Day 9 - Stuck Because of What You Know? | February Devotional in the Gospel of John
John 5:1, After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches. 3 In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water. 4 For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had. 5 Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?” 7 The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.” 8 Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” 9 And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked.
This is an odd story to say the least. For the people who were gathered at the pool of Bethesda, they believed that the only way to be healed was to look for an angel to stir the water. The one who got in first would be healed. It must have been a sad sight to watch people who could barely move try to get to the water first, or desperately beckoning for someone to help them get to the pool. All the others who were unsuccessful, would go back to wherever they were. We could say they were all "stuck" because they knew no other way.
It's unclear how all of this worked, but Jesus made something clear: It was not necessary to wait for the water to be stirred in order to be healed. Sometimes we don't change how we do things because it is the only way we think it can be done. The people did not know a different way, so accepting their "stuckness" became their norm.
Their way of thinking was so ingrained that when Jesus asked the man, "Do you want to be made well?" the man proceeded to tell Jesus, in essence, "You don't know how it works around here." Jesus' next words were, "Rise, take up your bed and walk." THE MAN FOLLOWED JESUS' INSTRUCTION, he got up, picked up his mat, and walked!
Of course, the power of God healed the man, but note that he did something in obedience to Christ. He exercised his faith, more than remain stuck in what he knew. This is a lesson in faith arising from the Word of the Lord. It is also a lesson about breaking with old thinking that keeps you from advancing.
Reflection Question: In what areas might you be stuck thinking there's no other way to get it done? What can you do right now, in faith towards God, to overcome feeling immobilized?
Action Item:
