Pick Up Your Mat and Walk

“Do you want to get well?”

The invalid man who Jesus asked this question had been in his condition for 38 years. 38 years! Longer than many of us have been alive.

According to John 5, the man was waiting by the pool at Bethesda in hopes of being the first one in when the waters were stirred up. The Bible says there were “a great number of disabled people” there that day.

Just like the woman at the well (She Left Her Jar, my last essay), Jesus saw him, saw right through him, to the heart of the matter. This man was physically ill, yes, but just like the woman, he had a sin issue.

Don’t we all?

I love the direct question and I have to admit, sometimes when I hear Jesus ask me one, I am a bit like the invalid man. The man answers, but not in a direct manner. He says that no one is there to help him into the pool, that someone always reaches it before him.

Did he have any idea who he was talking to? Apparently not. He didn’t even know Jesus’ name.

Clearly, this man thought the healing power was in the pool when the water is stirred. But healing personified stood right in front of him, asking him a question with three possible answers: yes, no, or maybe.

This man needed physical healing, it’s true, but like all of us, he also needed spiritual healing. I think when Jesus asked the question, this is the healing he was referring to because He saw the man like He sees us all.

Jesus commands him to get up, to pick up his mat and walk. Notice that the text does not say the man hemmed and hawed. He obeyed at once and is healed. I wonder how long it took him to take the mat and chuck it in the trash? Just like the woman at the well, that mat represented sin and shame.

Getting back to the command: I wonder, would I, do I, do the same when Jesus tells me to do something. Do I listen when He asks if I want to get well, then do the necessary steps it takes to get there? I have to say sometimes, but not always.

A miracle had just happened, but the Jewish leaders cared nothing about this. It was the Sabbath and they wanted to know why the man was carrying his mat when this was forbidden on the commanded day of rest. He did not know; only that Jesus told him to pick up his mat and walk.

Later on, in John 5:14, we get the rest of the story, and it reads a bit like a tabloid. Jesus had found the man at the temple, which was appropriate, given his healing. Worship was in order. And He said, “See you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.”

Wait, what?

I’m not sure I ever noticed this verse before, maybe for innocent reasons, maybe not. There can be a link between physical illness and sin. Not always, as we see in another story in John about the man born blind (John 9). But in this case, there is a direct correlation.

I think it’s interesting that Jesus says what he says to the man when he is at the temple. He is apparently doing the right thing…just like us when we are at church. Right?

I love that Jesus says again. The man started out well, but his sin caused him to be an invalid for 38 years. I also love that he doesn’t gloss over the man’s sin, but at the same time doesn’t camp there. He knew He would be dying for that man’s sin very soon.

The man doesn’t have any arguments. He was self-aware and knew his iniquity. He simply went and told the Jewish leaders that he now had a name for the man who had set him free, in more than one way: Jesus.

He can set us free, too.

So, the question remains: do you want to get well?