“Do you want to be healed?”
– asks Jesus from the invalid. John 5:6

We are sick! We are all lames. Many of us don’t even recognize that we are lames. The worst kind of sickness is when you don’t see that you are sick.

Let me list to you a couple of sickness that I’ve observed in my life and makes me lame, paralyzes me:

• FEAR – nothing makes me more lame than fear, fearing the un-kown, the uncertain, the future, people. Fear of loosing control over our circumstances, over other people’s reaction. Fearing that our expectations are not met, etc. Fear is my biggest enemy.
• HURT – we all carry some level of pain in our soul and in our relationships. Those hurts, pains are paralyzing us, depriving us from experiencing depth with others, because we like to be swamped in self-pity.
• PRIDE – we are looking to others for confirmation, for recognition, for affirmation, for appreciation. And when we don’t get those from them, when we feel we are loosing our face, when we are not recognized or appreciated than we become paralyzed, we are not finding our place in the community and we start to prove ourselves.
• SELFISHNESS – we are comparing ourselves with others and we want to get things from others. When we don’t get what we expect from life or from others, than we become angry, upset, insecure, bitter and jealous.

These are just 4 very common sickness that makes us invalid, lame, unable to move, to walk and to live freely. A lame is always dependent on others to carry them. Fear, hurt, pride, selfishness makes us dependent on others, too.

Jesus is asking a very simple question: Do you want to get well?

We might think that this is a crazy question to ask from a lame – of course he wants to get well! Who wouldn’t?

Well – maybe you. Maybe me.

Jesus is asking the same questions from us: do you want to get well from your fear, from your hurt, from your pride or from your selfishness – from everything that paralyzes you?

Of course this is the first question Jesus is asking, because He can only free you from the things you want to get freed from. He won’t give make you well unless you want it.

How can you get well, healed?

First, you need to want to get well.

Lot of people don’t want to get well, because they don’t think they can get well. They are so used to their invalidity, their inability to live differently and freely that they can’t even imagine a different life. They rather stay lame in their fears, in their pride, in their self-pity, in their selfishness. Jesus can change your life, but he won’t unless you want it.

Do you really want to leave behind fear, self-pitty, self-absorbency, self-dependency, pride, selfishness – all those things that are making you invalid, lame, unable to live and move freely? Or you actually like those things and can’t imagine your life without them?

Second, you need to obey to the most scandalous command and do what seems impossible and absolutely unnatural to you: “get up and walk”.

Jesus gave an outrageous command to this person that didn’t make any sense. Jesus told him to do something he never did in the past 38 years. “Get up and walk!” Start moving! Impossible from his own strength. He doesn’t have any ability nor strengths to do this. He is lame. He lost the capacity of walking, so he can’t do it.

But Jesus speaking into his life gave him back this capacity. He just needed to obey to Jesus’ words.

God’s Word brings healing. God’s Word really creates things in our lives we didn’t have before. God’s Word gives back to us the capacity of things we’ve lost decades ago. God’s Word makes us able to do things we were never able to do. God’s Word makes us able to do that seems impossible for us to do.

Jesus’s word spoken into our life embraced with FAITH and OBEDIENCE makes us to do what’s impossible for us: makes the lame walking, the fearful to be courageous, the one who got hurt forgiving, the selfish to live for others, the prideful to become humble, the lazy to work hard.

What is the impossible thing you can’t do, because you never had the capacity or the ability to do it? Is it living without fear? Is it living without being overly anxious about your children? Or to forgive to someone? Or to break out from an addiction? Resolving a conflict? Sharing your faith? Asking for forgiveness from someone? Living by faith?

We are all born lames: we can’t not fear, we can’t forgive, we can’t be free from addictions, we can’t not be prideful, we can’t not hurt others and ourselves, we can’t not be selfish.

But Jesus’ personal word spoken into our lives received by faith makes us able to do what seemed impossible before: we can be humble, we can ask forgiveness, we can live without fear, we can be not selfish, we can start sharing our faith.

Jesus’ word spoken into our lives will have an impact on us like on this lame who was able to walk. We will do things that doesn’t come from our natural abilities. We will do things we were not born with. We will do things against our fear. We will do things we were not trained to do. We will do things that are supernatural to us.

One thing we need to do though: embrace with faith the impossible command He tells us to do.

Get up and walk!