Spirited Word
By God's Word proclaimed, the Holy Spirit works faith in God's grace in Jesus, when and where he pleases. Sermons by Pastor Adrian Kitson, Lutheran Church of Australia.
St Petri Lutheran Church, Nuriootpa, Barossa Valley, South Australia.
www.stpetri.org.au
Spirited Word
Poolside Mercy
There is a question that seems odd to our ears in the gospel account of Jesus healing a man living with a long-term debilitating disability. This man has been living poolside for 38 years. He has been seeking healing in the intermittent bubbling up of the water at the pool of Bethezda – the ‘house of mercy’. But it does not sound like the place is built on mercy! It sounds more like we are used to – an ‘every person for themselves’, competitive, ‘dog eat dog’ kind of life because no matter how hard he tries, the guy cannot get into that pool when its healing waters bubble up.
But there comes this day when healing will be given by other means – the word of Jesus. And it all begins with this strange question... “Do you want to be healed?”; strange question asked of a man who says he has been trying to find healing for nearly four decades! I wonder what Jesus is seeking from this man. I wonder what he is seeing in this man. I wonder what he is hearing in this man’s heart and what his healing gift really does and means.
Praying that you respond to his heart-question today: “Do you want to be healed?”
Pastor Adrian Kitson