One of my favorite stories in the Bible is about an invalid who encounters Jesus at the pool of Bethesda. John 5:1-17

The pool in a Jerusalem colonnade was known for its healing powers. Blind, lame crippled and paralyzed folks hung around the pool waiting for the waters to be stirred. When the waters stirred the needy folks would jockey for a place in the stirring waters to be healed.

On this day Jesus encountered an invalid who had been laying near the waters’ edge for 38 years. Jesus asked him what seems at first to be a strange question. Jesus looked into the invalid’s face and asked him, “Do you want to be healed? I don’t know about you, but if that’s me laying there as a disabled person for even 10 minutes, let alone 38 years, I couldn’t say “Yes” fast enough.

But this invalid didn’t answer Jesus. All he did was offer up an excuse. “But, Sir. I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.”

Jesus didn’t wait for another excuse. Jesus said, “Get up, take up your bed and walk.” Immediately the invalid was healed and he took up his bed got up and walked.

I hope you aren’t suffering from a debilitating disease. If you are have you sought Jesus for his healing hand. Sometimes like the hopeless invalid in this story Jesus is going to heal you anyway.

Pharisees looking on that day hoped to discredit Jesus for claiming to be God or for healing (doing work) on the Sabbath. Neither worked. Instead a crippled lame invalid walked for the first time in his life and God ultimately received glory.

What’s your illness? Is it physical? Is it emotional? Depression. Thoughts of suicide? Your marriage falling apart? Your business? Your lost teenage son heavily into drugs? Your husband walked out on you and the kids? You think your life could never get any worse?

Let me ask you one question. Do you want to get healed?