The miracles of Christ are recorded for us that we may believe in Him, and believing, find life in His name. (John 20:31) Therefore when we read of the many interesting circumstances that were connected with His works of healing, we are not to think of them as applying solely to the persons who were healed, but to learn from them what we may expect when we ourselves come to Jesus for help in time of need.
The people who received His blessing in Judea and Galilee displayed many characteristics which we recognize as belonging to human nature at the present time, and we may learn from their experience how the Saviour deals with us under similar circumstances.
We read in the 5th chapter of John's Gospel of man who had had an infirmity thirty-eight years. He was greatly desirous of being freed from his disease, and with this object he lay beside the pool of Bethesda. At certain times the water was troubled, and then there was a rush on the part of the sick people who clustered round the pool to get first into the water, that they might be healed.
As Jesus walked one Sabbath by this place He saw the man, and knowing that he had now been a long time in that case, He asked him, "Would you be made whole?" (John 5:6)
Notice what a despairing answer the man returns: "Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steps down before me." (John 5:7)
He desired to be made whole earnestly enough, but he only saw one possibility of this being accomplished, and that was that some man would take pity on his helplessness and wait for an opportunity to help him into the water. Doubtless most of the sufferers lying round the pool had friends with these, and the man who had the most friends stood the best chance. The greatest thing that this man could think of that Jesus could do for him would be to undertake to wait by his side till the waters were again troubled. "Jesus said unto him, Arise, take up your bed and walk. And straightway the man was made whole, and took up his bed and walked." (John 5:8-9)
This is what Jesus does for men. He comes to every one and says, "Will you be made whole?"
And He desires to do as much for us as He did for the impotent man on that occasion. We too may have been held by our infirmities thirty-eight years, or even more. Inherited tendencies to evil may have grown into fixed habits that are part of our lives, and that we cannot possibly overcome, but it is as easy for Christ to make us whole, and free from them, as though they were not a day old. When He calls the dead from the grave at the resurrection, it will be as easy for Him to raise Adam and Eve as those that have only lately turned to dust.
Jesus sees us in bondage to the lusts of the flesh, led captive by Satan, and defiled with the leprosy of sin, and He wants to make us "every whit whole," (John 7:23) but, like the man by the pool of Bethesda, we to often put Him off by saying that if we only had the help that others have, we would be all right. If only we were as free from trouble and temptation as others that we know, we would soon be whole. If some man would help us, or other men would cease to hinder us, all would be well.
The Saviour does not want us to lean upon these broken reeds, which always disappoint, and wound those who trust them. He has, all ready for us, all that we can desire and, passing by as worthless all our plans for helping ourselves, He solves the whole problem at once, by giving directly what we need.
If we are willing to abandon our confidence in our own methods and devices, acknowledge our weakness, and trust implicitly in His all-powerful, all-sufficient Word, we may pass straightway from the condition of weakness and infirmity, no matter of how long standing, and enter at once into the joyful experience of freedom in the Lord from all the power of the enemy.
All the years that the impotent man had been lying by the pool had brought him not a single step nearer the attainment of his desires. All our own efforts to make ourselves whole, leave us further from the end than before. A word from Jesus accomplished immediately more than the man had dared to hope. "And this is the Word which by the Gospel is preached unto you." (1 Peter 1:25)--Present Truth, February 16, 1899.