What Do You Want?

In John 5 Jesus went by the Pool of Bethesda, where supposedly an angel occasionally stirred the water and the first person to enter the pool would be healed. There He encountered a man who had been an invalid for 38 years. Jesus asks him, “Do you wanted to be healed?” Some translations phrase it, “Do you want to get well?” The man responds, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me” (v. 7). I’ve heard this interpreted as the man making excuses and not really desiring healing. This reading makes Jesus’s question almost a rebuke— “Do you really want to get well, or are you just laying around?”

I’ve seen this interpretation enough times that it’s hard not to read the passage with that tone of voice. But I don’t think that’s how we ought to hear it. For one thing, Jesus immediately healed the man, and apparently didn’t heal anyone else at the pool that day. Jesus knew the what was in the hearts of those He met (John 2:25), so He certainly would have known if the man had hidden motives. Besides which, Jesus didn’t make anyone justify their worthiness to be healed, whether they came looking for help or not. None of us are worthy of God’s intervention in our lives.

Instead, I believe Jesus looked at the man with great compassion and His question was intended to let the man give voice to his helplessness and hopelessness. Who among us wouldn’t lose hope after 38 years in bed? Did he shed a tear each time he missed out on getting into the pool, or had he managed to convince himself it wasn’t such a big deal?

If you’ve dealt with any kind of recurring or unremitting suffering, the last thing you need is some kind of guilt trip like “If you really wanted to be well, you’d find a way” or “If you had enough faith you’d be healed.” That is one of the lies of the prosperity gospel and groups like the Christian Scientists. In contrast, J. C. Ryle wrote:

“Affliction is one of God’s medicines. By it He often teaches lessons which would be learned in no other way. By it He often draws souls away from sin and the world, which would otherwise have perished everlastingly. Health is a great blessing, but sanctified disease is a greater. Prosperity and worldly comfort are what all naturally desire; but losses and crosses are far better for us, if they lead us to Christ. Thousands at the last day, will testify with David, and the nobleman before us, ‘It is good for me that I have been afflicted.’ (Psalms 119:71).”

If we are completely comfortable and content with this life, we are likely not longing for the new life to come. And if we are not eagerly awaiting the blessed hope of Jesus’s return, we probably aren’t focused on living as citizens of His kingdom or sharing the good news that this world is not the goal or end of the story. Affliction can remind us where our priorities ought to be. A few decades of suffering might seem interminable now, but one day we’ll look back and realize that was nothing compared to the “surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord” (Phil. 3:8).

“For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal” (2 Cor. 4:17-18).

© 2024 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture are ESV and all images copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

Lessons from Affliction

This morning I listened to three podcast by Alistair Begg on the faithfulness of God (www.truthforlife.org broadcasts for August 19-21, 2014). In the second half of “God’s Faithfulness in Affliction,” he presents ten purposes of God in allowing us to go through affliction, which I thought were well worth sharing:

1. To develop perseverance (James 1:3)
2. To manifest His faithfulness in bringing us to maturity (Hebrews 5:8-9, James 1:4)
3. To assure us of our sonship (Romans 8:17, Hebrews 12:6)
4. To prove the genuine nature of our faith (Deuteronomy 8:1-2, 1 Peter 1:7)
5. To develop humility (2 Corinthians 12:7)
6. To keep us on track (Psalm 119:67, Proverbs 3:11)
7. To deepen our insight into the heart of God (Hosea)
8. To enable us to help others in trials (2 Corinthians 1:4)
9. To reveal what we really love (Deuteronomy 13:3, Luke 14:26)
10. To display God’s glory (Genesis 50:20)

In the broadcast from August 19 on Lamentations 3:1-24, he makes the comment that “the absence of lament in contemporary evangelical Christianity is arguably one of the things that presents to the watching world a substantial sense of a Christianity that is not actually authentic.” If all that the world sees are happy, put-together, on-top-of-the world Christians, they wonder how it can possibly be real. Such a picture can alienate seekers (or even Christians) who feel they can never fit that image. But if they see people who suffer and struggle and lament and yet hold onto their faith, they may be drawn in by wondering where that perseverance comes from.

I recently read A Sacred Sorrow: Reaching Out to God in the Lost Language of Lament, by Michael Card, who urges honesty with God, ourselves, and others in praying and saying what we truly feel. He uses the words of Job, Psalms, and Lamentations as models for our own prayers and living.

It seems to me that songs such as “Come As You Are” by Crowder stir in us an awareness that it’s okay to be broken and wounded. God doesn’t expect us to get our act together before we come to Him, but sometimes the church seems to have higher standards. The unspoken rules create walls instead of bridges: dress nicely, keep smiling, hide your problems, and never under any circumstances admit your sins, temptations, or struggles. Whether we admit it or not, we are proud people and we don’t want to give anyone reason to think less of us. I wonder how many souls have missed salvation because of the fear of going up to the altar?

I hadn’t thought of it before, but one application of Philippians 2:3 (NIV), “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves,” could be that the humility that allows us to be honest before others opens doors for them to be honest as well. And verse 4 doesn’t tell us to neglect our own needs, but implies that we are all better served by looking out for one another. Pride leads to contempt, but humility leads to honesty, openness, and healing.

Looking back over the ten purposes of affliction, I recognize some of the lessons I’ve been learning. One of the comments made by Joni Eareckson Tada in When God Weeps was that those who don’t have to endure suffering have a harder time learning some of these valuable lessons. Holding onto faith isn’t too hard when everything is going well, and easy living can give way to apathy. May we take courage to share in Christ’s sufferings (2 Corinthians 1:5), but also to know that He shares in ours (Hebrews 4:14-16)!

“Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience… And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony” (Colossians 3:12, 14 ESV).