“When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, ‘Do you want to get well?'” (John 5:6, NIV)
A little story (not true, but illustrative): Jesus encountered three disabled men along the roadside. The first, He touched and he was able to walk. He touched the second man, and his sight was restored. As Jesus approached the third man, the man retreated and said, “Don’t touch me! I am on permanent disability.”
It may be hard for some of us to fathom, but those who have spent time helping acutely needful people can attest to the fact that not all such people want to “get well”; especially if they have been in that “condition for a long time.” Change — even for good — can be unsettling because it means releasing the old, familiar, ways. Change means — well — change.
Our Lord addresses each of us at the point of our need, and He asks, “Do you want to get well?” – Luther
