Day 10 - Saturday, March 7 Do You Want to Get Well? DAILY READING - Jn 4:43-5:15 Jesus returns to Cana in Galilee where he performed the first sign, turning water into wine at a wedding. A royal official from Capernaum traveled to Galilee to beg Jesus to heal his sick son. The fact that he traveled, while his son was close to death, to beg Jesus for healing says something about this man. Is it faith or desperation that drives him? If someone you loved dearly was close to death, how likely would you be to leave them? What would compel you to leave them? Jesus replied to the royal official, “Unless you people (plural) see and , you will never .” (NIV) Is Jesus rebuking the Galileans? Is he rebuking humanity? Or, is he making a simple, truthful statement about human nature? Jesus performs signs and wonders. Jesus heals the royal official’s son. Jesus may be rebuking humanity in his statement. He might also be making a simple statement about the nature of humanity. Regardless, Jesus performed miracles. This tells me that while Jesus may be frustrated, he provided what was necessary for belief. What does this say to us today? In Jn 4:53, the father realized that his son was healed at the exact moment Jesus said he was healed. John tells us it was only after he saw his son healed that he believed. This portrait proves the frustration of Jesus to be accurate. Our human nature DOES need signs and wonders to believe. Faith in the unknown and unseen is hard. If you’ve ever felt like a “bad” Christian because you need some outward sign that Jesus is real, know that you are not alone. We live on earth separated from the Holy, transcendent God. The Good News is that Jesus came to be an immanent presence of the transcendent God; and, he performs physical signs and wonders for us as living proof of his presence. What are some signs that Jesus has given you so that you would believe in Him? The third sign of Jesus occurs at the pool of Bethesda. Disabled people gathered around the pool in hopes of healing. Jesus finds a man who has been unable to walk for thirty-eight years. That’s quite a long time. Jesus asks him, “DO YOU WANT TO GET WELL?” Write the question from God located in Genesis 3:9. Write the question from Jesus located in John 1:37. How do the three questions above relate to each other? Why does Jesus ask the question, “Do you want to get well?”, before healing the man? What is the man’s response? There are always areas of our lives that need healing. Sometimes we are not healed because we make excuses. Excuses give us something to hide behind. The core question regarding our healing is always do we want to be healed. Have we become too comfortable with what ails us? Does our dysfunction serve a purpose in our lives? Do we find excuses that prevent our healing? Is our dysfunction easier to manage than the perceived work it will take to heal? Do we not know how to be healed? Why do we NOT want to be healed? Think about an area of your life that needs healing and if you really WANT healing or not. If Jesus came to you today and asked, “Do you want to get well?, how would you respond? Sometimes we desperately want healing and we don’t see healing happening. What is Jesus doing in those times? Jesus heals. He healed the son of the royal official. He healed the man by the pool of Bethesda. Jesus heals. Sometimes we resist the healing hand of Jesus. Sometimes we don’t believe he can heal us. Sometimes we think we can heal ourselves, we don’t need Jesus. Sometimes we don’t see the healing happening. But, Jesus is always healing. Maybe in those times that we don’t see the healing that we want to see, Jesus is healing something deeper within us. Read Matthew 9:20-22. Spend some time praying that you would have faith like this woman, believing that just one touch from Jesus heals.