A Quick Fix

John 5:2-11

When you have a disability or disease, the longer you walk this earth, the more you encounter questions or comments that annoy you.  People have tips or tricks, quick fixes or diets. You receive more advise than what you need or want from well-meaning people who have a friend who tried “this”, and it solved everything.  I have now walked through this experience with several close loved ones and realize sometimes the annoying or dumb questions are coming out of my mouth as well. Sigh.  When your body has chronic pain, particularly in our Western mindsets of “try harder” and “do better”, we just don’t like to think about chronic illness, being just that, chronic.

Here in this passage from John, we encounter a man who may have taken someone up on their tip or trick because he was desperate for a fix.  He’s looking to get into a pool that if you get in at the right moment when the water stirs, it might just heal you.  It seems like an infomercial of the first century in my mind.  He’s been sick for thirty-eight years.  You can just feel the heartache in that last sentence.  Thirty-eight years of illness.  And he couldn’t even help himself into this pool in hopes of healing.  

And then here comes Jesus, asking what feels like a dumb question, “Do you want to get well?” But since we know Jesus doesn’t ask dumb questions, I have sat with this question, letting it do its work on me.  I am now hearing it in the kindest voice. “Why are you looking to this pool for a “fix”, when the healer of the world is right in front of you, looking to give you life to the full?”  Jesus brought healing both physically and spiritually to this man on that day.  

Jesus is still our kind healer looking to mend and heal our hearts of sin and shame.  And He is still a healer, not a fixer today. Are you desperate for a Savior for your sin-sick heart today?  See past the mirage of quick fixes for our sin problem and look our healer Jesus in the eyes and let him make you well.