John 5:1-9
Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. Now there is in Jerusalem
near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five
covered colonnades. Here a great number
of disabled people used to lie — the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for
thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him
lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he
asked him, "Do you want to get well?"
"Sir," the invalid replied, "I have no
one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to
get in, someone else goes down ahead of me."
Then Jesus said to him, "Get up! Pick up your
mat and walk." At once the man was
cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
NIV
George Wallace
was a bitter man. He was lonely. He was angry.
He was filled with hate.
He became
governor of Alabama
in November, 1962, at a time when Blacks and Whites were forced to go to
separate and segregated schools.
Restaurants were segregated. Even
water fountains and restrooms were segregated for Blacks and Whites.
At his inauguration, he proclaimed,
“I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.”
As governor,
he pardoned Klansmen who had been arrested, tried and convicted of torturing
Black men.[1]
Hatred. Bitterness.
Anger.
Wallace stood
in the doorway of the school of the University
of Alabama in an attempt
to prevent African American students from enrolling in the school.
Wallace was
filled with hatred. Bitterness. Anger.
On May 15,
1972, while running for President as an independent candidate, he held a rally
at a shopping center in Maryland. While shaking hands with the people, Arthur
Bremer walked up and pressed a handgun into the stomach of Wallace and fired
every bullet. Four of the bullets
entered the chest and abdomen of Wallace, and one of them lodged in his spinal
column. He was never able to walk again. He was in constant pain. Hatred and anger seemed to swell within him.
How does a
person find healing for such brokenness in life?
We each have
our struggles in our humanity.
For some, it
is as it was with Wallace. Racism.
For others, it
is not racism, but hatred. Someone hurt
me. I have a right to be angry. More than angry. I have a right to hate. And so I hate. Hate.
Hate.
How does a
person filled with hate find healing for the brokenness of life?
Another person
goes home every night to a quiet home.
Photographs adorn the wall. In
each photo is his wife who died years ago.
Maybe it was cancer. Maybe it was
suicide. Maybe she was in a tragic
automobile accident. But she is dead and
this husband, this widower is hurting.
It’s loneliness. It’s grief and
despair.
How does a
person so empty of love and joy find healing for the brokenness of life?
A young man
whose future is already destroyed because of drug addiction.
A wife in a
marriage that has been destroyed by adultery.
An elderly
couple filled with fear for a future in an economic uncertainty.
Loneliness.
Grief.
Despair.
Pain.
Hatred.
Fear.
How do you
overcome the brokenness of life to be made whole once again?
In the Gospel
of John, Jesus encounters someone who has been sick for a long, long time.
Jesus goes up
to him and asks, “Do you want to be made well?”
In the King
James translation, that question is written this way, “Do you want to be made
whole?”
“Wholeness” in
the New Testament conveyed more than just a physical healing, but a complete
healing of mind, body and spirit.
So Jesus goes
up to this man and asks him a question that may seem insensitive: “Do you want to be made whole?”
Well, gee –
for 38 years this man has been seeking to be made well. He is a complete invalid, and he is where he
is for the simple reason that YES, he wants healing.
This sick man
goes everyday to a pool that is commonly known as a place of physical healing.
It is such a
common belief, that John does not need to explain in his Gospel what is so
special about this place – but maybe we do need to have it explained to
us. This pool was fed by an underground
spring, and occasionally that caused the waters to be disturbed.
An urban myth
had developed that suggested that the disturbance in the water was caused by
angels touching the water. When that
happened, the first one in would be healed.
It was just
that, just a myth.
But here is
this man. He has no hope left.
He has nothing
to cling to.
He has been
sick for 38 years, and he thinks that if he can get into the water first, he
will be healed.
Well, of course,
he can’t get into the water. He’s
completely disabled. No one is there to
help him in.
So he just
sits there.
For 38 years.
That’s 13,832
days!
That’s like
sitting hopelessly on the beach since 1975.
Where were you
in 1975?
Ginny and I
got married in 1975. I was working at a
small, intimate Italian Restaurant – you may have heard of it. Pizza Hut. I was taking my last two college
classes getting ready to graduate.
Some of you
were not even living in 1975.
Imagine! Imagine just sitting there for 38 years
without hope. You are sick. Sick yesterday. Sick tomorrow. Sick forever.
And here comes
this man whom you have never met. You do
not know this man.
And he asks,
“Do you want to be well? Do you want to
be healed? Do you want to be made
whole?”
The truth is,
sometimes we don’t want to be made whole.
Sometimes we grow to like our brokenness. It is who we are. It is what we are familiar with.
We embrace our racism with joy.
We find wonderful delight in hating
someone who mistreated us years ago.
We savor our loneliness.
We wrap ourselves in the warmth of
grief and sorrow because it has become so familiar to us, we don’t know how to
laugh and be joyful anymore – so we cling to grief.
Being made
whole is not an easy journey.
Sometimes it
is easier to say “no.”
Sometimes it
is easier to be disabled and not to learn to become able to do things.
Sometimes it
is easier to stay a racist.
Sometimes it
is too hard to stop grieving.
Sometimes
wholeness is just too much to ask.
But sometimes,
hope breaks through.
In the Gospel
story, this man who has been completely disabled for 38 years is healed. It is without question, a miracle.
Jesus tells
him, “Get up. Pick up your mat. And walk.”
And he does.
It is an
amazing thing. He encounters Jesus. AND he listens and obeys Jesus. And everything changes.
What would
happen if you encountered Jesus, listened to him, and obeyed him?
What miracle
might happen in your life.
Could you
become whole again?
Michael was a
man of hate. He hated adults, he hated
children, and most of all, he hated God.
Michael had been sexually abused by his minister. The abuse had started when Michael was 9
years old, and continued for 5 years. He
vowed he would never trust anyone again, never love anyone, and never go into
another church ever again.
One day, Michael went to a
church. He wasn’t sure why. That had been the last place he had ever
wanted to go. But he went. And next week, he went again. Then again.
He confronted his abuser. The abuser was tried and convicted. Michael sought justice, but he did not seek
bitter revenge.
Michael was awarded a large cash
settlement in a civil suit against the church, and he used part of that to pay
for his counseling and mental health care so he could find healing from his
wounds. But he also gives part of that
money to his abuser – specifically to be used to fund his abuser’s mental
health care in the hopes that both victim and abuser might find health. It has been a long road, but Michael has
found justice and has been able to forgive his abuser.
What would
happen if you encountered Jesus, listened to him, and obeyed him?
What miracle
might happen in your life.
Could you
become whole again?
George Wallace
was a man of hate, beyond redemption.
Then something unexpected happened to him. He became a Christian in the late
1970’s.
Hatred, bitterness,
anger – all seemed to fade away.
Twenty three
years after being shot, Wallace wrote a letter to his would-be assassin. In the letter, he expressed love and
forgiveness.[2]
Imagine.
You are in pain every day because of
one man.
You cannot walk because of that one
man.
And one day, you forgive.
It sometimes takes a long time for
bitterness to heal so that a person can be made whole.
In 1996,
Wallace met personally with Vivian Malone. Thirty-three years earlier, Wallace
had tried to stand in the way of Vivian’s desire to go to college because she
was a Black, and Wallace had vowed, “segregation now, segregation tomorrow,
segregation forever.” But on that
meeting in 1996, the arrogance of Wallace was gone. The anger and hatred were disappearing. He asked this woman for forgiveness.
Imagine – you
devote your entire life to something evil.
You live a life of hate. Then one
day, you ask for forgiveness.
The road to
spiritual health and wholeness can be a long one sometimes.
What would it
take to make you whole?
What would
free you from your racism?
Your anger?
Your despair?
Your fears?
Your …
Perhaps the
first thing to do is to answer the question.
“Do you want to be made whole?
Copyright 2013, Dr. Maynard Pittendreigh
www.pittendreigh.net
