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The Trouble with Jesus
by Constance Hastings
How Lame Can You Be?
December 17, 2019
Jesus had this insightful and irritating knack of asking people ridiculous questions.
Jesus had this insightful and irritating knack of asking people ridiculous questions, questions that bury the real question. Only real questions can have real answers.
For thirty-eight years he had lain by a pool unable to move on his own. Some said from time to time an angel of the Lord would stir the water. By this heavenly movement, the first person to step down into it was healed. He had no other hope, no treatments or medicine that could help him, ease his pain, release him from this disorder. He didn’t even have a friend who would stay with him to get into the water. So he had lain there all these years among the others who likewise had no other hope. He may have prayed, but all those prayers had done was just keep him there in that miserable condition.
Jesus saw him and innately knew how long he’d been sick. Jerusalem was in one of its busy seasons with a Jewish holy day bringing throngs of the faithful for worship and sacrifice. The man and those others lying by the pool were likely part of a side spectacle for the crowds waiting for a miraculous healing so they could later brag at home what they’d seen. But to Jesus, he wasn’t one of many. He was simply a very sick man.
“Would you like to get well?” Really? He’d been there for how long and now you’re actually asking him if he’d like to get better? For someone who was getting some buzz among the populace, he was a little lacking in bed side manner. You want to rephrase that, Jesus?
He didn’t need to. He knew what he’d said even as the rest of them were clueless. He asked the man, are you beyond wishing, desiring, to the point where you’re absolutely determined and resolved to do what it takes? Do what it takes to get in that pool or whatever else it takes for your life to change? Do you really want it?
If so, you know what it’ll take? It means get to a place where you become and are made all over again. Are you willing and resolved for that to happen in your life?
Finally, this is more than just no longer being paralyzed. Are you ready for that? Do you want to be made well to the point where you are whole? Can you live life whole and complete in body, mind and soul? Do you wish to get well?
Ever hear the saying, “Be careful what you pray for?” You very well may be blessed but in ways that are more than what you knew God could do in you.
The man does some more whining about not having help to get in the pool. Jesus won’t listen.
“Stand up, take up your sleeping mat, and walk!”
Stand up. Notwithstanding the effort for someone who hadn’t moved in thirty-eight years, a power entered him. It was a power that changed his position and perspective. He would not be that sick guy languishing by a public pool. He couldn’t claim or think of himself as disabled, crippled, dependent on anyone again. He rose to be what he didn’t know he could be.
Take up your sleeping mat. Yes, that dirty and despised mat you spent too many days and nights lying on, crying on, shriveled into a helpless and hopeless body. Don’t think you can do this by leaving behind what you were. It’s your story, and you need a story to know what God has done in you. Without your story, you forget or won’t realize the full impact and bearing of this day. Your miracle will drown in that pool you hoped would save you. So carry your mat, no longer now as a burden but as a treasure.
And walk! Go! Move into this new life that’s been given to you! You can’t stay here. This change, the gift of wholeness, needs to be exercised and released in celebration of this new life God will work in you. So lean and move into it as you’ve never been able to do before. (John 5:1-9b)
Now, would you like to get well?
John’s proclamation though was not feel-good, you’re trying your best, and everything is going to be ok. Parroting the old scriptures with high energy may make for an emotional ride, but it doesn’t last. People need what they can hold close and carry away with them.
Jesus, we’ve said this before and still you just don’t get it. Here we are at the time of the year when we should be all bright and merry, and you come on with this end-of-the-world rant. Can’t you just join the party and make happy? We’ve had enough of bad news for too long.
Truth is the spotlight on humanity. Find it, wrestle with it, run from it but know truth tells much, sometimes too much. Just-the-facts, video footage, eyewitness testimony, subpoenaed emails and documents only color the canvas. Anything can be made to say anything; it’s all in the spin. But truth reveals the greater story, and the direction life gives.
Jesus, what makes you think this Doomsday portrait you give here is helping? Why even talk about it? We’ve been through a hell of a lot, and this end-of-the-world talk isn’t doing us any good. Besides, who’d ever get behind you if this is where you’re going. We’re just not going to listen to this kind of thing.
Yeah, well what galaxy do you come from? If talk of apocalyptic endings bother you, why do you watch so much of it from streaming movies to video games to best sellers? Listen guy, there’s money to be made from this genre, and the makers of these stories play right into the basic fears of futurists to preppers to predictive prophets with megaphones shouting, “The End is Near.” Why is this ok for everyone else, but Jesus can’t say anything beyond Love Your Neighbor and Bless the Children? Get over that, and listen up.
Brief musing here: November 5:2024 Today, tonight, this week we will wait. Apply whatever importance you prefer to this date. Take your side expressed by your vote. Hope for the best. Yet in the marking of your ballot, also bow your head. Pray the hardest prayer ever spoken. “Your will be done.” Accept what will be. Then move into your space, your world, and see what God will do. Shalom.
The Trouble with Jesus is he doesn’t want to fight as much as he wants to lead in Love.
What do you want me to do for you?
One’s answer reveals the beggar in one’s soul.
Jesus, if you don’t mind, we’d like to talk with you about what you just said and ask a favor.
Sure guys, what’s on your minds.?
About your plans, when it all comes about, if the two of us could be seated next to you, one of your right and the other on your left?
(long pause…)
You have no idea what you’re asking....
True Story: A husband told his wife he was going the next day to possibly buy a Corvette. (Disclaimer: this did not happen in my house…) She read to him these words of Jesus:
“Go and sell all you have and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.”
“Now, how do you think you’ll get to heaven if you buy a Corvette?” she challenged him.
After a short pause, he smiled, and said, “Fast!”
The Trouble with Jesus: He doesn’t speak from a legalistic mindset. He speaks with the loving mind of God.
