Trey H. Little

Sermon Text:  John 5: 1-15

March 20, 2011 (Lent 2)

Albany, Texas

“Life’s Big Questions:  Do You Want To Get Well?”

Welcome back to all of you “Spring Breakers”—I hope you all had a nice week—we have been waiting for you!!

Quickly, let me bring everyone up to date, today marks the second Sunday of Lent and during this Lenten season we are exploring “Life’s Big Questions.’  We are listening to the “Big” questions Jesus—the One who is Life—asked.  Do the questions make a difference in our lives today?  Better yet, how will we answer them with our lives make a difference in this world?

So, turn with me to John 5: 1-15.

            Did you read the story about a cowboy out in Arizona who was riding down a trail horseback and as he rounded a bend he saw an Indian lying in the middle of the trail?  The Indian had his ear pressed close to the ground.  As the cowboy got closer to the Indian, he overheard the Indian speaking.  The Indian said, “Wagon—drawn by two horses.  Horses both dapple gray.  Passengers in wagon—two passengers—one man, one woman—man driving.”

            The cowboy was amazed.  He just couldn’t believe it.  He said, “That’s incredible, I simply can’t believe it!  You can tell all of that just by listening with your ear to the ground?

            The Indian replied, “No, they ran over me half hour ago!”  (Norman Nees, Living Down in the Valley).

            If only we could have such a calm demeanor after being run over!  Most of us in here this morning have been run over more than once.  Perhaps we got flattened by the news the company we worked for no longer “needed our services because they were moving in a different direction.”  We may have been run over by the news from the doctor’s office that says the tumor is malignant.  We may have been stopped in our tracks by broken relationships; loss; controversy; debt; tragedy, etc.  All too often something comes along that knocks us off our feet and sends us staggering through life—longing for someone to come along and pick us up and tell us we are going to be OK.

            Now, imagine if you were flattened for 38 years?

            According to our text this morning Jesus saw this man—one who “had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.”  The text does not give us much detail of precisely what was wrong with this man—but we get a sense that this man had made a career out of being sick.  We also know that he was not alone at the pool—there were many disabled people around him—some were blind, some were lame, some were paralyzed. 

            What a scene—a bunch of people gathered in one place—all with something  disabling them—kind of sounds like the church, doesn’t it?

            But the pool they gathered around was legendary.  The legend was that each time the angel of the Lord entered the pool, the waters would be stirred up, to the point of bubbling and the first person who makes it into the pool while it was stirring would be made well.  We may brush this “legend” off as more of a superstition.  We might be scratching our heads in wonder at how these folks could spend five minutes around a “healing pool” much less thirty-eight years.  How could they do such a thing?  How could they believe such a thing?

However, what strikes me more in this text than the pool—is the dialogue between the man and Jesus.  After seeing the man, Jesus asked:  “Do you want to get well?” 

Some of us might be thinking—“Duh, Jesus—of course he would want to get well.”

However, for at least thirty-eight years this was all this man knew.  Getting well could change his life.  Being well would bring on new responsibilities.  He may have to leave and go to a new place.  He may have to have to work.  He may have to tell others about his miraculous healing.  Not to mention what the others would think.  Consider the grief he would catch from all the others that were waiting by the pool.  The fact is, being made well would change everything and Jesus wanted to know if that was what this man sincerely desired.

How would you answer “Life’s Big Question:  Do you want to get well?”

I know, I know—“Duh pastor—of course we want to get well.”

If that is the case, then why do we spend so much time talking about all the things that make us sick?  Why is the church so often paralyzed by the illness of pride and ego?  Why does the church struggle to BE the church?  Why do we let the brokenness of this world fragment the wholeness that is available to us in Jesus?

You see, Jesus asked a question that pierced the very core of who we are.  His question called for a decision.  Jesus did not come to stir the water He came to stir the souls of people—people who desired to be made whole.  Are you one of those people?

The man in our story answered Jesus by saying, “Sir, 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.”

 I love this guy!  Perhaps it is because he reminds me of our need to admit we need help but then also we need to be willing to accept it.  The way I see it, this man was not trying to tread in self-pity—he just didn’t know how to dive into the deep water.  He knew he needed help—but until that day, no one had offered to help him.  This man had seemingly reached the end of his rope and was ready to respond.

Where are you on your rope today?  Do you want to get well? 

Friends, the amazing thing about God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ is that we don’t have to wait another day for it.  We don’t have to sit by a pool and hope someone will come along and push us in.  We don’t have to live in frustration thinking we don’t have anyone to help us.  We no longer have to live a life of playing the victim—Jesus has given us the ability to live in Victory.

On Wednesday I was driving home from South Texas—six and a half hours of prayer and praise.  The entire way home I was listening to some old Christian music that I had not listened to in a while.  One of the great things about traveling alone is you can sing at the top of your lungs and actually believe that you are good!  I did and I was!   

One of the songs I listened to was “Free” by Steven Curtis Chapman.  I must have listened to it 20 times on the way home—I just kept hitting replay.  The more I listened to the words the more my eyes filled up with tears.  My tears were the result of the conviction that I desperately wanted to “get well.” 

Listen to some of the words:  The sun was beating down inside the walls of stone and razor wire.  As we made our way across the prison yard I felt my heart begin to race as we drew nearer to the place where they say that death is waiting in the dark.  The slamming doors of iron echoed through the halls—where despair holds life within its cruel claws.  But then I met a man whose face seemed so strangely out of place.  A blinding light of hope was shining in his eyes and with repentance in his voice he told me of his tragic choice that led him to this place where he must pay the price.  But then his voice grew strong as he began to tell about the One he said had rescued him from hell, he said . . .I'm free, I have been forgiven; God's love has taken off my chains and given me these wings and I'm free, and the freedom I've been given is something that not even death can take away from me.

At this point in the song I was already feeling “goose bumps” and I had a little tear or two in my eyes.  But then it hit me—what came next is what made me want to “get up!” 

The words went:  We said a prayer and said goodbye and tears began to fill my eyes as I stepped back out into the blinding sun.  And even as I drove away I found that I could not escape the way he spoke of what the grace of God had done I thought about how sin had sentenced us to die and how God gave His only Son so you and I could say . . .I’m free, I have been forgiven; God’s love has taken off my chains and given me these wings and I’m free.

Friends, I believe Jesus could have just as easily asked the question “Do you want to get FREE?” but He didn’t.  He asked, “Do you want to get well?” 

Could it be that recognizing we are sick is the first step toward getting well?  Could it be that being forgiven is one way Jesus helps us “get well?”  Could it be that getting well sets us FREE? 

Life’s Big Question:  Do you want to get well?—life’s big challenge—admitting we are sick; life’s big mistake—thinking we have no one to help us!

AMEN.