In John 5, there is a very familiar story about a man at the pool of Bethesda. The man had been there for 38 years on a mat. This pool was sometimes troubled by an "angel of the Lord" such that anyone that got into it during the time of the "troubling" was healed, no matter what was wrong with them. John recounts the story of this man and how Jesus gave him a second chance.
One day, Jesus came to the pool and to this man specifically and asked him a very pointed question: "Do you want to be made well?" What we see here is Jesus, God incarnate, was unafraid to confront sin and sin's effects. Jesus always went to the heart of the matter- he never treats the symptoms, he always attacks the root. Here is Jesus at Bethesda, the "house of mercy" where all of the sick people were. I can see a scene in my mind of this being a place where the castaways of society were; an ancient "skid row" if you would. We see our Lord meeting this man where we was! Jesus will do the same thing for us. He will meet us where we are because He totally understands the depravity of man and the pervasiveness of sin.
Let's analyze this man's second chance and let's see what God is saying to us through this scripture.
First of all, we see that the second chance is personal. Verse 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?”"
Jesus asked point blank, "Do YOU want to be healed?" Let's analyze this. Jesus knew of this man’s condition and how long he had been sick. The verb "want" or "desire" depending on the translation is written in the active voice in the Greek text. It would be up to the man to accept what Jesus was offering. He would have to be an active participant in what was happening, not a bystander. It was up to the sick man to make a move. If we put ourselves in the place of this man, every one of us has been here and we've had mixed results. Sometimes we have willingly accepted what God was offering and sometimes we have waffled. What Jesus was saying to this man is this: Do you want a second chance?
Secondly, the second chance is immediate. Verse 7-9 "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.” Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked."
Ok, so Jesus asks, "Do you want to be healed?" This man offer up a litany of excuses as to why he's never been in the pool! People have stepped over me, no one will help me, blah, blah, blah. Notice he says "while I am going" in verse 8. In other words, he's been on his way...for 38 years. Now, pardon me for seeming insensitive, but this guy has been here for 38 years and he is obviously close enough for folks to step over him and enter the water. What this man has is what many of us suffered from before we met Jesus. He has an "on my way" mentality. You know, "I'm on my way to church." "I will come next week, but I can't make it this week...I don't have a ride." "I'll get saved tomorrow..." "I know that grandma is praying for me so I'm good..." Blah, blah, blah. This man made excuses. If he had moved a foot per year, he could have at least gotten to the point where he could have dipped his finger into the water. There had to be someone that brought him food and water every day. He had to have a caretaker somewhere that could've gotten him to the pool, IF he really wanted to get there.
Jesus, in response to this story about who did what, did not even give it a second thought. He simply said: "Get up, pick up your mat and walk." GET UP! Stop building monuments made up of empty excuses and get up! Stop looking for the angel when the Lord is standing right next to you, get up! Verse 9 says that the man got up "immediately". I give him credit here because he was obedient to the command of the Lord and he got up! He didn't think twice about it. Contrary to many "preachers" who beat this man up for not having faith...he actually had to have faith to respond to the offering of Jesus here!
Every healing that Jesus performed had immediate results. Can we take this further, if this man represents the power of sin over one's life and the power of sin to paralyze us; his healing represents the immediate cleansing and salvation that comes from accepting Jesus! Once we accept Christ, His righteousness becomes our righteousness. We are redeemed from the power of sin. We are free from the bondage of sin and we are able to walk when before we were crippled by sin's effects!
Thirdly and finally, the second chance is conditional. Verse 14: "Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.”"
Jesus runs into this man in the temple. The man was previously accosted by the Pharisees because he was carrying his mat on the Sabbath. They wanted to know who healed him. Of course, they knew that it was Jesus but somehow Jesus slipped away. You can imagine that there was a great crowd because this was a holiday (see verse 1). Jesus says to the man, "you are (you have become) well!..." In modern vernacular, "hey brother, you are looking great!" The verb "become" is in the perfect tense meaning that the healing that was performed at the pool continued into the present i.e. the effects were still evident. Then Jesus gets to the root of this man's issues. He says, "sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you." The verb "sin" is present imperative. This is not an option, it is a command. What this says is that the man's condition was caused by some sin that was in his life. As a point of clarification, not all problems and issues are the result of personal sin. We live in a fallen world where bad things happen to good people and sometimes the ones that deserve the bad seem to escape punishment. But sometimes, we make our own bad weather- and then we have the nerve to complain about it!
Jesus running into this man at the temple raises this question: When Christ picks us up from our sin, do we continue to walk in the light or do we go back to the pool? Jesus says sin no more! Paul says that we are to "press" or "aggressively pursue" the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ. He also tells us in Ephesians 4:22 that we are to "put off" the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts. These things imply that we are to exert some effort in maintaining our walk with Christ. When the Holy Ghost convicts, we are to put off the old man. When we know when there is some sin in our lives that is putting separation between us and God (Isaiah 59:1,2), we need to be ruthless about eradicating that sin and even more ruthless in our pursuit of Jesus! This is an active, Holy Ghost driven walk and we have to surrender to the Holy Ghost every day. Author Jerry Bridges calls it "dependent responsibility". We are dependent on the Spirit of God to give us the ability to carry out God's will and we are responsible for doing so.
Sin no more so that nothing worse happens to you. What does this mean exactly? Well, let's just say that there is a place that a whole lot worse than sitting at the pool getting stepped over. On another level, this pool is a picture of fallen, broken humanity. Just like the pool was surrounded by those that were sick, humanity is sick with sin. Before we met Jesus, we were all paralyzed, impotent, invalid and broken down by the effects of sin. We have all been on a mat of self-pity! We've all excused our sin away at some point in our lives. But if you are saved, that means that Jesus came to the pool that you were hanging out at and spoke a word and asked simply, "Do you want to get well?" Thank God, those of us that are saved answered in the affirmative. If anyone is reading this and you are still on your mat, still sitting by the pool, unwilling to make an effort to get in, Jesus will meet you right where you are! It doesn't matter how long you've been there on the mat, how long you've been sitting by the pool or how many folks have gone in front of you...you can be made whole! Jesus can give you the same thing that He gave this man, an immediate healing in the Spirit. Your physical issues might remain but, upon accepting Christ as your Savior, you are immediately made a new creature in the Spirit! If you haven't yet, take advantage of the second chance that God offers to us all through His Son, Jesus Christ! Grace and peace.
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