Sometimes the most powerful truths about our spiritual condition come wrapped in the most unlikely packages. Today we're going to look at a man who'd been lying by a pool for thirty-eight years – longer than many of you have been alive – and discover that his story is actually our story.
John 5:5-6 "A man was there who had been ill for 38 years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been a long time in that condition, he said to him, 'Do you wish to get well?'"
Picture this scene with me. There's this pool called Bethesda – think football field-sized pools surrounded by massive columns supporting overhanging canopies. And lying around these pools are dozens, maybe hundreds of people. They're moaning, groaning, sick, blind, lame. It's not a pretty picture. The stench, the filth, the desperation – it's all there.
But here's what strikes me: this picture is exactly analogous to our spiritual condition without Christ. We are sick, we are blind, and we are lame. Jesus articulated the blindness of the human heart when He told Nicodemus that no man can see the kingdom of God without the power of God. He calls Himself the great physician because He doesn't come to save the healthy, but the sick. And Paul reminds us in Romans that while we were still powerless – paralyzed, if you will – Christ saved us.
That man had been lying there for thirty-eight years. Thirty-eight years! That takes us back to 1987 – the Reagan administration. Decades had gone by, and this guy was still in the same condition, needing a power outside himself.
And that's exactly where we all start spiritually. We need help. We need a power outside ourselves. No amount of good intentions, religious rituals, or moral effort can heal what's broken in us. Like that man, we're desperate for intervention.
But here's the beautiful part – Jesus sees him. Out of all those people lying around that pool, Jesus approaches this one individual. He has a heart of compassion. This has always been the heart of God. He's always revealed Himself as a God of great compassion, and He's moving among the filth and stench to reach one person who needs Him.
Friends, that's what Jesus does for us. He doesn't wait for us to clean ourselves up. He doesn't require us to get our act together first. He comes to us in our mess, in our brokenness, in our desperate need, and He offers us what we could never achieve on our own.
1. In what ways do you see yourself in this crippled man's condition before Christ found you?
2. How does it change your perspective to know that Jesus specifically sought you out in your spiritual helplessness?
3. What areas of your life are you still trying to heal through your own strength rather than trusting in Christ's power?
Stay dialed in.
