Parish Retreat 2023 - Notes Part 2 - JESUS HEALING THE BLIND MAN AT BETHZATHA
@ Parish Retreat conducted by Rev Fr Michael Payyapilly
Nov 2023, Church of The Holy Family, Singapore
John 5:1-8 Jesus heals the blind man at Bethzatha
After this there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha, which has five porticoes. In these lay many ill, blind, lame, and paralyzed people. One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be made well?” The ill man answered him, “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.” Jesus said to him, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.” At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk.
The paralysis
The man was paralysed for 38 long years. And he lied there, waiting. The paralysis, when it started out, may be physical, but it goes deeper. It can be deceptive as it may not be seen to the outside world. Very often, the paralysis lies in our heart - we are hurt, we are wounded. We may feel paralysed within our family, within our marriage, within our parenthood when we see our children going through what they go through and we know we could to do anything about it. We are paralysed, frozen.
So often, on the outside everything can look fine. But deep within, we are struggling, feeling helpless. So often, we dont want to show people that we are suffering a paralysis, we feel paralysed that we cannot change the situation. Jesus walks in to offer us healing.
I have no one - a deep cry in our heart
Jesus walks into our paralysis and asks, "Do you want to be made well?" Instead of a straight forward yes, the blind man responded with a cry of the heart, "Lord, I have no one." It was more than his physical condition, what is going on in his heart hurt him more. The irony is that Jesus is standing in front of him. For us who feel we have no one, Jesus is saying "I am with you, I am for you, I am around you, I will enter into your life, I will be beside you."
Our refusal to stand up
The greatest problem is not our paralysis, our pain, our struggles. The biggest problems is when we refuse to stand up for our pain, our rejections, our brokenness.
Often, we have gotten so used to our situation, with our coping mechanisms all in place, that even when we are in the presence of the Lord and we refuse to stand up for our paralysis, for our pain, for our rejections and brokenness.
But the Lord does not want us to remain in our paralysis. When the Lord wants to heal us, we will need to stand up from our situations of paralysis, take our mat and walk. It is when we stand that the Lord can start doing things with us.
The physical problems are far far lesser than the emotional pains we go through in life. The Lord wants to enter. Turn our focus back to Jesus.
Jesus knows
He knows everything that we are going through. John 5:6 "Jesus knew he had been there a long time." Jesus knows who we are, He knows us and He knows what He needs to do in us.
Let the focus be on Jesus
Let the focus be Jesus (let us now focus on the "pool"). When we focus on Jesus, we will find the answers we are looking for. Let our eyes start looking at the Lord - as long as our ears are open, our eyes looking at Him and our heart beats for Him, one day we will hear the voice that says "Stand up, take your mat and walk".
It is the promise of the Lord that He will never forget us.
I have carved on the palm of my hand
I will not leave you orphan
I will never forget my own"
The Lord will find some way, some answers. Do not be in despair.
- End -
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