The ‘If Only’ Life

The Gospel reading for Sunday was John 5.1-9 which tells of Jesus healing the lame man by the pool of Bethzatha.  Jesus asks him, “Do you want to be made well?” 

The ill man needed to realize that he would have to approach life in a new and radically different way if and when he was healed.  For pretty much his whole life he had been dependant on others for what he was given.  Now, he would literally and figuratively have to stand on his two feet and become responsible for how he lived his life. 

He probably could not comprehend what that meant.  Therefore, Jesus was asking him if he was ready and willing to live life in a new way.  We don’t know how he fared after the healing in his new life – scripture doesn’t tell us, so we can only imagine. 

But what has it to do with us here and now today?  We are not sitting by the pool of Bethzatha waiting for someone to take us down to the pool to be healed.  But is there an equivalent to that?  We can be waiting for God to make things right in our life.  We can live in the ‘if only’ life.  I would be happy and fulfilled ‘if only’ I had more money or ‘if only’ I had more friends, or ‘if only’ I had a different job – that was a big one for me earlier in my life.  It might be some handicap or illness that someone is experiencing which is quite understandably challenging – who am I to judge the challenges others have in their lives.

But what is the ‘if only’ that is keeping us from living the full life we are intended to live?  Whatever is keeping us from living the lives that God intends us to live, Jesus is telling us that we are loved by Jesus and Jesus will be there to help us and support us just as he was for that man waiting and hoping to taken to the healing waters of Bethzatha. 

Whatever our circumstances, are we ready to live our life in the way of Jesus?  Are we ready to give up the ‘if only’ in our lives?   Jesus is calling us to do just that.