He Helps the Helpless

One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” The sick man answered him, “I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked (John 5:5-9)

Sometimes suffering can go on so long we lose hope.

We lie on the mats of our circumstances and watch others rush past in pursuit of their own healing and happiness. 

We are always in the back of the line, it seems. We come to believe we are unnoticed. Helpless. This is a lonely place to dwell, so close to the healing source but so left out. We go to church week after week, suffering in silence, wishing someone would pick us up and carry our burden with us for a while.

The man by the pool at Bethesda had suffered so long he was beginning to feel sorry for himself. 

On this particular day, Help Himself marched right up to the suffering man and asked him point-blank:

“Do you want to be healed?” 

The man couldn’t even answer. He was too wrapped up in his preoccupation with the unfairness of his situation. 

Thankfully, the Messiah who helps also has mercy on us in our weakness.

Recognized

Jesus recognized not only the man’s illness but how long he had suffered. The text implies that it was that knowledge, the length of suffering, that compelled Jesus to ask the question, “Do you want to be healed?”

Jesus recognizes your suffering. Furthermore, He cares about how long you have waited for help to come.

Reminded

When asked if he wanted to be healed, the man answered by complaining. He was defensive. On his own, he wasn’t strong enough to get to the front of the line and dip in the water. And he had no one to help him.

In his view, he couldn’t win for losing.

So what did the man mean asking, “Do you want to be healed?” Of course he did, but he couldn’t be, because the odds were just stacked against him.

This is a familiar train of thought for many of us who suffer for a long time. Of course we want it to end. We want relief. But we just can’t seem to get ahead of it. Suffering is exhausting.

A preoccupation with what others should or should not be doing for us makes us bitter and defensive. Focusing on our weakness and limitation leads to disappointment. We slip further down the slimy slope of self-pity. We believe we are helpless.

Little did the man by the pool know that the One who asked the question “Do you want to be healed?” was The Source of Healing.

Even when asked who healed him later by the Jews in John 5:10-11, he described Jesus as a mere man. 

The man had lost hope and his focus was no longer on healing. It was on the unfairness of it all. He believed he was helpless. He was eaten up with the helplessness of his situation and the advantage everyone else seemed to have over him. 

Yet Jesus did not pass him by.

Jesus reminds us of the #hope hidden in our helplessness. #encouragement Share on X

Jesus will not pass us by, even when our suffering drives us to complain and feel sorry for ourselves. 

He has been preserving our hope for us, protecting it, even as we lay weakened by discouragement and loneliness.

Restored

Jesus was not daunted by the invalid’s complaints. This man did nothing we would call spiritually admirable to earn Jesus’ favor.

When finally offered help, he breathed a sigh of relief and gushed out the bitter complaints that had been welling up inside of him for years. Finally, someone was looking at him, listening to him! What a relief it must have been to unburden himself to this stranger, even though He had asked the sick man what appeared to be a dumb question with an obvious answer. 

Maybe the guy would even feel sorry for him and pick him up, dump him in the waters the next time they stirred. Self-pity and desperation lead to manipulation, and this man was pulling out all the stops in his attempt to get someone to help him.

Had he known he was talking to the Son of God, the One who had the power to heal him and forgive his sins, he might have answered differently.

God cannot be manipulated, nor do his children need to manipulate him in the first place. Manipulation is not necessary inside the safety of genuine love. The One speaking to the sick man loved him utterly. His mind was on the man’s complete restoration and nothing could deter him.

Jesus’ mind is on our complete restoration. Nothing can deter Him from His purpose. Not even our bad attitudes and sinful responses to the suffering in our lives. 

We are never truly helpless. Help Himself draws near and with a fierce gaze of love, looks right past our attitudes and discouragement to what we need most. “Do you want to be healed?” 

Yes, Lord. I want to be healed. Make me whole today. Amen.

@audreycfrank