“Pick Up Your Mat and Walk”

John 5:1-9

May 22, 2022

When Jesus saw him lying there, knowing that he had already been there a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I don’t have anyone who can put me in the water when it is stirred up. When I’m trying to get to it, someone else has gotten in ahead of me.” (John 5:1-9, CEB) 

As you may know, I grew up on a small farm in upstate New York. Over the course of my family’s life there, we had a couple of ponies and a really old horse, many head of beef cattle, quite a few dairy heifers and even a few cows that we had to milk, assorted goats and pigs, too many barn cats to count, and some much beloved dogs. 

Needless to say, we had lots of chores to do, primarily outside and related to the aforementioned animals, but some also, of course, related to the house. One of the latter that I remember as NOT one of my favorites was bringing in wood for the wood stove. The wood was stored in a big shed maybe 50 yards from our back door, about half a football field away. That might not sound that far away, but remember–this was winter time in upstate NY, close to 40 years ago [YIKES!], back when it really snowed in the winter time!! We would get all bundled up in our winter gear, grab a plastic sled, make our way across the snowy half-football-field distance to the shed, load up the sled with as much wood as possible, drag it back across the snowy lawn, and then have to carry it in and stack it next to the stove. 

Well, I told you all that so I could tell you this: I remember one time when my dad said to my teenaged younger brother, “Stephen, would you like to help me bring in some wood?” And my brother, without looking up from whatever he was doing, said, “Umm, no, not really,” and kept on doing whatever he was doing. My dad seemed surprised by his response, and then, understandably, was perturbed by it. My mom, in response to my dad’s perturbation, said, “Well, if you want him to help, don’t ask him if he wants to! Just tell him he has to!” 

Sometimes we ask a question we don’t really mean, and when we do that, sometimes we get an answer we don’t really want.

That’s not what happened in our story for today! In today’s story, I think Jesus asked exactly the question he really meant. 

So, looking at today’s passage, we find Jesus in Jerusalem for some unidentified festival. While he was there, he saw a man lying near a pool which was believed to have healing properties. And somehow he knew that this man had been there for a long time. In fact, the text says he had been ill for 38 years. Thirty-eight years. That’s a long time to be sick. That had probably been most of his life, or at least a good chunk of it. 

So when Jesus saw him, knowing that he had been ill, for a long, long time, he asked him, apparently without much preamble, “Do you want to get well?” Or in other translations, “Do you want to be made well?” “Do you want to be healed?” “Do you want to be made whole?”

Back to my dad for a minute–I think he thought his question to my brother was a no-brainer–“Will you help me go get wood?” And I’m pretty sure he expected my brother to say, “Yeah, sure. I’ll help you.” As you’ve heard, that was not how my brother responded. 

I wonder if Jesus thought his question to our guy was a no-brainer? He had been ill for so long! Surely he would want to be made well! Surely after spending the majority of his life sitting by the side of this pool, he would want to be healed! Surely, after 38 years of not being well and watching the world go on around him, he would want to be made whole… It seems obvious enough to me that that’s what he would want! Who wouldn’t want to be well, given the choice? 

And so Jesus saw him and asked him: “Do you want to get well?” 

The man didn’t quite answer like my brother did–he didn’t say, “Umm, no, not really,” but he also did not say, “Are you kidding? Of course I do! Yes! Please! Finally! YES, I want to be well!!” 

He didn’t even really answer the question at all. He responded with what sounded–at least to me–an awful lot like excuses…

 He said, “Sir, I don’t have anyone who can put me in the water when it is stirred up. When I’m trying to get to it, someone else has gotten in ahead of me.” And what scholars think he’s referring to there, by the way, in talking about being put in the water when it’s stirred up, is that the pool all these people were lying next to was a pool that was fed by an intermittent underground spring that would have occasionally forced hotwater up between the rocks at the bottom of the pool, which would then cause the surface of the water to become agitated and bubbles to appear. It’s believed that the popular opinion at the time was that this stirring of the waters was caused by an angel of God, coming down and messing with the water, and that, therefore, the first person who got into the water after that, would be healed. (cf. https://wisdomfromabove.net/2017/06/14/the-healing-at-bethesda-john-51-9/)

But back to our guy. This man responded to Jesus’s question about whether he wanted to be made well, not with an answer to the question, but with the reasons why he hadn’t been able to be made well for all of those years. Why he had stayed ill for so long. Why he remained lying on the side of the pool, sick. 

My first thought in response to his response was to think, “Wow, what a whiner!” Right?? Jesus asked him a simple question, basically offering to heal him. And what I heard in his response was him saying, “Well…but…I don’t have anyone to help me! Everyone else gets there first! I can’t do anything about it! It’s too hard!  Poor me!” 

And I felt pretty justified judging him. And thinking that if I had been Jesus, I would have said, “Well, okay,” written him off as a lost cause, and moved on to make my offer of healing to someone else.  

Thank goodness–thank God–I am not Jesus. Because I suspect Jesus heard something else in the man’s response. I suspect that Jesus heard the words that came out of the man’s mouth, but listened also to what he knew was in the man’s heart. And I wonder if what Jesus heard in the man’s heart, behind the words he spoke with his mouth, was resignation. A disheartened acceptance of his condition. Perhaps even hopelessness. 

And I wonder if Jesus understood this man to be communicating something like this: 

“Do I want to get well? You know, I’ve been lying here for so long without anything changing, that I can’t even imagine any more what it would be like to be well. I’ve been lying here for so long, that I’ve lost sight of the possibility, even, that my life could be different. I’m here, yes, by these healing waters…but really, I’ve pretty much let go of any hope that I will be healed by them. It’s too hard. There are too many things working against me. I can’t do it. If I’m really honest, I don’t think healing is possible. For me. 

Besides, I may not be living the dream here, but I’m used to it. It’s comfortable. I know what to expect. It’s easy…Am I in the middle of the hustle and bustle of life? No. Am I stuck on the sidelines, watching others in the hustle and bustle of life? Yeah. Do I sometimes long for something more? To participate more? To live life more fully? To be more fully myself? Sometimes I do… But here I am. Stuck here. Watching. Waiting. And honestly, not really hoping any more. I’m just here. 

So…do I want to get well? I don’t know. For me even to say, “Yes, absolutely, of course I want to be well!” that would require hope, first of all, and I don’t know if I have any of that left. And then, if I became well, that would require courage. Because it would require change. And change is hard! If I became well, it would require strength. Because it would mean doing things differently. And doing things differently takes hard work! And I’m just not very strong any more. If I became well, it would require patience and commitment. Because change doesn’t happen overnight, and doing things differently after a lifetime of doing them the way I’ve been doing them takes practice. And it’s uncomfortable. And unfamiliar. And scary. And it’s hard!! Or did I already mention that?… 

So you ask me what seems like a simple question: do I want to get well? And I imagine you think it’s a no-brainer. And maybe for most people, it would be. But honestly, I’m not sure…. 

I think Jesus knew all of that about that man. I think he heard all of that in the man’s response, and saw all of that in the man’s position by the side of the pool. As he looked at the man and listened to his words, I think Jesus saw his heart, and held all that was there with tender compassion–rather than quick, self-righteous judgment as was my tendency, as you recall– and…then…still looking at him, Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.”

And in those words that Jesus spoke, I think this is what his heart might have been saying to our guy:

Yes, it will be hard to be well. Harder than it has been to be sick. 

Yes, it will require courage. Remaining stuck is easy. 

Yes, it will require strength. It takes no effort to keep doing what you’ve always done, to keep following the path of least resistance.

Yes, it will require patience and commitment and practice. I will get you started; you will have to keep choosing to be well. Day after day, hour after hour, moment by moment.

Yes, it will be uncomfortable and unfamiliar and scary. 

And yes, it will be hard! Or did I mention that already?? 

And it will allow you to get away from the side of this pool and get up from the sidelines of life. It will allow you to stop watching others participate in the world around you, and step more fully into living yourself. It will allow you to live life more deeply and be who God created you to be more fully. When you are well, and healed, and whole, life will open to you and you will be alive in a deeper, fuller, richer, more meaningful way than, yes, you can even imagine at this moment. 

And you have what you need to do that. You don’t have to wait for someone to do it for you; you don’t have to worry about others arriving first. You have what you need within yourself.  So, get up. Pick up your mat and walk.

What you’ve been doing all these years that’s comfortable? Do less of that. Leave that behind. What you’re considering doing right now that feels uncomfortable? Do more of that. Walk toward that. Embrace that. Those thoughts of “It’s too hard. I can’t. I’m scared. It doesn’t feel good!”? Acknowledge those thoughts, name them, say them out loud. And let go of them. They are not going to make you well. 

Get up. Pick up your mat and walk. Walk forward. One foot in front of the other. One step at a time.

Walk toward healing. Toward being well. Toward being whole. And step into Life. You have what you need already. Get up. Pick up your mat and walk.

I think that’s the exchange that happened and that we would see if we could see what was going on between the man’s heart and the heart of Jesus.

And I think, sometimes, that’s the exchange that goes on between our hearts, and the heart of God. 

God offers us healing and wholeness, asks us if we want to be made well. And sometimes, we respond to God’s invitation to wholeness, God’s question of whether we want to be healed, like my brother responded to my dad: “Umm, no, not really”!! More often we don’t say no out-right like that. But in a way that is far too much like our guy, we do respond with excuses, with “I’m not really sure…because to be healed and whole is scary and uncomfortable, and hard!” 

But here’s the thing–God knows the things that are keeping us from being well, from being all that God made us to be and who God longs for us to be–whether us as individuals…as a church…as a nation…as a world… God knows our excuses, our fears, everything that contributes to our reluctance to change and become more fully who God made us to be, even when what we’re doing and what we’ve been doing for years doesn’t give us what we long for in our deepest selves, which is to be known and accepted and loved as our truest selves…

God knows all of that. And I think we do, too. Somewhere inside of us, there’s a place where we know, there’s a part of us that knows. But there’s also a part of us that doesn’t want to know. There’s a part of us that doesn’t want to see. There’s a part of us, maybe, that doesn’t think we deserve to be well. A part of us, maybe, that doesn’t think we can ever be well, a part of us, maybe, that has given up hope of things changing–for ourselves, for our church, for our country, for the world…? There’s a part of us, maybe, that is resigned to the way things are…because it would be too hard even to hope that things could be different, that things could be better, that we could be healed and whole…

But no less than Jesus said it to our guy, he says it to us: “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.”

I’m going to invite you now to close your eyes for a few moments, and open your heart, and consider what it is that is keeping you from being well… Consider what’s keeping you–or us as a church, a nation, a world–on the sidelines, keeping you or us from being fully who God made you or us to be…and consider if you want to be well….

As you consider what all of that, keeping your eyes closed and your heart open, hear these words to you and to us, from the heart of God:

Yes, it will be hard to be well. Harder than it has been to be sick. 

Yes, it will require courage. Remaining stuck is easy.

Yes, it will require strength. It takes no effort to keep doing what you’ve always done, to keep following the path of least resistance.

Yes, it will require patience and commitment and practice. I will get you started; you will have to keep choosing to be well. Day after day, hour after hour, moment by moment.

Yes, it will be uncomfortable and unfamiliar and scary. And hard! Or did I mention that already?? 

Get up. Pick up your mat and walk.

Get up from the sidelines of life. Stop watching others participate in the world around you, and step more fully into living yourself. Live life more deeply and be who God created you to be more fully. When you are well, and healed, and whole, life will open to you and you will be alive in a deeper, fuller, richer, more meaningful way than, yes, you can even imagine at this moment. 

So, get up. Pick up your mat and walk.

You have what you need to do that. You don’t have to wait for someone to do it for you. You have what you need within yourself. 

So, get up. Pick up your mat and walk.

What you’ve been doing all these years that’s comfortable? Do less of that. Leave that behind. What you’re considering doing right now that feels uncomfortable? Do more of that. Walk toward that. Embrace that. Those thoughts of “It’s too hard. I can’t do it. I’m scared. It doesn’t feel good!”? See them, acknowledge them, name them, say them out loud. And let go of them. They are not going to make you well. 

Get up. Pick up your mat and walk.

Walk forward. One foot in front of the other. One step at a time. Walk toward healing. Toward wellness. Toward being whole. And step into Life. Life isn’t waiting for you. It’s time.

Get up. Pick up your mat and walk.

Amen.