In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen.
Christ is risen!
Christ is risen and I lie supine on the ground, Christ is risen and I am paralysed through fear and doubt, Christ is risen and I await the moving of the waters. And when One comes to question me, “Do you want to be healed?” I do not even answer the question. I am asked “Do you want to be healed?” and I answer, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is troubled.” I am so used to occasional passers-by asking me—but really deriding me, laughing at me, ridiculing me—that I fail to recognise before me the One Who formed me from the dust of the earth.
But do I want to be healed? I have been here so long that I am used to it, yes to derision and dependence on charity, but I am used to it. I have no responsibilities, no duties, I am happy with my misery. Would I even want the tasks of the everyday, the normal? To be responsible for how I treat others, for how I pray, for how I give to those in need?
Nevertheless, the Lord hears my response. I would have a man carry me into the water—to be healed but without responsibility, without a duty, without consequences—Christ lays a burden on me, “Rise, take up your pallet, and walk.” All the healing I would desire is offered to me in an instant but I now have responsibilities towards the One Who heals me, “Rise, take up your pallet, and walk.” And I am confused and distraught, I know I want health on at least some level but more is needed of me in return. And at this moment of crisis, of choice, I must choose, will I accept this Stranger’s commands or will I spend the remainder of this life by the Sheep Gate?
And the Lord stands before each of us today, offering healing but expecting something back. For those who can pray He expects prayer, for those who can give He expects generosity, for those who can comfort He expects help and support for those in need. He heals—souls that we may have Life but bodies too when the situation requires it—yet He heals with a purpose, with a task at hand, with our part of the Gospel in which we may participate.
“Do you want to be healed?” each one of us is asked, and we may have our stock answers ready, our excuses spread out before us as a defence mechanism, but if we truly want health we will be required to do, we will be required to act, we will be required to bring the Kingdom of God into our homes, our society, our world.
Let us then, dear brothers and sisters, respond to our Lord’s question. We may have a set response but respond anyway. Let us change and transform our world by changing and transforming ourselves, that we may be co-workers with Him in bringing the Kingdom into the world.
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, “Do you want to be healed?”
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!
That we may bring glory and honour to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Who brings healing into the world that we may be truly alive in Him, together with His unoriginate Father and the All-holy, Good and Life-giving Spirit. Amen.
In those days, as Peter went here and there among them all, he came down also to the saints that lived at Lydda. There he found a man named Aeneas, who had been bedridden for eight years and was paralyzed. And Peter said to him, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; rise and make your bed.” And immediately he rose. And all the residents of Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord. Now there was at Joppa a disciple named Tabitha, which means Dorcas. She was full of good works and acts of charity. In those days she fell sick and died; and when they had washed her, they laid her in an upper room. Since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, hearing that Peter was there, sent two men to him entreating him, “Please come to us without delay.” So Peter rose and went with them. And when he had come, they took him to the upper room. All the widows stood beside him weeping, and showing tunics and other garments which Dorcas made while she was with them. But Peter put them all outside and knelt down and prayed; then turning to the body he said, “Tabitha, rise.” And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter she sat up. And he gave her his hand and lifted her up. Then calling the saints and widows he presented her alive. And it became known throughout all Joppa, and many believed in the Lord.
— Acts 9:32–42
At that time, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Hebrew called Bethesda which has five porticoes. In these lay a multitude of invalids, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water; for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool, and troubled the water; whoever stepped in first after the troubling of the water was healed of whatever disease he had. One man was there, who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him and knew that he had been lying there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is troubled, and while I am going another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your pallet, and walk.” And at once the man was healed, and he took up his pallet and walked. Now that day was the sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who was cured, “It is the sabbath, it is not lawful for you to carry your pallet.” But he answered them, “The man who healed me said to me, ‘Take up your pallet, and walk.’ “They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your pallet, and walk’?” Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. Afterward, Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse befall you.” The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him.
— John 5:1–15