Wilt Thou Be Made Whole?

 You've read the passage many times, but I have been thinking a lot about the man with the infirmity described in John chapter 5.  He was lying by the sheep pool waiting for the angel to trouble the water so that he could be dunked into it and healed.

Jesus walked by and saw him, and knew that he had been a long time 'in that case', and asked him this curious question...

 "WILT THOU BE MADE WHOLE?"

Now why would He ask that?  Of course the man wanted to be made whole.  Didn't he?  At first read it seemed kind of a silly question.  But, one thing I know about Jesus, and that is that He never minced words.  EVERYTHING that he said was for a purpose, and it pierced straight to the soul.  So why did He ask that guy if he wanted to be healed, especially since He knew the answer to the question anyway.

But when I thought about it, I realized that He did not ask the man if he wanted to be made whole because He needed an answer to the question, but rather He asked it so the man would have to make a choice...did he, or did he not want to be made whole?

Lying by a sheep pool with an infirmity doesn't sound like a whole lot of fun, but maybe there were some advantages.  I am sure that there was some kind of fellowship with the others that were hanging around there, the Bible says in verse 3 that there was a great multitude of the impotent by the pool.  Misery loves company, and I am sure that there was some pretty riveting gossip going back and forth, and camaraderie of sorts from the regulars.  Plus, maybe he was professing that he wanted to be made well, but in reality lying by the pool may have been easier than going out and getting a job...who knows what was in this guy's heart?  

Jesus knew.  And He must have known that there was some reason that the man with the infirmity was ambivalent in regard to his healing, so He asked him if this was what he wanted.  Did he want to be made whole?  Jesus was asking him to clarify this...to choose.

I think that the reason I have been thinking about this so much is because I am a lot like the guy with the infirmity.  I don't have a physical infirmity, but I have recurring sins in my life that I have never really dealt with.  Oh...I confess them to God, and ask for His help in dealing with them, but I have never really surrendered them.  Why?  Probably because I don't want to give them up, or I enjoy them, or maybe I don't think that they are all that big compared to the sin of murder, for instance.  God doesn't see it that way at all, and I don't in my mind, but in my heart I probably do.  The saying goes that the biggest reason for sin is the middle letter 'I'.  Jesus is telling me in this passage that I am confessing with my mouth that I need deliverance from certain sins, but in my heart I am holding them close.  So He is asking me,

"WILT THOU BE MADE WHOLE?"

He wants me to make a choice.  Do I really want to be made whole, or do I want to go along the way I have been...thinking that I will deal with this tomorrow.  When my father-in-law was told that he had only two months left to live, he told me that I had no idea how short a lifetime really is.  Tomorrow may never come, time eventually runs out.  So again, the question...

"WILT THOU BE MADE WHOLE?"

It is way past time for me to deal with sin in my life.  The hour is now.  And if I don't?  The wages of sin eventually lead to death, but look again at verse 3.  The man with the infirmity was lying there with 'a great multitude of impotent folk'.  Also, in verse 7 the guy with the infirmity was described as the 'impotent man'.  I looked up the definition of impotent, and the definition is disabled, unable to perform action.  Synonyms are ineffectual, incompetent, incapable, inept.

Just as a physical infirmity can hinder you, how much more so can a sin infirmity render you ineffectual in your Christian walk.   Surrender ain't for cowards, but at some point you gotta make the choice to die to self.  Which is why Jesus asks me, and you...

"WILT THOU BE MADE WHOLE?"