John 5:1-6 "Poolside"

You are welcome to use parts of this sermon, but if you do, please attribute them properly!  

        Where were you 38 years ago?  That would have been 1978.  A gallon of gas cost $.63, and a dozen eggs were $.48.  Jimmy Carter was President, and the Camp David Accords were signed, bringing an end to the decades long war between Egypt and Israel.  At the movies, John Travolta got us all disco dancing in “Saturday Night Fever”, “National Lampoon’s Animal House” introduced us to John Belushi on the big screen, and we romanced to Debby Boone singing “You Light Up My Life.”

         Where were you 38 years ago? Now, for a few of you, I know that question is rhetorical because you were not even born yet.  So – for you, 38 years is more than all the years you have lived thus far.  For those of you around 50, you were just on the edge of puberty – gawky, pimply, hormones on parade.  If you are now nearing retirement age, you were on the cutting edge of your career and your work life back then.  What if you are in your mid-70’s or 80’s now?  You were probably in the midst of raising a family, maybe gearing up for your children’s teenaged years.  Thirty-eight years ago, for you, would have been more or less half your life.

         But no matter how you parse it out, thirty-eight years is a good long time.  And that is how long, according to the Bible story we just read, a nameless paralyzed manlay on his mat by the waters of the Beth-zatha Pool in Jerusalem. 

         This popular pool was located in a complex of pools close to the Temple.  It was near the Sheep Gate, the entrance to the Holy City that shepherds used when they brought their lambs to be sacrificed.  You see, it was required that, before the shepherds entered the Temple with their flocks, they would stop at a certain one of the five pools and bathe the animals, thereby purifying them. 

         The Beth-zatha Pool in particular had the reputation of having amazing, truly miraculous healing powers – much like the present day thermal springs of Guadeloupe.  It was no wonder then that the halt, the lame, the blind, and the sick gathered round the special waters on a daily basis. 

         The universally believed legend was that periodically God would “trouble” the waters.  That is, ancient tradition had it that an angel would come and stir up the still pool. 

When the waters began to move, it was said that the first person – and only the first person - to enter the water would be cured.  Kind of like a competitive Lourdes, the famous healing center in France.

         As the Bible story goes, Jesus came to the Beth-zatha Pool, certainly not to be healed himself but more to minister to those who anxiously waited, their eyes glued to the glass-like pool, ready to leap, roll, pull themselves into the waters, praying to be first, hoping to be cured once and for all of whatever ailed them. 

         We do not really know why Jesus zeroed in on the man who had been lying on his mat poolside for 38 years, dropped off each morning by his caretaker and picked up again when the sun went down.  Maybe it was because he just looked as stagnant as his life must have been:  Every day the same.  Waiting.  Watching.  Hoping.  Nothing changing. 

         Jesus ambled up to the man and engaged him in conversation, starting off with a simple question, pointblank:  “Hey, buddy, do you want to be made well?  Do you want to be healed?” 

         One would think that after lying around paralyzed for 38 years, the man’s answer would have been a simple and resounding “yes!”  However, it is a strange question, when you think about it. And we should know Jesus well enough by now to realize that he never asked a foolish question in all his days of ministry.  Even the most direct questions he throws out there are heavy-laden with deep meanings and are never as simple as we might first think them to be. 

       Though the man in question was paralyzed and could not easily move his body, in contrast, his mind was agile and quick on the uptake.  He caught on immediately and sensed both the gravity and the many layers of Jesus’ query. 

       So, he thoughtfully tried to avoid answering, thinking it best to leave his options open.  Therefore, when Jesus asked: “Hey, buddy, do you want to be made well?  Do you want to be healed?” – the answer was not a straightforward and resounding “Yes!” Instead, the paralyzed man pondered for a fraction of a second:  Did he want to be healed?  Deep down inside, did he want to change?  Did he really want to choose life?

       And so, as one blogger wrote: “The man immediately starts in with his standard line, saying ‘Master! Sure! I want to be healed! But – poor me – someone always beats me into the pool!’ That’s been his line, and people have been buying it for thirty-eight years.”

      However, Jesus does not let the man off the hook so easily. Our blogger continues:  Jesus “doesn’t tell him, ‘Why, you unfortunate man. Curse these wicked and hard-hearted people for not having compassion and helping you.’ No. And Jesus doesn’t say, ‘My heart goes out to you. I’ll leave old Peter with you here and he’ll make sure you get in the water next time it’s troubled.’ Not at all. Neither does Jesus command those around the pool to let the man get into the pool nor does he volunteer himself to help the man down to the waters.

         Jesus cuts through the set attitude the man offers up. He interrupts him. He’s rude. It’s one of the classic interruptions in all the New Testament….Jesus simply says (in essence, “Quit your grouching!”) Stand up! Take your mat and walk.”

         Tough Love?  Maybe, but it worked.  The man got up and walked.  He left behind 38 years of excuses, 38 years of seeing himself only as a victim, and stood up a cured, a different, a new man. 

         Interestingly enough, the word that Jesus speaks - “stand up” – when translated is a word that is also used to describe resurrection. 

So, on another level of interpretation, after 38 years, the man chooses resurrection.  He chooses transformation.  The victim chooses to be a victim no longer.  He chooses life.

         There is a fable about an eagle and a chicken.  A baby eagle became orphaned and was stuck in his nest when his parents never returned to feed him. Soon his instinct for survival kicked in.  He knew he could not just remain tucked away where he was, and so he glided down to the ground because he was not yet able to fly.  A man happened to find him, picked him up, looked him over, shook his head, and took the baby eagle to a nearby farmer.  He said knowingly to the farmer, “This is a special kind of barnyard chicken that will grow up big.”

         The farmer said, “Don’t look like no barnyard chicken to me.”

         Not wanting to keep the baby bird himself, the man replied with great confidence. “Oh, yes, it is.  You will be glad to own it.”  So the farmer took the baby eagle and placed it with his chickens.

         As the baby eagle grew, he learned to imitate the chickens. He soon could scratch the ground for grubs and worms.  To make a long story short, he grew up thinking he was a chicken.

         Then one day an eagle flew over the barnyard. Our fledgling eagle looked up and wondered, “What kind of animal is that? How graceful, powerful, and free it is.”

         So he asked another chicken, “What is that up there soaring so beautifully in the sky?”

         The chicken replied, “Oh, that?  That’s an eagle. But don’t worry yourself about it. You will never be able to fly like one of those.”

         And so the eagle went back to scratching the ground. He continued to behave like the chicken he thought he was.  Finally he died, never knowing the grand life that might have been.

         Now – that story is a fable because its point is something that we all should take to heart, just like this Bible story has something to say to us lo these millennia later.  Both the fable and the Bible story raise questions that we are destined, in one way or another, to answer.

         How often do we live our lives less fully than God intended, like chickens instead of the eagles we were meant to be?  How often do we give up our passions and instead allow what seem to be the realities of life take over, chip away at our dreams until we see no alternative but to settle for less – for just surviving rather than authentically living?  How many of us live like the paralyzed man did for 38 long years, live what Episcopal priest Michael Marsh calls an “as soon as” life.

         “As soon as the water bubbles then I will get up off my mat. As soon as I get to the water my life will be better. As soon as I get into the water my problems will be fixed.”

         (But guess what, folks?) The pool of Beth-zatha is an illusion. It convinces us that our life is nothing more than our circumstances…. As soon as this or that happens everything will be better. I’ll be happy. My problems will go away. I’ll be satisfied. All will be well.”

         “As soon as ….” You can fill in the blank with most anything. The problem is there will always be another pool of Beth-zatha. Meanwhile life has been put on hold. The pause button has been pushed. We sit on our mat, self-imprisoned by the circumstances of our life.”  We live like victims – and miss a lot of what life was meant to be. 

         Otto Kroeger, Lutheran pastor as well as expert, pioneer, and author in the field of personality preference, once knowing said that when you are paralyzed, overcome by a fear of the future or simply by the chaos of papers on your desk: “Just do something.”  Do not be a victim of your circumstances. 

         Instead, be like the paralyzed man lying by the pool.  All it took was one moment of clarity when he believed that maybe, just maybe his life could be different. He took a leap of faith.  He gave up the most fundamental story he told about himself and chose to believe another story, the one that Jesus told, the one that read that he did not need to be a victim.  And in that moment, this broken ailing man was able to leave his excuses behind and with Jesus’ hand in his, attempt to stand. 

       As Presbyterian pastor Jon Walton wrote, “Into the emotional, spiritual, moral and relational quagmire of our lives, God asks just one question, “Do you want to be healed?” And you know, you don’t even have to have a coherent answer because life may be so confused at that point that even you don’t know for sure.

      But with some encouragement to get up, if you put one hand beneath you and push yourself up, before you realize what’s happening you may actually find that you are standing up and able to take your mat and walk. And it’s not your strength that really gets you up, because it’s God’s strength within you that does it.”

         Do you want to be healed?  Do you want to change? Do you want to let go, forgive, restore yourself, and mend the brokenness that is tearing you apart? What do you still have to hang on to – even if whatever it is diminishes you?  Do you want to be whole?

         Then get up, discard the old story that you tell about yourself, and start to tell the new story, the one that begins by saying that you do not need to be a victim, the one that continues by saying that you need not rely on your strength alone, that the Holy Spirit itself will be the wind beneath your wings, the one that challenges you to get up, do something, take up the Cup of Freedom – freedom to heal – and choose life, real life.
by Rev. Nancy Foran, Raymond Village Community Church UC.C., Raymond, Maine