April 5, 2011

Read It:
There was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
Now there is in Jerusalem at the Sheep Gate
a pool called in Hebrew Bethesda, with five porticoes.
In these lay a large number of ill, blind, lame, and crippled.
One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years.
When Jesus saw him lying there
and knew that he had been ill for a long time, he said to him,
“Do you want to be well?”
The sick man answered him,
“Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool
when the water is stirred up;
while I am on my way, someone else gets down there before me.”
Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your mat, and walk.”
Immediately the man became well, took up his mat, and walked.

Now that day was a sabbath.
So the Jews said to the man who was cured,
“It is the sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.”
He answered them, “The man who made me well told me,
‘Take up your mat and walk.’“
They asked him,
“Who is the man who told you, ‘Take it up and walk’?”
The man who was healed did not know who it was,
for Jesus had slipped away, since there was a crowd there.
After this Jesus found him in the temple area and said to him,
“Look, you are well; do not sin any more,
so that nothing worse may happen to you.”
The man went and told the Jews
that Jesus was the one who had made him well.
Therefore, the Jews began to persecute Jesus
because he did this on a sabbath.

Reflect on It: Today's gospel is chock full of goodness. I want to focus on the part where Jesus asks the ill man if he wants to be well. Do we truly want to be well? The ill man had tried to get to the pool, but he could not. Once he encounters Christ (the living water), he is healed. Do you want to be well? From brokeness, addiction, heartbreak. The Lord knows we are struggling with so many things. Do we really and truly want to be well? Have we asked the Lord to make us well?

Pray about It! Lord, Make me well! I am broken and need your healing touch to make me well. I believe that you will do this.

Live It! Challenge: Today, help someone who is having a rough day to be made well, by being kind to them.