Moments to Ponder

Episode 124: A Journey from Stuckness to Transformation (John 5:1-13)

• Betsy Marvin • Season 15 • Episode 124

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Ever found yourself endlessly waiting for life to change, only to realize you're tangled in a web of your own expectations? Join me as we reflect on the powerful story from John, chapter five, where Jesus heals a man who had been ill for 38 long years, without needing to be told his struggles. This episode is an invitation for anyone who feels stuck to break free from self-imposed limitations and consider the broader horizons God offers beyond what we can imagine. As we ponder the loaded question Jesus asked, "Would you like to get well?", we find parallels in our own lives and consider how faith can expand our vision beyond the familiar.

Are you fixated on a metaphorical pool, believing it's your only path to progress or healing? In our conversation, we unravel the story of the paralyzed man who found healing through faith in Jesus, not through external aids. This serves as a reminder to look towards Jesus for strength and purpose, encouraging us to stand up and move forward with renewed hope. Betsy challenges listeners to identify their own "pools" and redirect their focus on the transformative power of faith, urging them to trust in Jesus's words and carry their burdens with a fresh perspective. Through these stories, we emphasize the significance of stepping into new life with Jesus, offering a heartfelt invitation to embrace change and seek true healing.

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Speaker 1:

Hi friends, welcome to Moments to Ponder. This is a podcast designed to help you spend a few moments in God's Word, gain fresh perspectives and find meaningful takeaways to ponder throughout your week. I'm Betsy Marvin and this is episode 124. There are so many things we wait for To pay for our groceries, to get into a show or to get results from tests. There are all different kinds of waiting and each one brings different feelings. Sometimes it's frustration, other times it's anxiousness, and sometimes it's actually anticipation. In this section of scripture for today, it speaks to a unique kind of waiting the waiting for life to happen. After connecting with the woman at the well and spending some extra time in Samaria, jesus heads to Galilee and as he passes through Cana, he is met by a government official seeking healing for his son. Jesus speaks a word and the man's son is healed at that exact moment.

Speaker 1:

That's the end of chapter four, which moves us into John, chapter five, where we find a story that, honestly, has been sticking with me for a while. I heard some teaching on it that really made me go whoa, god's hitting me between the eyes with this one. It was a perspective I hadn't thought about. I love how the Bible does that, a story that you may have heard of over and over, and it becomes fresh, as you see it, with some new insights or a new life experience. So here's the story.

Speaker 1:

Afterward, jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holy days. Inside the city, near the Sheep Gate, was the pool of Bethsaida with five covered porches. Crowds of sick people, blind, lame or paralyzed, lay on the porches. We aren't sure which holy day it is that Jesus has returned to Jerusalem for, whether it's Pentecost, purim or Feast of the Tabernacles, and we could unpack the whole metaphor of the good shepherd passing by the sheep gate as he comes upon this pool. But let's move on to something different. Imagine crowds of sick people blind, lame, paralyzed all lying under the porch covering to be out of the sun, and they're all focused on the water. They watch it closely.

Speaker 1:

If you were reading these verses in your Bible right now, you would notice that verse 4 is actually missing. It is believed that the end of verse 3 through verse 4 were added later to bring definition as to why they're all waiting there. So this verse has been left out in translations, but in your footnotes you would see that what was added was just clarification. The crowds were waiting for a certain movement of the water, for an angel of the Lord came from time to time and stirred up the water, and the first person to step in after the water was stirred was healed of whatever disease he or she had, and it's into this space that Jesus enters.

Speaker 1:

We continue with verse 5. One of the men lying there had been sick for 38 years. When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, he asked him Would you like to get well? I can't, sir. The sick man said, for I have no one to put me into the pool when the waters bubble up. Someone else always gets there ahead of me. Jesus told him. So the Jewish leaders objected. They said to the man who was cured you can't work on the Sabbath. The law doesn't allow you to carry that sleeping mat. But he replied, the man who healed me told me Pick up your mat and walked. Who said such a thing? They demanded. The man didn't know, for Jesus had disappeared into the crowd. But afterward Jesus found him in the temple and told him Now you are well, so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you. Then the man went and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had healed him.

Speaker 1:

This story begins with Jesus saw him and knew. Right away. We see that Jesus knew this man and his story, without a word being spoken. Jesus knew this man fully, just like he knows you and I. He knows what we're going through, what we're waiting for and what we need, just as he did this man. So he asked this man would you like to get well? It seems so straightforward, we think. Of course the man wants to get well, but it's actually a loaded question. This man made his living begging and it was probably pretty decent, as he'd made it 38 years this way and as bad as his situation is, he was familiar with it. Sometimes familiar overrules change Right away. The man answers I can't, meaning I can't be healed, and this doesn't really answer the question. Jesus asked does it? But the man had his own idea about how healing was supposed to happen. You have to get to the water and, interestingly enough, this was his own way of limiting what God could do. He didn't conceive that Jesus was coming to heal him and, interestingly enough, this was his own way of limiting what God could do. He didn't conceive that Jesus was coming to heal him, but he wasn't looking for it either. So he says I can't, for I have no one to help me. There is someone who always gets there ahead of me.

Speaker 1:

I work with young adults and in the past couple weeks more than a couple of them have brought up where they wish they were in life. They wish they owned a home or were married, or out of their parents' house at least. They feel stuck stuck in at least one area, if not more, of their lives. They do a lot of comparison and in many ways they're waiting for the stirring of the water. They want that magic bullet, something to shine. It glows, so they could see that this is the right relationship or this would grow their savings account, and some of them even want a trusted circle of friends to just appear, for God to just put that in their lap. But that's not how it works, is it? I mean, have you ever felt that way, like life isn't quite where you thought it would be, at whatever age you are? Or you think that what you need is only going to happen if you have help and no one's stepping up to be that? Spurgeon, in his commentary, notes how foolish this kind of waiting is, instead of looking to Jesus, the crowds are just staring at the water. They're looking at the pool, which they think is the answer, when, honestly, the answer isn't found in the water at all. It's found in the one who's standing right in front of them.

Speaker 1:

As I thought about this, I thought about those that I actually know that are well waiting for a more convenient season, like when my kids get older. They're waiting for dreams to come true, thinking well, if only this would happen. Some are waiting to be compelled, like waiting for that gust of something that moves them forward or ignites them. Some are waiting to be discovered, others are waiting for revival, and still others are waiting for certain feelings to appear. How many times do we think that we have to wait until later in life for something? We look at one thing and we think it's the only way we're ever going to get moving forward in our lives, when in reality, jesus may have something else in store altogether.

Speaker 1:

Now, I do realize that there is some waiting. We can't help Waiting for physical healing, waiting for medications to work, waiting for an arrival of some little one, but when Jesus asks do you want to be healed? He was actually asking this man and in a sense, asking you and I are you ready for a completely different life? Are you ready to carry your own mat? Will you put your faith in me? Basically in Jesus' question, he's saying are you willing to do what is needed to get unstuck? To do what is needed to get unstuck For this man who was in a stuck situation. For him to be unstuck, he needed to act on faith. And then Jesus didn't even bring him to the pool, he just skipped the water altogether and went straight for stand up and get to it.

Speaker 1:

I can think of quite a few things I've wanted to happen and, to be honest, I've waited for someone to either help me or just give it to me, instead of seeking Jesus and moving forward with his help. I realized through this passage that the waiting for someone else to make it happen is just an excuse. It's easier to blame being stuck on the fact that no one helped me than to admit that I'm afraid to do it by myself. When we wait around, thinking someone else needs to help us, someone else needs to get us to what we want for our lives, we're missing the fact that Jesus is right here, right in front of us saying just get up, walk and take your mat while you're at it. It might look like being willing to hear hard things about why relationships aren't taking hold in your life or create a true savings plan with a budget to get to that down payment. It might mean putting down your phone and picking up your Bible. Or stepping out of safe but stuck into risky but moving.

Speaker 1:

And that mat. For the man at the pool, the mat represented where he had placed his life. It's where he lived and Jesus tells him pick it up, meaning your life is about to change and there isn't going to be any going back. For me, this meant stop looking at the pool. The pool isn't the answer. Through this passage, I felt God telling me pick up your mat, stop waiting and let's go. It meant picking up my plans, my mat, and allowing Jesus to reshape them and reimagine them. Interestingly enough, as I stood and let go of the pool, I thought was the answer to my stuckness, he brought people into my life that did help, but I'm the one who had to stand and pick up my mat.

Speaker 1:

When we first discover Christ, he offers us new life, which is reflected in how we live our lives, and we can't go back to what we've always done, even though it's tempting. We like staying with the familiar. No, we have to pick up and move forward, walking in our new belief. And as we grow in Christ, stuck places will still come. That habit we can't seem to let go of the life plan we think is the only right one. And in those stuck times, in those moments where we feel we are not moving, we have to allow Jesus to turn our faces from the pool, the pool of our own plans, toward him. And then be ready. Not everyone will be happy with the changes in you.

Speaker 1:

Jewish leaders didn't even celebrate that a paralyzed man was walking. They didn't even see the miracle. Instead, they focused on what the rules. Why did they do that? Well, maybe it's out of fear that miracles were happening they couldn't explain. Maybe they had put God in a box and they couldn't see past what they thought God should be able to do. Fear and competition, pride and arrogance any and all of these can cause others who you would think would celebrate your becoming unstuck in life. It can cause them to push back with doubt and to question you on your choices and your faith when the leaders ask who said such a thing as that. I mean, isn't it wild to think the man didn't know, for Jesus had disappeared into a crowd? He didn't even know Jesus, but he trusted him and stood.

Speaker 1:

Sometimes we're waiting because we think we need to have a stronger or deeper faith before we move forward, that we aren't ready for whatever we feel God is calling us to. But when we look at this man, he didn't even know Jesus's name Yet. He trusted him and believed his words and stood. Then there's this moment later when Jesus finds this man in the temple and he says to him now you are well, so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you. Then the man went and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had healed him. I love that Jesus circles around to this man because he wasn't done. Yes, jesus had physically healed him, but he had more for him. So he says stop sinning.

Speaker 1:

I wonder if this was a moment of realization for this man that there was more, a moment of spiritual forgiveness, that although the man had been healed physically, he needed spiritual healing and Jesus was offering that. Yes, he could walk, but a life without Christ's forgiveness would be worse than staying paralyzed. Think about that. A life without Christ's forgiveness and love would be worse than being paralyzed. It's hard for me to fathom that, as I'm not a paralyzed person, but when I think of the things that have paralyzed me, I have to admit that I'm convicted that I let them overrule the wonder of what Christ has done spiritually.

Speaker 1:

So what about you? Have you felt paralyzed by life? Have you been waiting for someone or something to come and help move you forward? Dear one, you don't need to be stuck paralyzed by life, waiting for something or someone to help you move forward. Although it might sound too simple, all you really need is Jesus. His direction, his forgiveness, his love are the best place to start. Then we just need to answer his question Do you want to be healed?

Speaker 1:

When Jesus spoke, the man was healed. The man was right when he said I can't, sir, because by himself he couldn't. He needed Jesus to do the healing. We can't get unstuck alone either, and it's not through another person or a thing. It's through the only one that can cause it all to happen. And he says all we have to do is believe and stand. Dear one, turn your eyes from the pool, look to him and hear his words. Stand, pick up your mat and walk. Pull on his strength, believe in his direction and follow. The paralyzed man didn't need the water, he didn't need someone to help him, he just needed Jesus, and in him that man found not only healing but forgiveness and new life. Is there a pool you've been watching? Is there a pool you've been watching? Is there a place where you've been hoping to go but feel blocked from getting there? Have you become so focused on it that you're missing Jesus right in front of you, saying let's go and take that mat with you. You won't be back, amen.