John 5:1-9; May 25, 2025; Sixth Sunday of Easter
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John 5:1-9, in my opinion, is placed in one of the most gut-wrenching settings in all of scripture.
An unnamed man simply called an “invalid,” is seen waiting by a pool for thirty-eight years – 38 years! – for the chance, the lottery, to be healed.
And make no mistake, it was a lottery.
For we learn in verse 4 (which sometimes is omitted in our translations due it to being a later addition; the earliest manuscripts in the Biblical record don’t include it), that sick people would come to this pool in Bethesda and wait for an Angel of the Lord to stir the water. And, that the first one into the water would be the only one cured.
Which, stands in stark opposition to Jesus’ mission statement of the first shall be last and the last shall be first…
And, for 38-long years this unnamed man waited to be first. And every single year, as we discover in verse 7, everyone kept line-jumping ahead of him.
Ever deal with line-jumpers? On a ride, or in a store? They’re the worst, right? Absolutely.
And so, you can imagine his frustration — his despair – as he kept being neglected, relegated to the very last in line.
And, making matters worse, in this the 38th long year of his waiting, a man whom he’s never even seen before shows up and asks him the most annoyingly obvious question of all… “do you want to get well?” (verse 6).
Do I want to get well? …what the …heck… do you think I’ve been laying here for?
On the surface, Jesus’ question is so on the nose that it’s almost insulting. I mean, it’s puzzling, right? The guy who seemingly knows everything somehow doesn’t know that this man actually wants some help to get well?
Like, what???
And so, unfortunately, this has led some interpreters to, in my opinion, misread the text and assume that this man didn’t want to be healed, and was therefore, lazy.
Arguing that: 38 years is quite a long time just to get into a pool… he must have lacked motivation or something; looking for a handout and someone else to do it for him.
And you can see – right? — how this sort of judgment plays out in our world today in questions like: why does so and so need Medicaid? And, why do those people need food stamps? Have they even tried to work? Have they even tried to get a job? Oh… they have a disability? Well, who doesn’t – they should pick themselves up by their bootstraps and stop being so lazy!
You’ve heard this. You’ve read it. And perhaps, even thought it. But, of course, it’s rarely laziness, my friends. And you know that. But instead, a whole host of past and present issues that can manifest as societal paralysis.
And verse 3 in our text tells us that this man was amongst those who were: “lame, sick, and paralyzed.” Lame, sick, and paralyzed.
Raymound Brown, famed historian, theologian, and pastor, surmises that this man was suffering, at the very least, from atrophied limbs lacking all strength to move.
Ever been in that situation yourself? Or known someone like that? Just getting out of bed is difficult, let alone walking or having the stability to push ahead of others who are racing to get ahead of you.
“Do you want to be made well?” Of course he did. But it just wasn’t that simple. Because it never is.
Especially as this man’s body… his community and society… had no interest in letting him, in helping him out.
In my previous church, a colleague of mine once told me about when she accompanied a man to our local VA here in our city.
And that when they got there, he introduced her to a couple of his friends, servicemen; and that when they learned that she was a minister, one of them, whose name she couldn’t catch, told her that the hardest thing was feeling like everyone else had forgot them, the Church included. That they had fought (and died) for an ideal that apparently not every American shared. And that for it all, atrophied and severed limbs later, they felt like they were just patted on the back, as everyone around them took giant steps ahead of them in the “game of life” — as he called it.
“What about me? What about us?” This unnamed man asked her. “We’ve been here waiting to be seen, to be noticed … please, can you all just stop f’ing neglecting us!”
Please, stop neglecting us.
Ultimately, it’s not the water, my friends, the pool that makes the man well in our Johannine story today (for if you read it closely, you’ll realize that he never gets in), but it’s the word and presence of Jesus himself. His seeing, his noticing, his stopping and speaking to this man that no one else wanted to, that no one else cared for.
Where others would keep stepping over and in front of him, Jesus instead encourages him to stand, so that they would be made level. Seeing each other eye-to-eye.
And what’s more… just verses later (in v.14), when lost again in a crowd, Jesus again finds him and makes sure that this man knows his name. For it’s at Jesus’ name, and by his ways, that healing can be made complete. For this man. Indeed, for all of us. Amen? Amen!
But, as seemingly amazing and miraculous as that is, you must also know today that it won’t always be that simple. Because it never is.
Just saying and knowing of the name of Jesus won’t always bring you or your loved ones immediate healing, at least in this life. I wish that it did… Lord knows that I’ve tried… in prayers for Chip, and in prayers previously for Dennis, for Nancy, and so many others… may they be at complete healing now…
Some of us, my friends, seemingly no matter what, are going to be left somewhere by a pool down here — for 38 years or months, 38 lonely weeks or days – and be made to feel like everyone around us just keeps passing us by, line-jumping ahead of us.
But this text assures us that even if that happens, that even if that is happening right now to you in your life… that Jesus sees you, and spots where you are, and is leaning over asking you, do you want to be made well?
And if you today say “yes” to that question, he says, then try to get off your mat, take it up, and follow me.
Leaving frustration and despair behind, and using your hands and feet, or even just your eyes and words – your testimony — to help bring hope and awareness to all those who are still out there feeling as limbless and helpless.
For in so doing, you not only take care of them, but you also take care of Him.
And in return, we as a body – community and society – are moved up to the first in line and can begin to heal.
Thanks be to God.
Amen.
