Do You Want to be Made Well?

Dear People of God: During the pandemic many of us have engaged in new opportunities for gathering and for enrichment. Essentially we seem to recognize that no matter what isolation we inhabit we humans will find creative ways of living fully and into some wholeness even when deprivation seems to prevail. 

One of my new practices has been to meet people on Zoom on Tuesdays for Bible Study. We have been slowly moving through the mystical Gospel of John and each week I offer thanks for the communion, the worship, the faithfulness. 

I also have found myself marveling at the depth and insights. The Gospel and the interaction seem to be feeding some kind of starvation and more importantly uncovering hope.

Yesterday we engaged the story of Jesus healing the paralytic at the pools of Bethsaida (or Bethzatha depending on the translation). Jesus chose this “invalid” off to the side with other “invalids” yearning for the healing which might come from the waters stirred by angels as legend would have it. It became clear to the reader and apparently to Jesus that unless something was done these marginalized would never make it through the mobile onrushers to the pool. It occurred to me that this was a real example of the last shall be first and surprised by hope, thanks to Jesus.

But one of the other and more poignant parts of the discussion was around the question posed to the lame man: Do you want to be made well? And I thought:

Do we?

Our first response is of course! And then we plunge more deeply into the issue of “wellness”. Most of us during this pandemic period have felt different levels of unwellness: stress, anxiety, grief, discomfort emotionally and physically, fear, and even terror. And so I found myself imagining all of us on the side of a healing pool, focusing on how to get in, perhaps missing why to get in? We carry assumptions about the mythical power of that stirred water and sometimes forget the life-giving power of the living water which Jesus offers.

So imagine Jesus coming to us “invalids” and asking if we want to be well? Not do we want to be stronger, faster or richer; rather do we want to be made whole...on the inside? I imagine that the Living Christ is doing just that to all of us right now and I pray I am open to his healing presence and not overwhelmed with details and logistics. May we gather at the living water, broken and vulnerable, and await the Christ approaching us to invite us to be well!