How Long Would You Wait?
(John 5:1-5)
Thirty-eight years is a long time to sit and wait. Every day was exactly the same for the crippled man. Waiting. Watching. Hoping... and not much changes because sitting at the Pool of Beth-zatha had become a way of life for the man in John's gospel story. He had a physical disability and had sat by the pool for the last 38 years waiting to be healed. How he arrived at the Pool, we are not told. But once there, he was not going to leave because he was convinced his healing and his future lay in this pool of water. So the man sits on his mat, day after day, waiting, watching, wondering, and hoping that one day his life would change.
Its a strange story, because the pool of Beth-zatha (meaning house of mercy) had the reputation of being able to heal – but only the first person to enter the water when it started to bubble. Popular belief was that an angel was stirring the water, which added to the pool's mystery and attraction. But curiously, it was only the first person to enter the pool that was healed; everyone else missed out, and had to wait until the next time the water began to bubble. But because the man in our story was disabled, he was unable to move as fast as others who came seeking healing, so he missed out every time. The result was that he was still waiting to be healed for 38 long years... until one Sabbath day Jesus visited the pool. He saw the man, perceived his problem, and simply told him to “Stand up! Pick up your mat – and walk”... and the man discovered he could!
While this story rests within the medical context of it's day, there are still contemporary stories of people being healed by bathing in the sacred waters of other shrines, such as at Lourdes and Fatima.
However, the pool of Beth-zatha story can also apply to us as well, especially when we hold onto our own unfulfilled hopes and disappointments. We also may end up feeling neglected, left alone, “sitting on our 'mat' (so to speak), and we too may end up believing that other people's needs should come first … and that we have to wait for someone else to fulfil our hopes and longings.
What I found interesting in this story is that Jesus didn't help the man to get into the water. Instead, Jesus responds to the man where he is – sitting on the same mat, stuck in the same situation that has entrapped him for 38 long years. Jesus was not interested in the man's past struggles, disappointments and complaints. Instead, Jesus invites him to do something – to “Stand up, take up his mat and walk.” And when the man responded to Jesus' invitation, he discovered he could walk!
As I dug a little deeper into this story, I discovered that the number '38' occurs in several other places in the Bible. It referred primarily to the time the 'Children of Israel' spent wandering in the desert after they had escaped Egyptian slavery. The lesson they had to learn (as the crippled man also had to learn in this story) is that often the things that we long for and seek are not found outside our various situations or circumstances, but within them.
We all carry our own hopes... and our times of disappointments. We may also have had our own moments when it would be nice if Jesus would change our situation, but he doesn't. We also have to discover that meaning and purpose is not normally found outside the various situations or circumstances we have to face in the course of our daily life, but within them. And we, like the man in this story, are not meant to face these situations alone. Jesus also walks with us, encouraging us and inviting us into a new way of being, and seeing, and believing.
This doesn’t necessarily mean our life will suddenly become easier for us, but we will find new insight and strength in the knowledge that we do not face the situation alone.
Kia Mau te pai ki a koe I to haerenga!
May you find peace and good will on your journey!
Phil
