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Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish feasts. In Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate is a pool. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie down. One person was there who had not been able to walk for 38 years. Jesus saw him lying there. He knew that the man had been in that condition for a long time. So, he asked him, \u201cDo you want to get well?\u201d \u201cSir,\u201d the disabled man replied, \u201cI have no one to help me into the pool when an angel stirs up the water. I try to get in, but someone else always goes down ahead of me.\u201d Then Jesus said to him, \u201cGet up! Pick up your mat and walk.\u201d The man was healed right away. He picked up his mat and walked (cf. John 5:1-9)

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Jesus loved to ask questions. Some were innocent enough, like \u201cWill you get me some water?\u201d as he asked the Samaritan woman in yesterday\u2019s devotion. Sometimes he used questions to get people to leave him alone, like the time he asked the Jewish establishment, \u201cWhere did John get his authority, from man or from God?\u201d Some were meant to help his listeners probe deeper into His identity as the Son of God, like when he asked his disciples, \u201cWho do people say that I am?\u201d Others, like the one in our text, seems to ask the man to probe himself, but it was really a set up.

The question does seem a bit strange, but the setting helps us get a handle on it. John tells us that Jesus went up to Jerusalem, the city of peace. He went there to celebrate one of the Jewish feasts, which were always times of joy, celebrating God\u2019s great work of deliverance in the past. John doesn\u2019t specify which feast, so that is not important, but he brings us to a pool named Bethesda, which means \u2018house of mercy.\u2019 To recap, the setting is peace, joy, mercy.

We are expecting a happy story.

Instead, we are told that this pool is surrounded by a great number of disabled people. Jesus focusses our attention on one person who has been lying there for 38 years. That\u2019s a long time by anyone\u2019s reckoning. We might want to know about the magical nature of this pool. How is it that only the first people who touches the pool after it is stirred gets healed? Was it really an angel of the Lord who stirred the pool?

But Jesus does not oblige our curiosity. He wants us to focus on this person lying here for the past 38 years. How many times has he seen the water stirred and he has not been able to touch it because someone else was always faster? Has he given up hope? Has he given in to his condition and expects to live out his life begging for scraps from passing feast goers?

Why does Jesus ask, \u201cDo you want to get well?\u201d

Some suggest that Jesus wanted to know if the man had any hope left. Then Jesus would heal him. Others have suggested that Jesus wanted to expose for the man that he had become comfortable in his paralysis and did not really want to get better. The man needed to start taking responsibility for himself.

Anyone who has suffered from long term illness knows that these are real issues, but I don\u2019t think they are part of this story. The man doesn\u2019t really answer Jesus\u2019 question. He just says, \u201cHey man, what I want doesn\u2019t really matter. I can\u2019t get to the pool. I won\u2019t get healed.\u201d

The man\u2019s got nothing, but Jesus heals him.

His mercy is free. He comes to bring it to those who are without hope. He comes to bring it to those who don\u2019t expect it anymore.

Are you looking for God\u2019s mercy? Are you trying to figure out how to answer Jesus\u2019 question? The answer is not important, the important thing is that Jesus brings mercy where ever he goes.

On my ornament for today, I am going to simply write the word \u201cMercy.\u201d

As for something to do, be ready to receive mercy, especially when God brings it through an unexpected person. Is it possible that God wants to use you to bring his mercy to someone not expecting it?

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