Salt of the Sound sings, ‘It Is Well With My Soul’.

Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say

It is well, it is well with my soul

My sin - oh, the bliss of this glorious thought

My sin, not in part but the whole

Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

It is well with my soul

It is well, it is well with my soul

It is well with my soul (with my soul)

It is well, it is well with my soul

Today’s reading is from the Gospel of John.

John 5:1-3,5-16

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 Bethzatha, which has five porticoes. In these lay many invalids—blind, lame, and paralysed. 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 sick 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.

Now that day was a sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been cured, ‘It is the sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.’ But he answered them, ‘The man who made me well said to me, “Take up your mat and walk.” ’ They asked him, ‘Who is the man who said to you, “Take it up and walk”?’ Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had disappeared in the crowd that was there. Later Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, ‘See, you have been made well! Do not sin any more, so that nothing worse happens to you.’ The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. Therefore the Jews started persecuting Jesus, because he was doing such things on the sabbath.

The first words Jesus speaks to this sick man are “Do you want to be made well?” Perhaps this strikes you as strange. Why do you imagine Jesus says this?

After the man shows that he does want to be cured, Jesus simply orders him to stand up and walk. If you can put yourself in the man’s place, what would it be like to hear these words?

As you hear the passage read again, notice the contrast between the way that Jesus treats the sick man, and the way in which the onlookers treat him.

If Jesus says to you “Do you want to be made well?” (other translations say “Do you want to be made whole”), how do you answer him? Let that conversation unfold for a moment or two before this time of prayer comes to an end.

You have given all to me

To you, Lord, I return it

Everything is Yours

Do with it what you will

Give me only your love and your grace

That is enough for me.

Amen.