Hello friends,
This is Mark Gladman,
Also known as Brother Frederick James,
Your friendly neighbourhood monk in dogs.
Welcome to another episode of our special Lectio Divina series,
The Questions Jesus Asked.
If you've never prayed with Lectio Divina before,
There is an audio on my InsightTimer channel that you can listen to,
Which will take you through how to pray Lectio Divina,
But in short,
After a short reflection,
We'll simply read the passage of Scripture in which this question that Jesus asked through about three times,
With a couple of minutes of silence between each,
Where you can just sit and reflect.
And the idea of Lectio is that you just ask the Spirit to bring to your mind and your heart the word or the phrase that Spirit wants you to see in that moment.
And then you take the time just to sit and ponder and reflect on that and think about how you might put that into action in your life as you pray that word or phrase with God in that Lectio time.
And then on these audios,
We conclude with a prayer at the end as well.
So to today's question that Jesus asked,
All of us carry wounds.
And sometimes those wounds become so familiar that we begin to organize our lives around them.
Have you noticed that?
And I don't think it's because we want to remain wounded,
But because pain over a period of time can begin to shape our habits,
Our identities and our expectations.
And in the Gospel of John,
Chapter 5 and verse 6,
Jesus approaches a man who has lived beside a pool for many,
Many years.
Thirty-eight years,
We're told.
That's nearly four decades of waiting for healing,
For change,
Waiting for the moment when hope might finally reach him.
And around this pool,
There lay many other people as well.
People who were sick,
Injured or just wanted some sort of restoration in their lives.
Each person was carrying their own story and each person lived with their own form of limitation.
And Jesus walks into this place of longing and suffering and stops beside one man.
And he sees him.
No,
I mean,
Doesn't just see him.
He sees him.
And then he asks a question that might sound surprising for somebody who's been sitting beside a healing pool for 38 years.
He asks,
Do you want to be made well?
Now,
At first,
That question seems just obvious.
Of course,
He wants to be healed.
Why else would he remain beside the pool all these years?
But as usual,
Jesus' question reaches deeper than the surface because healing isn't always that simple.
Healing changes things.
If this man is healed,
It will change his routine.
It'll change his relationships and it'll definitely change his identity.
Sometimes we become so accustomed to living with certain wounds,
Emotional wounds,
Spiritual wounds,
Relational wounds,
That healing begins to feel uncertain.
Because who would I be if this wound or hurt was no longer with me and defined me?
Who would I have in my life?
And what would life require of me if I were made whole?
What responsibilities might follow the healing?
Sometimes,
Without realizing it,
We resist the very healing that we're longing for.
Now,
In the story,
The man doesn't answer Jesus with a simple yes or no.
Instead,
He explains why healing hasn't happened yet.
He describes the circumstances,
The limitations,
The frustrations,
And maybe this is also a part of our story too.
When asked about healing,
We often speak first about the obstacles around us,
About what hasn't worked,
What stands in the way,
About why change feels impossible.
But Jesus' question still lingers.
Do you want to be made well,
Not just physically,
But inwardly?
Do you want healing where resentment's taken root?
Do you want healing where grief remains unspoken?
Do you want healing where fear has shaped your life?
And it's not a question of worthiness.
It's about openness.
Are we willing to receive healing even when it requires change of us?
Are we willing to release what's become so familiar so that something new and wholeness might begin?
So today,
As we sit with this question,
We're not asked to force healing.
We're just asked to recognize where resistance might be hiding and gently consider,
Do I want to be made well?
So as you listen,
Allow yourself to enter the scene and notice what word or phrase draws your attention and allow it to rest gently within you.
As we ask God to open our ears,
Our minds and our hearts to the word that God might have for us today.
Let's begin.
One man was there who had been ill for 38 years.
When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he'd been there a long time,
He said to him,
Do you want to be made well?
The sick man answered,
Sir,
I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up and while I'm making my way,
Someone else steps down ahead of me.
Jesus said to him,
Stand up,
Take up your mat and walk.
And at once the man was made well and he took up his mat and began to walk.
One man was there who had been ill for 38 years.
When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he'd been there a long time,
He said to him,
Do you want to be made well?
The sick man answered,
Sir,
I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up and while I'm making my way,
Someone else steps down ahead of me.
Jesus said to him,
Stand up,
Take up your mat and walk.
And at once the man was made well and he took up his mat and began to walk.
One man was there who had been ill for 38 years.
When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he'd been there a long time,
He said to him,
Do you want to be made well?
The sick man answered,
Sir,
I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up and while I'm making my way,
Someone else steps down ahead of me.
Jesus said to him,
Stand up,
Take up your mat and walk.
And at once the man was made well and he took up his mat and began to walk.
Let us pray.
Jesus,
You see us as we truly are.
You see the places where we ache,
The places where we wait,
The places where healing feels a long way away.
You come near to us just as you came near to the one who had waited for so long and you ask us to consider what we truly desire.
Give us courage to face the wounds we carry.
Where we resist healing,
Bring patience.
Where we fear change,
Bring reassurance.
Where we feel stuck or weary,
Remind us that healing is possible.
Teach us to trust that wholeness is not something we have to earn,
But something we're invited to receive.
And as your question lingers within us,
Help us to open our hearts to the healing that you offer.
Amen.
And may grace,
Peace and love go with you and remain with you today and always.
Amen.
Until next time,
My friend.
Peace be with you.
