Wilt thou be made whole or are you here for the Show
“Wilt Thou Be Made Whole?”
Or are you only here for the Show
The text that I wish to share with you is John 5:1-15, with a focus not on the water or the angel, but first and foremost on:
- The Lord Jesus Christ and His mercy.
- Ourselves, the objects of His attention, for He came to seek and to save that which was lost.
I will speak to you as Stephen did for a moment, as though we were in the book of Acts together:
“Dear listeners, saints and sinners, saved and lost, hear me. The God of glory appeared unto the patriarch Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran, and said unto him:
“Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall shew thee” (Acts 7:2-3).
And he obeyed. He went out, not knowing whither he went, believing the promises of God. And the Lord made a covenant with him, that through his seed all nations of the earth would be blessed.
So often, God delivered His people, and so often they rebelled—yet He was always faithful, both to deliver and to chastise.
We can talk about Esau and Jacob, and about Joseph and his brothers, who sold him into slavery, only for him to rise and deliver them—showing that what men meant for evil, God allowed for good.
Yet even in their deliverance, they forgot God.
A king arose who did not know Joseph. The people fell into idolatry in Egypt, became slaves, and their children were drowned. Their cry went up to God, and He sent them Moses—who himself once thought that God would use him to deliver the people, only to find that even under the master’s whip, the unrepentant can still be defiant. They turned on Moses and told Pharaoh that he had killed the Egyptian and hidden him in the sand. So he fled, and their persecution grew worse.
Until God sent Moses to them once again—not from the house of Pharaoh’s daughter, but from the backside of the wilderness. And he delivered them from bondage with the outstretched hand of God!
But did they believe? Did they trust in the living God? Nay, when the Lord delivered their children out of Egypt with a mighty hand, they turned their hearts back again. They saw His wonders, yet murmured against Him. They drank from the rock, yet longed for the flesh-pots of Egypt. Forty years He bore them in the wilderness, and at last, because of their unbelief, He sware in His wrath that they should not enter into His rest (Hebrews 3:18-19).
And what of their children? When Joshua led them in, they were given a land flowing with milk and honey. They saw the walls of Jericho fall by faith, yet turned to the idols of the heathen. They received judges, yet did that which was right in their own eyes. And when the Lord sent them prophets, rising early and sending them, they mocked His messengers, despised His words, and misused His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against them, till there was no remedy (2 Chronicles 36:16).
So it was in the days of Moses, and in the days of the kings, and in the days of the prophets. And so it was in the days when the Word was made flesh and dwelt among them—and they beheld His glory, yet knew Him not.
“He came unto His own, and His own received Him not” (John 1:11).
The Man at Bethesda: A Parable of Israel and of Us All
Now there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And there was by the sheep market a pool, called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches. And in these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water (John 5:1-3).
And one was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. Thirty-eight years! As long as Israel wandered in the wilderness, waiting to enter the land of promise, so this man lay waiting for healing—yet year after year, he remained.
And Jesus, seeing him lie and knowing that he had been now a long time in that case, saith unto him:
“Wilt thou be made whole?” (John 5:6).
What a question! Here lies a man, lame and helpless, his hope set upon the troubling of the water, yet unable to reach it.
“Wilt thou be made whole?”
Not “Wilt thou be comforted?” Not “Wilt thou have a man to carry thee?”
But “Wilt thou be made whole?”
And what does he answer? Does he cry out like blind Bartimaeus, “Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me!” (Mark 10:47)?
Does he say, as the leper, “Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean!” (Matthew 8:2)?
No. He does not ask for mercy, nor for healing. He blames others.
“Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool” (John 5:7).
Here is the cry of Israel! Here is the cry of every unrepentant heart! “Lord, it is not my fault. Others have failed me. Circumstances have hindered me. If only someone had helped me, then I would be whole.”
And is this not the cry of our generation? “Lord, I am not to blame. My family failed me. The world is against me. If only my life had been different, then I would serve Thee!”
But Jesus does not entertain his excuses. He does not wait for the man to ask in faith—for the man has no faith at all.
He speaks with authority:
“Rise, take up thy bed, and walk” (John 5:8).
And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked. And on the same day was the Sabbath (John 5:9).
A Healing Without Gratitude
But where is his thanksgiving? Where is his rejoicing? Others who were healed went away glorifying God. The blind man worshiped Jesus. The woman with the issue of blood came trembling and fell before Him. The maniac of Gadara begged that he might follow Him.
But this man? He knew not who it was that healed him (John 5:13). And when the Jews rebuked him for carrying his bed on the Sabbath, he did not stand for Christ. Nay, he shifted blame once more.
“He that made me whole, the same said unto me, Take up thy bed, and walk” (John 5:11).
Not “The Lord healed me!” Not “Praise be to God!”
But “He told me to do it.”
And when Jesus found him in the temple, He said unto him:
“Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee” (John 5:14).
Here is the warning. Here is the judgment. There is a worse thing than infirmity, worse than suffering, worse than sickness—and that is sin.
And what does the man do? Does he fall before Christ? Does he repent? Does he follow?
No. He goes and tells the Jews that it was Jesus who healed him. And for this, the Jews persecuted Jesus and sought to slay Him (John 5:15-16).
The Greater Application :
Israel’s Unbelief and Our Own
Here is Israel in the flesh: healed by God, yet ungrateful. Delivered, yet rebellious. Blessed, yet still lame at heart.
God delivered them time and again, yet they turned back to Egypt in their hearts. He sent them the prophets, but they stoned them. He sent them John the Baptist, but they said, “He hath a devil.” He sent them His only begotten Son, but they crucified Him.
Is there any here that see themselves as well. For how many sit in church, hearing the gospel, receiving blessings, yet remain unchanged? How many, having received mercy, do not love the Lord who saved them?
Jesus came to this man, sought him out, healed him though he did not ask, and warned him though he did not listen. He was given every opportunity, like Judas and yet we see no evidence of eternal salvation.
And Jesus, answering the Jews, spoke these words:
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life” (John 5:24).
This is the heart of it all. Do you believe? Do you hear His word? Or are you like this man, content to receive the healing, but not the Healer?
Jesus said to the Jews, “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life” (John 5:39-40).
Here is the warning, and here is the call:
Wilt thou be made whole?
Not just outwardly, but inwardly. Not just delivered from trouble, but delivered from sin. Not just blessed in this life, but given eternal life.
The man at Bethesda was healed, but he was not saved.
“Do you believe that He is able? That He was crucified, was buried, and on the third day rose from the grave—and that He did all this for you?”
if so come now! Do not delay—come to Christ, be washed in His blood, and receive eternal life! And you, saint—remember the day of your salvation, stand firm in His grace, and rejoice, for He has promised: I will never leave thee nor forsake thee!
What will you do?
Wilt thou be made whole?
Or are you only here for the show?