John 5:2-7 English Standard Version (ESV)

² Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaiccalled Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. ³ In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. ⁵ One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. ⁶ When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” ⁷ The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.”

Here is a question I have been asking and rather unsuccessfully. “Do you want to be healed?”

I see a man who desperately needs to be healed. Does he know that? Here in these verses the lame man knows there is healing to be had in the pool. He looks for a sign as many do for when it is right to enter. Rather than answering Jesus’ question, his lame excuse is that no one is willing to help him.

I have been here to help this lost soul. He doesn’t see the healing waters, he does not see the signs, and he does not know that he needs to be healed. My offer of help is refused. What am I to do?

“Pray my son, pray.”

My words have fallen on deaf ears of that lost one. Perhaps they will linger in his memory if God will be so gracious as to answer my prayers. Decades of lies have conditioned this man to reject the truth when it is spoken. Only God can show him the need to be healed. Only God can show him healing waters. I can only help now if he asks for help.

God have mercy.