Eastertide
May 1, 2016

Scripture Reading: John 5:1-9

Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Bethzatha, which has five porticoes. In these lay many invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, ‘Do you want to be made well?’ The sick man answered him, ‘Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Stand up, take your mat and walk.’ At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk. –John 5:2-9a

Jesus often asked people who approached him, “What do you want?” or “What do you need?” Apparently, with the man in the story today, Jesus approached him and said, “Do you want to be made well?” The man did not answer the question. He indicated that he was not quick enough to take advantage of the healing waters. Others always beat him to it. He was living the life of a victim. Who knows, he may have always lived that way; it was all he knew. How scary would it be to totally change our ways of life, even if they are not the best for us? He may have tried every day to win the race to the stirring waters but never won. Perhaps he was a victim of the injustice of others.

What does it mean to be made well? What does wholeness feel like for any of us? And what would the world look like if all were whole? Part of the Statement of Identify of the faith group with which I identify is: We are Disciples of Christ, a movement for wholeness in a fragmented world. Such a statement of identity forces us to, not just respond to those who come to us for help, but to also look around us to see those who need help and cannot or do not know how to ask for it.

Athletes often say they began to play the sport better when the game slowed down for them enough so they could take in all that was going on about them. Those of us who play on God’s team might want to work toward that state of being.

Prayer: God of Sight and Insight, slow down the game of life for each of your disciples so that we might practice your love in fullness and grace. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized 
Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council 
of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights 
reserved.