“Do you want to be made well?”
- davidwperk
- Jan 23, 2024
- 7 min read
Devotional Reflection, Tuesday, January 23, 2024
The week of the third Sunday after Epiphany
The Rev. David W. Perkins, Th.D.
Key phrases for reflection from today’s reading
6When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, `Do you want to be made well?' 7The 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 making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.'
You will find the full text of today’s Gospel at the end of this reflection.
Daily Office Lectionary Readings (BCP, 945)
AM Psalm 45; PM Psalm 47, 48
Gen. 15:1-11,17-21; Heb. 9:1-14; John 5:1-18
Today we celebrate the Feast of Phillips Brooks. (See below.)
David's Reflections
Poet W. H. Auden included these lines in his “The Age of Anxiety.
”The human household. In our anguish we struggle
To elude Him, to lie to Him, yet His love observes
His appalling promise; His predilection
As we wander and weep is with us to the end,
Minding our meanings, our least matter dear to Him, *
This story called Auden's lines to mind. As you will see, this lame man actually was eluding God in his quest for healing. Many people saw him lying by the pool, waiting for the water to stir, and failing to get in before the waterstilled again. It's one thing to see, and another to notice. (Rumor had itthat angels stirred the water and those who could enter then were healed.) Jesus noticed him. He "saw" him, and asked the crucial question, "Do you want to be healed?"
Why such a question? Of course, this man must have wanted to be healed. His lameness had become the central occupying concern of his life. Or, did he? Notice that Jesus did not get a straight answer. The afflicted one responded that his not having recovered was not his fault, because he had no one to help him into the water. Could it be that healing would have been the worst thing that could have happened to him? Then, what would he have done? Where would he have centered his life? The newfound freedom of wholeness might have ushered demands and responsibilities into his life too frightening for him to accept.
In Auden's words, his illness was a place "to elude Him, to lie to Him." Yet, even now God in Christ comes. " . . . yet His love observes. . . Hispredilection . . . minding our meanings, our least anxiety dear to Him." Jesushealed him, even though there was no expression of faith on his part. What acontrast to the healing in John 4 about which we mused yesterday! There faithoozed through the words of the narrative. Here, fear and anxiety come rushingoff the page into our awareness.
The man's unbelief becomes extant and obvious in verse 15. He actually went to the religious leaders and told them that it was Jesus who had healed him and had instructed him to carry his palette on the Sabbath (two violations of Sabbath law—healing and carrying a burden). He informed on the one who had healed him.
We can safely say “yes” to this God. God's predilection is to take notice of the anxieties and evasions of those without faith and to love them unconditionally. God heals those without faith. Imagine the Spirit of God allover our community today, taking notice, minding the anxieties and thebrokenness of those who are evading and avoiding God's presence and resisting God's seeking love.
Does that not say volumes to the church about her calling and mission? Does that not both rebuke and encourage those of us who might think our obedience has indebted God to bless us just a little? If God is taking notice of the anxieties and the brokenness of those without faith and working healing in their lives, doesn't it remind us that divine love comes to people of faith in the same unconditional way? Thank God, because eluding and lying to God don't stop just because faith begins.
Wholeness can be quite a challenge to live into. I am all too familiar with my foibles and broken places that hinder my quality of life and my capacity to give and be present to others. Could it be that, like this lame person, I have formed attachments to my brokenn places, attachments that form an inner thicket in which I elude God’s persistent workings toward my wholeness. Do I want to be made well?
Something Wendy Farley wrote came to mind.
“Our deepest wounds of the soul and spirit disconnect us from our truest selves, from the divine ground, and from encounter with the divine image in humanity and in creation. The sufferings the world causes us blind us from our deep truth, and our blindness to reality immerses us in difficulties that further alienate us from this truth. Salvation heals all of these wounds.” +
Do I want to be made well? Can I reach out to God and pray for the grace to cease eluding and deflecting , the grace to welcome healing, to welcome the embrace of divine, saving love?
*W. H. Auden, Collected Poems, ed. Edward Mendelson (New York: Vintage,1991), p. 535.
+Wendy Farley, Gathering Those Driven Away: A Theology of Incarnation (Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox, 2011), pp. 63-64.
Collect of the Day, The Third Sunday after Epiphany
Give us grace, O Lord, to answer readily the call of our Savior Jesus Christ andproclaim to all people the Good News of his salvation, that we and the wholeworld may perceive the glory of his marvelous works; who lives and reigns withyou and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP, 215)Today we celebrate the Feast of Phillips Brooks, bishop and preacher (died 23 Jan 1858 CE).
Collect of the Feast of Phillips Brooks
Everlasting God, who implants your living Word in the minds and on the lips of all who proclaim your truth: Grant that we, like your pastor and preacher Phillips Brooks, might proclaim your Gospel in our own generation with grace and power. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, ever one God, now and for ever. Amen.
A Collect for Peace
Most holy God, the source of all good desires, all right judgments, and all just works: Give to us, your servants, that peace which the world cannot give, so that our minds may be fixed on the doing of your will, and that we, being delivered from the fear of all enemies, may live in peace and quietness; through the mercies of Christ Jesus our Savior. Amen. (BCP, 123)
For Social Service
Heavenly Father, whose blessed Son came not to be served but to serve: Bless all who, following in his steps, give themselves to the service of others; that with wisdom, patience, and courage, they may minister in his Name to the suffering, the friendless, and the needy- for the love of him who laid down his life for us, your Son our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP, 260)
A Prayer for Light
Grant us, Lord, the lamp of charity which never fails, that it may burn in us and shed its light on those around us, and that by its brightness we may have a vision of that holy City, where dwells the true and never-failing Light, JesusChrist our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 110)
A Collect for Mission
O God, you have made of one blood all the peoples of the earth, and sent yourblessed Son to preach peace to those who are far off and to those who are near: Grant that people everywhere may seek after you and find you; bring the nations into your fold; pour out your Spirit upon all flesh; and hasten the coming of your kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 100, 257)
Daily Office Gospel, John 5:1-18
5:1After this there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.2Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in HebrewBeth-zatha, which has five porticoes. 3In these lay many invalids—blind, lame,and paralyzed. 4 5One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years.6When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, `Do you want to be made well?' 7The 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 making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.' 8Jesus said to him, `Stand up, take your mat and walk.' 9At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk. Now that day was a sabbath.
10So the Jews said to the man who had been cured, `It is the sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.' 11But he answered them, `The man who made me well said to me, "Take up your mat and walk."' 12They asked him, `Who is the man who said to you, "Take it up and walk"?' 13Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had disappeared in the crowd that was there. 14Later Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, `See, you have been made well! Do not sin any more, so that nothing worse happens to you.' 15The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. 16Therefore the Jews startedpersecuting Jesus, because he was doing such things on the sabbath.17 But Jesus answered them, `My Father is still working, and I also am working.’ 18For this reason the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because he was not only breaking the sabbath, but was also calling God his own Father, thereby making himself equal to God.
Daily Offices in The Book of Common Prayer
Morning Prayer, Rite 2, page 75, The Book of Common Prayer
Noonday Prayer, page 103, Book of Common Prayer
Order of Worship for Evening (Vespers), p 109, Book of Common Prayer
Evening Prayer, Rite 2, page 115, Book of Common Prayer
Compline (Night Prayer), page 127, Book of Common Prayer
Daily Devotionals, page 136, Book of Common Prayer
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