The third Sign... part 3...

Okay, so we're waiting for a long time in front of a pool where all the sick are gathered, and we're near the one gate in Jerusalem that symbolically speaks of the Lamb of God, and then He enters.  That seems like more than just coincidence to me, as it should to all who read the Bible with fervor, but we've already covered that point.  We have seen the man, sick for nearly four decades, and we are aware of the "race" to get to the water anytime it is "stirred" in a visible, and presumedly angelic, fashion.  Then this happens...

"When Jesus saw him lying there and knew he had already been there a long time, He said to him, 'Do you want to get well?'"

John 5:6, HCSB

Doesn't that sound like a silly question?  Why would anyone ask a sick person if they want to be well?  Don't all sick people want to be well?  If the means were available to free someone from sickness of any specific kind, wouldn't that ill person make full use?  When you think on it, it is interesting... but then, the larger analogy is one that must be considered, as well.  Didn't all of those people near the pool "want" to be well?

Jesus singles out one man, a man who has been waiting for 38 years and cannot move easily.  He asks the question openly, and receives in reply an explanation of why the man is not well.  All of that is based on the fact that when the water stirs, the man can't make it down to the pool before anyone else.  I don't know about you, but I didn't see Jesus ask why the man wasn't successful in attaining wellness thus far.  I didn't see Jesus request a list of offenders that have raced past this man and beaten him to the pool when the water stirs.  The point here, friend, is that when Christ asks a question with so obvious an answer, the simplicity of it all eludes us.

We'll get to the response the man was given, and the immense significance that has, but not today.  Today, although short, the main focus on this is that the man was asked a direct question... one that he did not answer.  The question of whether or not the man wants healing is so simple, and that is why it escaped him.  A child would have looked up and said,  "YES I DO!" with no issue.  However, as we grow older and "wiser" (please know that I refer only to the wisdom of the world, which serves only to confuse, and not to enlighten), we tend to cloud very simple issues, and then the common answer to simple questions becomes, "Well, it's complicated... you see, the reasons behind this are {fill in random reasons/excuses}, and the way I've approached it is {fill in fleshly approach}, and the results have so far been {fill in less-than-what-you-hoped-for ending}."  All He asked was whether you want to be well... are you going to answer?

God bless you all!!!