“One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.  When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” (John 5:5-6)

What an interesting question to ask! Do you want to be healed? I think it is a perfectly valid question to ask for this reason:

For the longest time, I did not want to be healed. I was broken, but I felt comfortable and safe inside my brokenness. It was my crutch. A good excuse for me not going out, meeting people, and taking risks. It was like being in a prison with the door unlocked and swung wide open, but choosing to stay inside where I was familiar with the iron bars than to venture out into the terrifying unknowns of freedom.

Being healed is dangerous. Freedom and wholeness often mean vulnerability and transparency. You are healed so that you can in turn go and be a healer to someone else. So you can share your story with someone who suffers like you did. You will have to walk out of your comfort zone and into a lifestyle of radical obedience.

Being healed means you no longer can hide behind your infirmities and your brokenness. You have to stand out in the wide open spaces of who God made you to be. That means being comfortable with who you are and how you fit into God’ scheme.

The man gave an excuse for why he could not be healed. Apparently, he did not recognize Who Jesus was. But Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” (John 5:8). Jesus saw past the excuses to the deep-down desire for healing. As He does with you and me. He says, “Rise and walk.”

Jesus says to us today, “Rise up and walk in freedom. Rise up and walk in liberty. Rise up and walk in wholeness. Rise up and walk in fearlessness. I will enlarge your heart to feel what I feel for those still trapped and imprisoned in their brokenness. I will enlarge your vision to show you those around you who have needs that you can be My hands and feet to meet. I will enlarge your influence for Me, so that people see what I have done for you and they will want to know more of Me.”

So do you want to be healed? Do you want the safety of a prison of your pain and shame and brokenness or do you want the dangerous liberty that comes from walking in wholeness in Jesus’ will for your life. The answer could change everything.

Amen and amen.