Monday, March 22

by Martha Langford

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. JOHN 5:2-9

The photo comes from a trip to Jerusalem; we had traveled to its northeast quadrant to visit St. Anne’s Church. Once outside, we saw it... a place where high walls crowd verdant ruins that hold at their center a pool of water. Closer examination confirmed what archeologists had already discovered; the pool at St. Anne’s has five porticoes making it this pool—the pool of Beth-zatha better known as the pool of Bethesda.

In the time of Jesus, two nearby caves were turned into baths dedicated to the Greek god Asclepius as a place of healing. And the healing properties of the water were known to the Jewish people of the day. They knew it as a place where God’s angels would stir the waters and make of them a healing fountain.

The invalid of this passage has lain by the waters for thirty-eight years, waiting for his opportunity to be first into the waters as they stirred; a long wait to receive God’s healing mercy. The days and weeks and years were filled—I am sure—with at least a few “almosts” and “might-have-beens.” But, there he lay, alone and unable to make his own way into the full measure of God’s grace as the first to enter the pool.

But this day, a different kind of stirring was happening in Jerusalem. It was festival time and crowds were on the move into the city; Jesus among them. Heading toward the Sheep Gate, Jesus sees the man—knows his plight—and asks the simple question, “Do you want to be made well?”

After tendering his excuses at his own inability to get himself well, he looks to Jesus who—with a full measure of God’s grace and mercy—makes the man whole once again.

First! He tried for thirty-eight years to be first! It was a competition and the gold medal was God’s grace and mercy. I wonder how often we treat God’s grace as if it was a prize that one might earn. What a burden to carry. I wonder how we would respond, if we were asked to lay such a burden down—to find grace and wholeness through the one who claims us and whose name we bear. I wonder how long it would take for us to find life in Christ’s question, “Do you want to be made well?”

Dear God, through your son Jesus Christ, you share the gift of grace and mercy and wholeness and life. Grant us the courage to accept the gift, to be made whole and wholly yours. AMEN.