hymn is, a lot of people will say “Amazing Grace.” But even though we say that we believe in grace, when it comes times to show grace to others in our own lives, we’re not always so sure that grace is such a good thing.

For instance, within days after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, people donated hundreds of millions of dollars to help those who had had their homes and communities destroyed. Within days after the terrorist attacks on September 11, people donated hundreds of millions of dollars to help the families of those who had lost loved ones. Americans donated all that money, in large part, because they believed that those people deserved to be helped.

But what about people who need help, but who don’t necessarily deserve to be helped? What about people who need help, but who need help because of bad choices that they’ve made in their lives – like people who are trying to get back on their feet after dealing with an addiction problem to alcohol or gambling or drugs? In general, charities that try to assist those people are finding that Americans are becoming more and more reluctant to give to those causes.[1]

But time and again in the Bible we are shown that God gives to us – God heals us, God saves us – not because we deserve it. Rather, God gives to us and heals us and saves us out of sheer grace. God gives to us and heals us and saves us regardless of whether we deserve it or not.

That’s why baptism – and most especially infant baptism – is so important for us. Because perhaps more than anything else, infant baptism is a sign that’s set before our eyes to show us what God’s grace is like. It’s a sign that’s set before our eyes to show us that God loves us regardless of whether we deserve it or not. It’s a sign that’s set before our eyes to show us that if we want to be saved, if we want to be healed, if we want to be made well, then we need to take the focus off ourselves and quit trying to figure out what we have to do to make all that happen, and focus instead on God and trust in God’s grace to make it happen.

Consider the parallels between how Jesus saved that ailing man who was lying next to that pool of water from his afflictions and how Jesus saves us as we approach another kind of pool of water in baptism. We are told that that man couldn’t get himself to the water, that he needed someone to carry him to the water. In infant baptism, the child can’t get himself to the baptismal water. No, he has to count on others, his parents, to pick him up and carry him to the water.

That man there in Jerusalem didn’t ask to be healed, he didn’t ask to be saved. In baptism, the child doesn’t ask to be saved – the child can’t even talk yet. That man lying next to that pool didn’t make any statement of faith, who didn’t express any belief in God or in Jesus. Likewise, in baptism, the baby doesn’t utter any profession of faith, the baby doesn’t express what he believes. And that man that we read about in the Gospel didn’t show any sign of thanks, he didn’t speak any words of gratitude. And in the same way, in baptism, the baby doesn’t say “thank you.” No, when the water is placed on the baby’s head, it’s far more likely that the child will scream and cry. Do you see how many parallels there are between what happened to that man there in Jerusalem and what happens to us in baptism?

But there’s yet one more parallel. And that is that even though that man lying next to that pool didn’t deserve to be saved, Jesus saved him away. Jesus showed him grace. And in the same way, when we’re baptized, God is showing grace to us not because we’ve earned it, but as a gift that we don’t deserve, but that God wants to give us anyway.

As we celebrate the sacrament of baptism this morning, in essence we are all being asked the same question that that man was asked long ago: “Do you want to be made well? Do you want to be saved from whatever it is that is keeping you from living the kind of life that God wants you to live?” If you do, then look to Jesus and put your trust in him. Because the good news is that Jesus wants to give us not what we deserve, but what we need. And that’s what we call grace. Amazing, amazing grace.