get up. walk.

"Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades.
Here a great number of disabled people used to lie —the blind, the lame, the paralyzed.
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?"
"Sir," the invalid replied, "I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me."

Then Jesus said to him, 'Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.'



i've been listening to a certain sermon (ha) on this passage lately. i'm really loving it.
this guy is lying there lame, Jesus learns that he has been in this condition for a long time and "do you want to get well?"


but do you?

because some of us (most of us) would rather stay in the state we are, wherever that is, than actually reach out and decide to get help or find out who Jesus is calling us to be. because that would involve HUGE change. a flip of the life. we hide in the drowning of our sorrows. we have the emotional maturity of a tween. because change is scary.

Jesus loves us way to much to let us stay there!!


but do you want to get well?


Jesus isn't going to drag anyone into heaven, he's not going to make us become emotionally mature. he doesn't have to.


the best part: Jesus challenges us like he challenged the lame man. he is saying to us,
"Get up. Stop feeling sorry for yourself stop blaming everyone else because they won't put you in the water. Grow up!Walk..."

i could feel sorry for myself. i could wake up, lie there by the water waiting for someone else to heal me from my despair. but everyday, Jesus intervenes. he says to me in a loud, clear voice "Get up. Walk." i praise him for that.


meek and mild? are you kidding?