Sounds easy, right? It is easy. You just have to give up your right to do as you please. Religion added many traditions, fences, even indulgencies, to interpret the Will-of-God. Jesus came to remove the barriers caused by rebellion and religion to restore the relationship between man and God. Relationships require time and commitment even in the kingdom of God. We can come to God as-we-are and be made whole, but something is required to maintain that status.
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Wilt Thou Be Made Whole (Part 5)
CHAPTER 15: JESUS HEALS A LAME MAN
IN JERUSALEM, by the sheep market, was the Pool of Bethesda. Beside it lay a great multitude of invalids—the lame, blind, withered, and bedridden—all waiting for the moving of the water; because at certain times an angel went down into the pool and troubled the water. Then, whoever was the first to enter the water after its troubling, was cured of whatever disease or infirmity he had.
Jesus, one day, walked beside the Pool of Bethesda and saw a man there who had been infirm and lame for thirty-eight years. Realizing that he had been so long infirm, Jesus spoke to him, saying;
“Wilt thou be made whole?”
The lame man answered:
“Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool; but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me.”
Jesus said to him:
“Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.”
Immediately the man was healed. He took up his bed and walked away.
This miracle came to pass on the Sabbath. The Jews, therefore, stopped
the man who had been cured, saying:
“It is the Sabbath day. It is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed.”
He answered:
“He that made me whole, the same said unto me, “Take up thy bed, and walk.”
The Jews asked him:
“What man is that which said unto thee, ‘Take up thy bed, and walk’?”
But he who had been healed did not know who his benefactor was, because Jesus had left to avoid the crowd in that place.
Later Jesus found him in the temple and said to him:
“Behold, thou art made whole. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.”
The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him.