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The apostle John relates an event concerning the Lord Jesus Christ and a sick man in his gospel that is truly amazing in its many aspects. My focus in this article will be limited primarily to the Lord and the bewildering question He asks the sick man. In John 5:1-9, the apostle relates how the Lord went up to Jerusalem by a place that is called the "Sheep Gate" to a pool named "Bethesda." There, a large number of sick folks waited for an angel to come and move the water. Whoever got in the pool first was healed of their sickness.
John reports that there was a man in the crowd at the pool who had been in his debilitating condition for 38 years. The Master came up on the man knowing "he already had been in that condition a long time," (vs. 6, NKJV, emphasis mine). Yet, in the same verse, John says Jesus asked this man a very perplexing question: "Do you want to be made well?" In the first place, why would the Son of God who knows everything about men, ask such a question? In the second, even without knowing everything about men, why would anyone ask a man who has been in a crowd of sick folks waiting for a chance to be healed, "Do you want to be made well?"
Now, let´s be clear that in this Bethesda event Jesus has an agenda with the sick man that touches the oft connection between personal sin and sickness (vs.14). As well, His agenda reaches beyond this man to challenge the Jewish religious establishment on their legalistic, spiritually blind and slavish devotion to their spin on the law (John 5:10-47, 7:19-24). Having stated these things, Jesus still doesn´t have to ask the man "Do you want to be made well?" So, why does He? Isn´t it because as bizarre as it seems, many people that are sick do not really want to or believe they can get well? Others who are sick deny they are!
The sick man at the pool of Bethesda had been in that condition a long time. We human beings are creatures of habit and conditioning. We get accustomed to thinking, feeling or behaving in a certain way and it is hard for us to adopt new ways. This is why, for example, biblical Christianity is difficult for many to embrace because it mandates repentance, which is change! We don’t want to change; we know we are sin sick but refuse the cure because it will mean a change from what we are used to. The truth is, many of us love being the way we are even if it is sickness!
Sometimes people who are sick a long time also have a tendency to doubt whether they can be made well. They´ve wanted wholeness so long they give up hope when it doesn´t come. Self-pity and hopelessness prevents them from taking any new possibility of healing seriously. Some become violently bitter; some medicate themselves against life´s victimization through drugs and alcohol.
Then there are those persons who are sick but will not accept the truth. Even little children understand denial. But grown men stumble about life knowing there is something wrong with them, their painful symptoms incessantly screaming at them. However, because of the ancient concept of manhood as macho toughness (understood as stubborn pride), these men try to dismiss their symptoms and would rather destroy themselves and others around them than admit they are sick.
I have met all three types of sick individuals among black males. They are black America´s movers and shakers; the rich and the famous. They drive black enterprise and are in the nation´s corporations large and small. They are in the military and every industry. They are religious and in churches, members and leaders on every level. They are educated and high school dropouts. They are sober and addicted; honest, hard working citizens and criminals. They are in my family and amid my friends. I´ve met these men across the nation.
Most black American males share a soul sickness in common. Any who were not protected by faith in Jesus Christ and a biblical worldview against the sickness embodied in the twelve mental and emotional legacies of slavery and racism, are sick to some degree and have been a long time. Many since slavery have grappled with anger, victimization, inferiority, frustration, mistrust, and bitterness to name some manifestations of this sickness.
Becoming a Christian is absolutely required in the cure, but being one does not automatically heal this sickness in most cases. Therefore, if you do not want to become a Christian your answer to the Lord´s question, "Do you want to be made well?" is no. If you are already a Christian but refuse to let go of your sickness for any reason, your answer to the Lord is also no!
Before meeting Christ and as a babe in Him, I was sick especially with anger. I was of the "refuse" and "medicate" groups. I sought escape through drugs and alcohol. When the Lord asked me did I want to be made well, at first I refused on the grounds of entitlement. Then, under conviction and in brokenness, I still hesitated because of unbelief. But finally, like the sick man at Bethesda, when the Lord commanded me to rise up, forgive as He had forgiven me, I did and healing began instantly!
Though sadly, even many Christian black males walk in denial, it is really not an option since our affliction is so evident. Know this then in light of the Lord´s standing invitation to healing: all who say no and sin out of it, will continue to suffer the natural consequences of the sickness and His judgment of all sinners.
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