Gospel JN 5:1-16
There was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
Now there is in Jerusalem at the Sheep Gate
a pool called in Hebrew Bethesda, with five porticoes.
In these lay a large number of ill, blind, lame, and crippled.
One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years.
When Jesus saw him lying there
and knew that he had been ill for a long time, he said to him,
“Do you want to be well?”
The sick man answered him,
“Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool
when the water is stirred up;
while I am on my way, someone else gets down there before me.”
Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your mat, and walk.”
Immediately the man became well, took up his mat, and walked.
Now that day was a sabbath.
So the Jews said to the man who was cured,
“It is the sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.”
He answered them, “The man who made me well told me,
‘Take up your mat and walk.’“
They asked him,
“Who is the man who told you, ‘Take it up and walk’?”
The man who was healed did not know who it was,
for Jesus had slipped away, since there was a crowd there.
After this Jesus found him in the temple area and said to him,
“Look, you are well; do not sin any more,
so that nothing worse may happen to you.”
The man went and told the Jews
that Jesus was the one who had made him well.
Therefore, the Jews began to persecute Jesus
because he did this on a sabbath.
Reflection:
In today’s gospel, Jesus comes upon a man who had been crippled for thirty eight years.
When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been ill for a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be well?”
On the face of it, this may seem like a strange question but in fact it makes perfect sense.
There have been many times at My Brother’s Keeper when we have been willing to help someone in need but the person was not receptive, not open to receiving help.
So many people have experienced members of their family who desperately need help struggling with drug and/or alcohol abuse but the person refuses the help that is offered.
The only prerequisite to receiving help from God is a desire and willingness to accept it.
In today’s gospel, the man answers Jesus’ question as to whether he wants to get well by telling him of his problem, “I have no one to help me get into the pool.”
Jesus tells him, “Rise, take up your mat, and walk.”
In other words, Jesus was saying to the man, make an effort.
Growing up, one of my mother’s favorite sayings was, “God helps those who help themselves.”
So many times over the years I have had a volunteer at My Brother’s Keeper tell me, “I really didn’t think that sleeper sofa was going to up those stairs. Then I gave it everything I had and said, ‘God help me’ and up it went. Jim, it was like a miracle.”
Saint Paul said, “I can do all things through him who gives me strength.” Philippians 4:13