"Do You Want To Be Healed?"
Rev. Dr. Bruce Epperly, Westmoreland UCC
John 5:1-15
May 25, 2025
As young boy, growing up in the late 1950s, I often observed my mother watching the famous faith healer Oral Roberts on our black and white television. The televangelist would repeat over and over again “be healed, be healed, be healed,” which led my irreverent brother Bill and myself to parody the healer chanting “heal, heal, heal,” as we took our dog Duke on neighborhood walks.
While today’s reading is not about dog training, it is about healing and our willingness to claim God’s energy of love that changes cells, souls, and communities. Jesus asks a direct question of a man who has suffered from paralysis for four decades, “Do you want to be healed? Do you want to be made well?”
The answer should have been obvious. Don’t we all want to get better? Don’t we all want relief from debilitation, despair, and pain? Don’t we all seek the healing of our families, nation, and planet?
The unnamed man doesn’t answer Jesus’ question but gives a reason, or is it an excuse, for his continued debilitation, "Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me."
The man’s response is accurate: over the past four decades, he has amassed a story of failure. He’s sat at life’s sidelines and has likely outlived his family and friends. He’s alone, without resources or hope for the future.
Still, he doesn’t answer the question, “Do you want to be healed?” Do you want a new life? Do you want to make a difference? Do you want to stand on your own two feet? Do you want to be an agent of your destiny, making history rather than observing it?
A phrase often used in twelve step movement is, “you’ve got to want it really bad!” to be freed from substance use addiction or any of life’s most serious challenges. While I’m sure that Jesus sympathizes with the man, recognizing his hopelessness and despair, he also believes that the man can change his life for the better.
“Stand up, take your mat and walk!” To his own astonishment, the man stands up, first on the inside spiritually, and then on the outside as his atrophied legs feel the energy of love coursing through him. It was a tremendous act of courage: he could have fallen flat on his face, but he stood up.
The journey of healing is not over for this unnamed man. As scripture says, “Now that day was a Sabbath and some religious teachers challenge him, ‘It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.’ But he answered them, ‘The man who made me well said to me, ‘Take up your mat and walk.’”
Once again, the man’s answer is accurate. But it only tells part of the story. He omits saying, “I stood up. I took the chance. Right now, I’m carrying the mat.”
Perhaps, Jesus observes the encounter, and confronts the man out later in the afternoon, challenging him once more, “See, you have been made well! Do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you.”
At first glance, it sounds like Jesus is threatening him. In fact, Jesus is calling him to agency, responsibility, and freedom. After a life of passivity, he must choose his agency and power one act a time. He may not have much freedom, but what agency he has can transform his life and enable him to run and not be weary and walk and not faint.
In speaking of the quest for inner freedom, psychiatrist Viktor Frankl, remembering his experiences in Auschwitz, asserts, “Forces beyond your control can take away everything you possess except one thing, your freedom to choose how you will respond to the situation."
Jesus knows how easy it is for this man to backslide. Old habits die hard. Excuses come easily. Giving external events reign over your life is always a temptation. Just think of our own temptation to passivity, to give up freedom and agency. I know that persons of my age often lament: “I just can’t do what I used to.” “I don’t have the energy anymore.” “I forgot again. Could dementia be ahead for me?” “My get up and go, got up and went.” These may be accurate statements, and yet … at any age, we can claim the power we have personally and politically - even if it isn’t what it used to be – to change our lives, change the world, and do something beautiful for God.
Others of us might say, “When I was a child, my parents didn’t pay attention to me,” or “I’m no good at art or music or public speaking,” or “The dysfunctional parenting I received stunted my life.” All these may be accurate, and yet God calls us beyond the past. “Do you want to be healed?”
Now all of us have limits, and I must admit that I hold the rail and don’t bound down the stairs anymore and sometimes that effortlessness of running and walking that I experienced as a teen eludes me. Events, both positive and negative, from my childhood still shape my responses. Yet, we can still walk forward, even with a walker.
The limitations can daunt us, but within our limitations are possibilities. We can build a new foundation from the concrete realities of the past that allows us to soar and awakens courage and generosity rather than fear and greed. We may need a good friend, therapist, spiritual director, or medication, to claim our agency … and God prescribes each of these to nurture abundant life. But, God always calls us forward to be agents of our destiny, despite our real limitations.
Now … to the church, our church. Yes, church isn’t the way it was in the 1950s or the 60s and even the 70s and 80s or before COVID. In those days, church attendance wasn’t crowded out by weekend sports and personal busyness, not to mention changes in families, gender roles, and demographics. Mainstream Christianity dominated the national discourse. In contrast, these days we seem to be at the margins rather than center stage in church-state relationships as the Franklin Grahams and Paula Whites and Christian nationalists dominate the media.
Yet, we can still stand up … or as Maya Angelou says, they can try to take my people out of the history books, but still, we rise! Or, as the infirm Dorothy Day in her seventies said, when her health condition prevented her from picketing and being arrested for civil disobedience, “I can still pray.” We can be a voice for compassion, justice, and healing for persons in need and for the soul of the nation.
The more we claim our freedom, the more freedom we have. The more we claim our power, the more power we have. The more we do, the more God can do to heal our lives and the world. Beginning small, with one small decision at time, we can see great changes in our lives and communities. We know this from the results of exercise – whether we are exercising our bodies or our minds. We know this from our experience at church: when we do something new, take a chance, improvise, launch out in the spirit of Jesus, we become a congregational powerhouse even if our membership doesn’t magically increase.
In another healing story, Jesus asks sight impaired Bartimaeus “What do you want me to do for you?” Although he came in quest of sight, Jesus gave him the freedom to choose and to claim his freedom, despite his limitations. Deep down, God comes to us in the ways we need. God doesn’t force change on us. God asks us, “what do you want to change? What is the deepest desire of your heart?”
I need to make one statement at this point: these stories are about physical cures, but they are about something just as important. Healing and curing are two different things. We all know physically fit people whose spirits are cramped and whose anger and grievances poison their lives and the lives of those around them. We also know people whose physical condition is deteriorating, yet they meet the world with curiosity, wonder, compassion, and peace. As mortals who must face the one unfixable – death – we want a cure, but beyond the cure, we need a healing – the peace that comes from knowing God loves us, that we can do something beautiful for God, and that One who welcomed us into life with loving arms will receive us with loving arms, inviting us to a new and holy adventure when we take our last breath. Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Companion, Challenger, and Healer.
Today, the question for us personally, congregationally, and as citizens is “Do you want to be healed? Do you want to claim the power and agency you need for abundant life and courage in this troubled time? Do you want to rise when diabolical leaders say bow down? Do you want be an agent of adventure who brings joy to your world and contributes in your unique way to healing the soul of our nation? Do you want our church to be a healing and loving light in the nation’s capital?”
We are the light of the world and God’s companions in healing the world. Softly and tenderly, Jesus is calling, stand up, claim my energy of love, embrace your creativity, and use your gifts to heal this good earth.
