" Wholeness from Change."

In the alternative gospel reading for this week, John 5:1-9 we are faced with some very important questions that go to the depths of our existence. The reading first asks, “Why do you keep coming here?” If someone began worship with that question, how would you answer? A casual passer-by in Jerusalem could have asked the lame man the same question. For years, he came religiously to the pool at Bethesda. Myth held that the first one in the pool after the waters moved would be healed. Variants of this text assert that an angel stirred the water. What good could come from belief in what may have been corrupt myth?

Enslaved Africans, forbidden to read, created their own patchwork theology from bits of the gospel stories. After hearing parts of Exodus 14 and John 5, they sang: Wade in the water Wade in the water, children Wade in the water God’s gonna trouble the water. The lame man and the enslaved Africans built faith around what some would describe as faulty theology; yet, their faith persisted. The lame man had no one to help him into the pool, yet he continued to come.

Something in the man caused Jesus to pause. When asked if he wanted to be healed, the lame man did what we might have done. He described his frustration with his presupposition about how healing works. “Sir, you don’t understand. I think I know how this works, yet I have no help. I’ll never be first in the water— but, for some reason, I keep coming back.” Jesus did not argue against the rightness of the man’s thinking. Instead, he commands the man to rise, take his mat and walk. The man does just that and walks away. Later in the passage, Jews questioned the “rightness” of Jesus’ Sabbath practices, while the once-lame man walked, healed.

Yet the question hangs there. “Do you want to be made well?” It’s actually an excellent question. Do you want your circumstances to change? Do you actively desire change? Are you willing to participate in a change? Are you prepared for how hard this might be? People struggle with addiction. They wrestle with illnesses that may have resulted from smoking, alcoholism, or overeating. Some experience failed relationships because of personal decisions. Frequently, the community assumes that they don’t want to be well. If they did, truly, want to be well, they would do something differently.

It’s not always that simple. It’s rarely that simple. Becoming well, being well, staying well . . . for many the change required is difficult to conceive, much less maintain. It requires effort. A minute by minute process— not weekly, daily, or hourly— but minute to minute awareness. In healing this man, Jesus makes a significant change. That change will bring the man into a new relationship with God, a relationship that will come with wholeness, renewal, and community. Surely that’s worth it. We think so. We say so. Yet, in our hearts, we know when we haven’t wanted to change. We know making changes is hard: in ourselves, in our families, as a congregation, as a community.

Becoming well means a shift in how we see those around us and ourselves. It may mean altering some of our “rules” or ways of being and doing. This is the question that we live with— minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day. It is the question for the larger world and for the world within ourselves. God has revealed a desire for healing, relationship, hope, and forgiveness. How much do we want to be made well?