“Do you want to be healed?” It might seem like a silly question for Jesus to ask an obvious invalid. But the fact is that many who are trapped in various kinds of sin have grown accustomed to their slavery. Many are no longer looking for relief from anger or bitterness, from greed or envy, or from various kinds of addictions or compulsions.

Now, the sick man’s answer implies that he did want to be healed – after all that’s why he had come to the pool of Bethesda. But he found himself trapped in another way – all he could think about was getting into the pool at the right time. In other words, he was stuck, looking in only one direction for a solution to his sickness.

And where it comes to our sin problems, we can wear similar blinders. Many people imagine that the key to greater holiness lies completely within themselves, that they simply need to engage in more prayer or more Bible reading or to exert greater personal effort to overcome their sin. It is thus easy for them to fall into despair and discouragement when their efforts prove futile.

But however beneficial any religious practices may be, Jesus shows us that He is the only One Who can bring true freedom, true relief from sin and its deadly effects. For He Himself brought healing to this sick man with a simple word, something this sick man never expected or imagined could be possible.

Now it is true that Jesus told the man to “Sin no more” after he was healed. Thus, there does remain much room for each of us to pursue greater holiness of life, to seek clearer understanding of God’s will through study of His Word, and to draw closer to the Lord in prayer. But we must never forget that Christ alone is the source of our new life. It is only His Holy Spirit Who gives us the ability to grow in grace, becoming more like our Savior each and every day.

So, will we recognize our need for Christ today? Will we trust Him alone to heal and to save us? And by His power will we then live only for His glory?

John 5:1-18 (ESV)

After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades.
3 In these lay a multitude of invalids– blind, lame, and paralyzed.
4
5 One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.
6 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?”
7 The sick man answered him, “Sir, 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.”
8 Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.”
9 And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath.
10 So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.”
11 But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.'”
12 They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?”
13 Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place.
14 Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.”
15 The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him.
16 And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath.
17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”
18 This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.