Do you want to get well?

I watched an Evangelist Nathan Morris (https://shakethenations.com/about/nathan-morris/) revival service on my computer one spring day in 2011, one of many such services, live and recorded, that I watched that year.

I was undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer, a total of five months’ worth.*

And as is common, chemotherapy had lowered my immune system and thus I’d been told to not go out in public (except for the doctor’s office and hospital, of course). That meant no shopping in stores, no attending church, no going any place where some sick person might cough or sneeze on me, until my immune system recovered from chemotherapy. That could take a while, my doctors informed me. And so, a lot of television, a lot of internet programs, and a lot of reading occupied my day.

In the middle of Nathan’s message, he walked down the steps from the platform into the crowd. He approached a section off to the side where a number of people sat in wheelchairs.

The television cameraman followed him as he approached one lady and asked her an odd question: “Do you want to get well?”

I wondered why he asked such a question. She was there, wasn’t she? At a healing service? Conducted by this evangelist well known for the many miracle healings that took place in his services?

I wondered if he anticipated her answer… Because she said, No.

He gently asked her, Why not? And through some tears she told him it was because she was afraid she’d lose her disability benefits, her only income. Fear. Fear of being unable to support herself if she was well again kept her from truly wanting or seeking to be made well.

Nathan did pray for her, but he prayed that the Lord would minister faith to her, faith that he could not only make her well, he could also provide all her needs, body, soul and spirit. After a hug and a smile, he moved on to pray for several other people in the crowd. There was no follow-up information about that lady, whether she ever got out of her wheelchair or not. I hope she did.

Jesus also asked that odd question.

Most of the time when Jesus healed somebody, he just did it. Different ways, of course. One time he spit on the ground, made mud and slathered a blind man’s eyes with it. Not exactly polite. Another time he just told a crippled man to do something he couldn’t do, like get up off your mat, pick it up and go home… on another occasion he wasn’t even in the same town with the sick person he healed, he just said a few words and it was done.

One thing he usually didn’t do was ask – what do you want? Only on two occasions did he ask such a strange question.

John 5 tells about the crippled man at the pool of Bethesda. Do you want to get well? Jesus asked him.

What an odd thing to ask. The crowd around the pool was there for one thing only, to get healed. Occasionally an angel would come and “trouble” the water, whatever that means, and whoever got into the pool first would get well. (Seems cruel to me. Only occasionally? And only one?)

The crippled man explained his situation to Jesus, as though this was an obscure, out of the way location and only a few lucky people knew about it.

But this was just outside the Sheep Gate of the Temple in Jerusalem, a prominent building surrounding an upper and lower pool with five colonnaded porches, quite well known to the city. (See http://www.generationword.com/jerusalem101/51-bethesda-pool.html)

The man had been crippled for 38 years, a long, long time. And for a long, long time he had been brought to the pool, hoping today would be his day. But for whatever reason, no-one there would help him get to the pool in time, so day after day he just watched as somebody else got healed.

How discouraging. How depressing. Why bother coming to the pool?

Then Jesus paid a visit to the pool, and asked one particular man a peculiar question. Do you want to get well? From his response, the answer was obviously YES.

So Jesus told the poor man to do something he couldn’t do. Get up, pick up your bed and walk. And he did. He didn’t lay there and wonder — Who is this crazy fellow, doesn’t he know I can’t walk? He just did it. Jesus really didn’t need to ask, he knew the man’s heart. He healed him even before he attempted to rise to his feet.

Jesus didn’t stick around and so the man couldn’t follow him, but his miraculous recovery caused quite a commotion around the Temple. It was the sabbath, after all!

It’s a wonderful story, but I’m curious. Why did Jesus ask him that question?

Here’s the only other person Jesus asked such a strange question… blind Bartimaeus, the beggar. All four gospels recount this event; Mark 10 gives us his name.

Jesus, the disciples and a large number of other people were coming through Jericho. Now, obviously with this crowd there was a lot of commotion. What’s going on? Who is it? Bartimaeus no doubt asked somebody. When he heard it was Jesus, he knew who that was. He knew what that meant. Here’s my chance!

He yelled, Jesus! Son of David! Have mercy on me! He soon got the attention of the crowd, who tried to shut him up. He kept right on yelling until he got the attention of Jesus, who called for him to come. And he did.

I wonder how long it took him to get through that mass of people… When he finally got there, Jesus asked him that peculiar question:

What do you want me to do for you?

Now, I can think of many things Bartimaeus might have said. A big house, a lot of money, a beautiful wife, nice clothes, lots of things. What he did request was simple — to see again.

Jesus didn’t speak a command, didn’t touch him, didn’t make mud, didn’t tell him to do something impossible. He just said, Go your way, your faith has made you whole. Suddenly Bartimaeus could see again, and he did indeed go his way – Jesus’ way! Joining the noisy crowd, he became a follower of Jesus.

Think what having his vision restored meant to this man. Now he could work for a living. Now he could go to the Temple in Jerusalem and worship! He could do all the usual things men did, meet with friends, help out a neighbor, perhaps have a family. But first he followed Jesus. He could see in more ways than one, now. He did want to get well!

(This article is adapted and enlarged from the original.)

* (Yes, the breast cancer “shrank, shriveled, died and disappeared from my body,” as I prayed, praised God, took authority over my body and commanded the cancer cells attacking it, and followed my doctor’s instructions. There have been no recurrences. By the way – I also prayed for my doctors, privately and in person. I still do. They seem to really appreciate it!)