That's NOT What Jesus Asked

John 5

1 Afterward Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holy days. 2 Inside the city, near the Sheep Gate, was the pool of Bethesda, with five covered porches. 3 Crowds of sick people—blind, lame, or paralyzed—lay on the porches. 4 for an angel of the Lord came from time to time and stirred up the water. And the first person to step in after the water was stirred was healed of whatever disease he had .5 One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, he asked him, “Would you like to get well?”

7 “I can’t, sir,” the sick man said, “for I have no one to put me into the pool when the water bubbles up. Someone else always gets there ahead of me.”

8 Jesus told him, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!”

That’s NOT what Jesus asked! Did you catch it? Jesus approaches a guy who hasn’t been able to walk for 38 years, asks him if he would like to walk again, and this goober goes off giving excuses as to why he can’t get in the pool in hopes of being healed. That is NOT what Jesus asked! How many times do we fail to heed what God’s Word says because we are too busy giving excuses as to why we can’t do this or that? What if we just “listened” to what Jesus is asking us and then obeyed. Yeah, that would be much better all the way around.