In the Gospel of John we find a short story in Chapter 5 about an invalid who had been laying beside a “healing” pool of water for 38 years waiting for someone to help him into the pool. Jesus, aware that he had been laying there for such a long time, approaches him and asks him if he wants to be healed. The man responds to Jesus telling him how no one has come along to help him and whenever he has been able to attempt going into the water someone always went in before him. At first glance Jesus’ question to the man must have seemed ridiculous. Of course he wanted to be healed. Wasn’t he laying there with all the others waiting? In the end Jesus tells him to “Rise, take up your pallet and walk. And at once the man was healed, and he took up his pallet and walked”.
I have been thinking about this story lately in regards to people struggling with addictions. Now, today, we have the story in all the media regarding Whitney Houston’s death and the speculation of some that drugs and alcohol were involved. I have worked with many homeless and impoverished addicted men and women whose lives were like that of the man laying by the pool. They felt themselves in need of the current way of healing (for there were no magical powers associated in the pool at Bethzatha) and they wait, as victims for the healing to come to them or the counselors and other staff to carry them to the healing of the programs. Many have done this for 38+ years and continue today in the cycle of sobriety and relapse.
Jesus’ dealings with this man whom He healed has been given to us for all time in Holy Scripture. It was a poignant story with a divinely inspired message. We all have to decide if we WANT to be healed. If we do want this, then we have to GET UP, PICK UP OUR MAT, and WALK. We have to respond to Jesus with the discipline of doing what He tells us to do to gain our healing. Our culture does not put much emphasis these days on the spiritual discipline needed for sobriety. Even the system that began with the spiritual awareness that if one gives to God what is God’s, such as the control of one’s life, then one can find peace and healing in the arms of one’s “higher power” seems to have lost faith in humanity’s ability to say “yes” to the question. Today, the whole encounter would be seen differently. Jesus would ask “Do you want to be healed?” and the invalid would respond “Yes, but could we take it slowly, please, for it makes me uncomfortable to think about leaving this place I have been for 38 years? Could you maybe come back tomorrow and help me into the water and then we could do this day after day until my healing occurs?” Jesus, of course, would oblige because he is compassionate and merciful and would want to do all that He could to help this poor man who has suffered for so long. The man would not have to see Jesus for who He is. He wouldn’t even have to look at Him or give a second thought to His initial question. Being the Son of God and the savior of the world would not play into the story. This may be a clue as to why we continue to have such a problem today.
Addicted people need to look into the eyes of Christ. They need to see the man who is asking them within their souls if they want to be healed. This isn’t about shame and it isn’t about judgment. This story is about the “desire” to be authentic; the desire to be who one was created to be; the desire to experience all the joy, peace, and abundance of life that Christ told us He came to provide. It is the desire to be well and to be willing to follow the directions that Jesus gives. This answer, this healing will be counter cultural. It will be radical in its nature for it has within its healing powers mystery and divinity. Jesus’ healing of this man was a “miracle”, not a successful program. It defied the laws of human nature and has the ability to show all who pay attention to it that there is a greater nature that can occur within this world of ours if we do what is asked of us.
Yes, addiction is a struggle and there is suffering, confusion, disorientation, panic, and pain. How is that different than this man? How is that different from any of the healing stories within Scripture? How is it that we have come to view ourselves so unique in 2012 when all we have to do is open up the Bible and see ourselves within its pages? What does this arrogance get for us? I think it does what any other type of vice does, it allows us to stay on our mat groaning into the water, just wishing that someone would come by to save us.
