The Sixth Sunday of Easter - May 25, 2025

Summary

Mother Suzanne explores Jesus's encounter with the man who had been ill for 38 years at the pools of Bethesda, focusing on Jesus's direct question: "Do you want to be healed?" She challenges the congregation with this same question, inviting them to release what holds them captive and to receive healing through communion, where ordinary bread and wine become "healing instruments" that strengthen us to go into the world.

THE GOSPEL                                                                                                                                                           John 5:1-9

After Jesus healed the son of the official in Capernaum, there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha, 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. Now that day was a sabbath.

Artwork:  Jesus at the Pool of Bethesda, by Jeff Preston (USA, Contemporary)

Transcript

Mother Suzanne:

May God be merciful to us and bless us, show us the light of his countenance and come to us in the name of the Triune God, father, son, and Holy Spirit. Amen. Please be seated. Well, in this morning's gospel, Jesus has been in a town named Capernaum where he did a lot of teaching, but now he's on his way back to Jerusalem. After traveling nearly 100 miles by foot, Jesus enters Jerusalem and he finds his way to the springs or the pools of beta by what is known as the sheep's gate. This is a place where one time sheep were slaughtered for sacrifice, and then the pools or the springs were used to clean the entrails of the sheep. Now remember, this is when the sacrificial system was fully in place. So what happened was the sheep were herded in through this particular gate. It was a gate of no return for the sacrificial lambs and sheeps.

Once you were in, you weren't going back. So Jesus, he finds himself there and he discovers a place that not only are sheep led through, but when he arrives, he finds many disabled and chronically sick people living there. The sheep gate was the place where those people, the least of these folks that society didn't want, that is where they were abandoned to. The pool or the springs were surrounded by five porticos, which provided some shelter for these chronically sick folk. These destitute and these disabled people weren't there by happen chance or by accident. They were there for a reason. Rumor, legend or tradition held get this, that a heavenly angel would visit the pool at certain times, and when the angel would descend and would come, it would stir up the water, which would then give it healing properties. The first person to step into the pool, it was disturbed by the angel healing.

Well, in the ancient world, springs and pools of water were seen as agents to cure oneself of sickness, and often they were associated with divine miracles. Remember, medicine back then is not what it is today. There were no hospitals, there were no places to receive the kind of medical care that these folks needed. That is precisely the reason why the living springs there at the sheep skate created a space that the most desperate folks in need of a miracle would gather. They would congregate there. So I can't help knowing Jesus, but wonder if in the same way, if Jesus knew that is precisely who he would encounter upon going through the sheep's gate. I wonder if he too felt the desperation, and maybe that's what prompted him to ask this very pointed question to this man away from the springs. And the question he asked this man is, do you want to be healed? No sermon, no small talk. No, let's get to know one another. Jesus just got right to the point. When desperation and exhaustion are felt so strongly, nothing else really matters. We don't have to sermonize instinctively Jesus knew how desperate this man was that he'd been waiting, hoping, and passed over for so, so long.

Remember this man, he's been sick for nearly four decades, 38 years, and when he asks this man, if he wants to be well again, does he want to be made whole? It's interesting. The Greek word used to describe this man was one who was dried out. I chuckled to myself, this man who's described in Greek as the one who was nearly all dried out was right next to living springs of water, but far enough away to be dried out because no one would take him down to the pool just at the right moment. But this notion of being dried out form the basis of this man's answer to Jesus when asked the question if he wanted to be made, well, if you recall, this man doesn't give a resounding yes, I want to be healed. Instead, he begins to explain why he hasn't been healed. He can't get to the water in time after an angel has come and stirred it up.

So in other words, this man answers Jesus's question with excuses. But once he has finished, Jesus doesn't engage the reason why he hasn't been made. Well, Jesus instead cuts straight to the heart of the matter and simply says to this man, stand up. Take your mat and walk. And he did and was healed. So I will ask you all the same question this morning. Do you want to be healed? That's a loaded question. Even for many sitting in this room, do you want to be healed from whatever it is that holds you, that grips you, that causes pain and anguish?

Y'all, this is a question that transcends time, place, wherever you find yourself, man, it is still relevant. Do you want to be healed? This is where gospel really hits home for me. So often we trick ourselves into believing that we have it all together, and then we go about our regular routines doing the same over and over, hoping desperately for different results, but most of the time finding ourselves exactly where we started. So why should I even try? We tell ourselves, but then by choice, by chance, or maybe by grace this morning, we find ourselves gathered together in a holy space for some of us, a space which like the springs at best for that blind man are our own cool springs that provide healing.

And again, we are faced with the question, do you want to be healed? Do you want to be made? Well, Jesus, he makes different what was prescribed in the past. Some of the common fixes for healing back in his day were too weird to even describe this morning. That is not what he is offering. But what we see when we read the gospels again and again is when Jesus encounters folk, they have a need. He notices them, calls the need out, enters into that pain, offers help and provides healing. Healing that will sustain. And in this case, Jesus speaks new life into this man and gives him his life back. That is what Jesus does.

So we too every single week have the privileged of being asked when we move through those red front doors, do you want to be made? Well again, and week in and week out we answer yes, we answer yes. When we make our way to the altar and receive ordinary elements of bread and wine through prayer and consecration that have been made into healing instruments so that when we partake of them, we too are healed. They give us strength to go out into the world and partake of the healing that we need, but also what our world needs.

And that is why we come. We come because we need to be healed by something that only God can give his beloved and only son through his body and his blood. And as you hold your hands up and receive the body, and as you drink his blood, you are saying, yes, I want to be healed. Yes, I need to be healed from our selfishness, our pride, greed, this crazy belief that we as Americans have that we will never have enough Lord Jesus, heal us of that from all of those things that hold us captive and our bodies, our minds, and our spirits. When we offer our hands up, we are saying, yes, I need healing.

And even if you don't believe it, trust that you are being healed. Believe that you are being healed, that the body and blood will strengthen you and will sustain you. And I want to encourage you as you make your way to the altar today, release what needs to be released. Let it go. Whatever you're holding on to, let it go. Let it go and embrace the healing that only Jesus can give. And as you lift your hands to receive the bread in the cup, tell your savior that you need it, and also know that his body and blood will provide you nourishment. And I promise you, it will be the true medicine your heart is longing for. Amen.