Our dear friend Jesus

Matthew 9:2

In this passage we see friends who cared deeply enough for the one to bring their friend to Jesus. This paralyzed man could not hide his need for healing, like so many of us do.  It was right there for everyone to see, but it was his friends who took action and brought him to Jesus. His friends wanted more for him.

This reminds me of the fact that even when we’ve done a great job at hiding our need for healing, isn’t it our friends who continue to love and care for us? Sometimes we’re so good at the hiding that we actually hide our need for healing from ourselves. It’s quite the cover up job, one that I am humbled to say, I am quite familiar with.

I am grateful for the gift of good friends who continue to love me and see my need for healing more clearly than I do and have time and time again, lovingly brought me to Jesus. And yet, even when life is lonely enough that we feel even our closest friends can’t see our deep need for healing, we all have an even dearer friend named Jesus, who sees even deeper still into our lives.  

This paralyzed man had friends who knew his body needed healing and brought him straight to Jesus.  Jesus amazed everyone by healing this man’s body and his soul.  It gives me great comfort to know that Jesus is a healer who sees the whole me, not just my outward needs, but my greatest inner need for forgiveness.  We all receive forgiveness just like the man in this story, completely passively.  We do nothing and everything is accomplished in Christ.  I can’t think of a greater friend than that. 

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.