Some philosophers ask, “Why isn’t there equal suffering in the world? Why do some people suffer more than others?”
The government, in its infinite wisdom, decided to do something about the unfair and unbalanced distribution of misery in the world so they created the Department of Motor Vehicles. It’s a place where almost everyone would have to go and suffer equally.
I think the only people who are excited about a trip to the DMV are pimply-faced, braces-laden teens in search of a driver’s permit. They walk in with their strung out moms who are questioning their mental stability since they are one test away from allowing a kid who can’t put dirty underwear in a laundry basket to operate a two-ton piece of machinery at 70 miles per hour. But even those giddy teenagers are reluctant to make subsequent trips to the DMV because their return visit is to either take the test again due to first-time failure or to face the dreaded driver’s road test with Sergeant Stuffedshirt of the State Highway Patrol seated next to them.
There is a reason why people don’t smile in their driver’s license photo. It’s the same reason why convicts don’t smile in mug shots. When you are mentally, physically, and emotionally drained and defeated, smiles are lost deep in the wound. I’ve watched people walk in the entrance door of the DMV laughing, smiling, and enjoying their day. By the time they go out the exit door, their shoulders are slumped. They are frowning. They are robotic and lifeless. Their countenance has taken a 180 degree turn. Like a whipped puppy with his tail between his legs, so Joe Public departs from the sacred halls of mutual misery. It is an incredible transformation.
In its attempt at balanced despair for all, my local DMV has recently made one change to make the gloom a little more palatable. You have to take a number. It used to be that you had to stand in line, a.k.a., a queue. At least with a number in hand, you can sit in the waiting room instead of competing for the Guinness Book world record for standing in one place. (The current world record was set by a 67-year-old lady named Patience Dishwater who lived up to her name at a Cleveland DMV in 1989 when a flu epidemic swept through the entire payroll minus one rookie tag tosser in training. Patience stood in line from Monday morning until closing on Friday afternoon. “I’m retired and don’t have anything else to do,” Patience told a local TV news crew who reported the story. “I just kept letting people go in front of me ‘cuz I figured they were in more of a hurry than me. Before I knew it, it was Friday afternoon.”)
In Jesus’ day, there was a pool that could have used the number system. The pool of Bethesda wasn’t like your local country club or community pool. This pool wasn’t designed for soccer moms and the kids to waste away a sunny, summer afternoon while dad was out beating the pavement selling color copiers. This pool had healing powers. Whether it was true, or just believed to be true, the locals in Jerusalem believed that on occasion an angel would cause the waters to be stirred in such a way that the first one in the moving waters would be healed of their infirmity. (I assume that this is when the phrase, “First one in the pool!” was invented.) Obviously, the pool was surrounded by scores of people with physical challenges in need of a miracle.
It seems like a cruel prank. Would God create a pool that would serve as a magnet for the infirmed in hopes of walking again? Would he really design this mystery water that forced the physically challenged to race with each other for first dibs on well-being? Was this the first ever Special Olympics? Why was his healing power only good for one person at a time? Why didn’t he just sweep his hand over the entire poolside and heal them all? They obviously came in faith believing that the healing powers of the pool might deliver them.
So why didn’t someone, a lifeguard or the pool manager, create a number system for these people? Why didn’t they structure an organized, first-come-first-served arrangement? Why didn’t they form a healing line? Why did they allow this brutal game with really bad odds to continue? Can you imagine doing this at the DMV? What if you had to stand around in no particular order at the DMV and wait for a clerk to be stirred to action? What if you had to race the competition to the next available tag tosser to get a license plate? The lobby of the DMV would look like the Jerry Springer show.
There is one thing the pool did accomplish. It gave the afflicted hope. Maybe they needed hope more than they needed healing. At least in their misery and pain, they had hope that they could be healed at any instant. It was just a matter of getting to the pool before the others. If I could just make it to the pool faster next time, they thought. If I could just get someone to help me next time. If I could stay on the alert and watch the waters more closely, they thought. If, if, if. A small word that sometimes issues volumes of hope.
One day Jesus was walking by the pool of Bethesda when he saw a man lying there. The lame man had been in his condition for 38 years and had been lying next to the pool for a long time. (How long he was there is not clearly indicated.) Jesus asked the man, “Do you wish to get well?” A question with an obvious answer. I’m not quite sure why Jesus asked him this. It seems like a dumb question but then, I ain’t Jesus. (And you should be thrilled at that news.) Maybe Jesus just needed to hear the man say it. Sometimes people become content with their burdens. To be healed after 38 years would be a major shift in the way this man lived. He would no longer have to depend on others to care for him. He would have a new burden of making a living and accepting responsibilities. Jesus wanted this man to think seriously about his desires in life.
The handicapped man explained to Jesus that when the waters of the pool are stirred up there is no one around to help him get into the water. He can never be the first one in the pool. He didn’t lack the desire to be healed but the means. Jesus didn’t waste any time. He said to the sick man, “Arise, take up your pallet, and walk.” Immediately the man was healed. His bones, muscles, ligaments, and tendons grew instantly strong. He grabbed the mat that he had been laying on for who knows how long and he began to walk.
I have a lot of questions about this story. Did God really operate the pool of Bethesda as the locals believed? If so, why? (1) Did Jesus go around the poolside after healing the man and heal the others there too? I’d like to think that he did but there is no indication in the Scriptures. Could Jesus really stand by the pool and see all of the others who needed healing without helping them too? Could he just heal one man, smile at the rest of the infirmed, tell them to have a nice day, and walk away? And, seriously, why didn’t they organize this whole thing? If the DMV could think of a number system or even a queue, why couldn’t they?
Once again, I don’t have all of the answers. But I do know this: There are a lot of people who feel trapped by their infirmities whether they are physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual. A ton of people have lost hope in this world. They believe there is no hope or help available to them. Do you know anyone who has an infirmity or weakness that has given up the idea of conquering their problem? Instead, they have decided to just deal with it as it is? There are those who never get over a loss. Those who can’t advance because of a lack of education. Those who let a handicap drain their zest for life. Jesus has the authority and the ability to set you free from your disability.
I don’t know if he healed the others around the pool that day and I don’t know why God allows some to suffer more than others, but this I do know, he can heal you. He wants to heal you and make you spiritually whole. He may or may not remove your physical burden. That’s up to him and his sovereign plan for your life. But I know he wants you to be spiritually healed. He died that you might be made whole.
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. (1 Peter 2:24)
(1) The pool of Bethesda was likely a type of underground spring that bubbled up and gave people therapeutic and psychological healing much like places such as Hot Springs, Arkansas or Warm Springs, Georgia. Legend and superstition added the belief that an angel of the Lord stirred the waters. It was more likely a natural occurrence.
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