Do You Want To Be Made Well?

“Do you want to be made well?”
— John 5:6

Jesus approached the pool of Bethesda and saw a man crippled for 38 years lying there. He approached him and asked a startling question, “Do you want to be made well?” Even more startling is the man’s answer, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I’m coming, another steps down before me.” Notice he didn’t just say, “YES!”

His response was that of a victim. He was crippled for 38 years. The pool of Bethesda was said to have an angel who would periodically stir the waters and the first person to step into them when stirred would be healed. The man waited day by day, inches away from a cure he could not acquire. Yet, when asked if he wanted to be made well, he explained why he couldn’t.

His response was completely dictated by what he could and couldn’t do. It didn’t take into account what Jesus could do. He didn’t know who Jesus was, nor could he know what He could do.

I’ve always found this passage to be profound. It is often the nature of conversation when Christians are challenged to walk in victory, freedom and godliness. We don’t just say yes. We share the reasons that hold us back. We offer excuses as to why we can’t be THAT person right now, because of what we think we can or can’t do. We fail to realize we ARE THAT PERSON, because of what Jesus has done. We are the children of God clothed in righteousness.

We often act like the peasant in Søren Kierkegaard’s The Sickness Unto Death who came to the Capital loaded with a new found fortune “…and had made so much money that he could buy himself a pair of shoes and stockings and still had enough left over to get drunk on—it is related that as he was trying in his drunken state to find his way home he lay down in the middle of the highway and fell asleep. Then along came a wagon, and the driver shouted to him to move or he would run over his legs. Then the drunken peasant awoke, looked at his legs, and since by reason of the shoes and stockings he didn’t recognize them, he said to the driver, ‘Drive on, they are not my legs.’”

How often do we cut ourselves off at the knees because we fail to comprehend who we are in Christ? How acclimated we are to misery, woe, failings and grief that we choose to wallow in them rather than wake up to our new wardrobe. How much more comfortable it is to walk in the drunken stupor of the world, than to adjust our eyes to light unto our path.

Maybe you can’t relate. I, on the other hand, have spent far too many days wallowing in excuses as to why I can’t change, rather than embracing the change that Christ has worked in my life. It begs the question; do I want to be made well?

The man in Bethesda didn’t even know who had healed him. Later Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you.” Much worse is the person who has been made well and yet continues to live in their weakness and degradation.

I certainly know who has healed me. Yet, I also struggle with the comfort of being a victim. It is hard to let go of the life, habits and image I’ve created (even when it is negative). Being able to lay the blame somewhere else. Blame the world, society, actions of others and countless other excuses as to why I can’t change. Still, the question remains, do I want to be made well?

We have been given a fortune beyond measure. We have acquired a new wardrobe. “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” (Galatians 3:27) The only questioned that remains is will we continue in the drunkenness of the world unable to recognize the new creation we are? Or will we walk in Christ trusting Him to live through our lives—day by day, moment by moment?

We can not be made well by remaining who we are. We have to change. We have to pick up the mat we have laid down on and go home—to our Lord. Only He can work change in our life.

Do you want to be made well?

© 2025 Warren Martin. All rights Reserved.