Hello, friend, and welcome back to the A United Front course.
In lesson eight, we saw the significance of seeking out gospel counsel. Today, we will ask an important question that will hopefully be both enlightening and helpful to you on your way to becoming a united front with your spouse.
Let’s begin by reading Jesus’ counsel to a man whose issues were so heavy that they kept him immobilized for over 38 years.
“When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” 7 The sick man answered him, “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.” 8 Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” 9 And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath. 10 So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.” 11 But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’” 12 They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” 13 Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place.14 Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.” John 5:6-14
In Jesus’ day, there was a traditional belief that an angel would come and periodically stir up the waters of the pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem and anyone who entered the pool at the time the waters were stirred would be healed. So, infirmed people from all around the region would go there for healing, and this is the setting for our passage.
So, Jesus walked into the midst of a multitude of blind, lame and paralyzed people, but He directed His attention to one man. And Jesus doesn’t offer this man pity or assistance, instead, he asks the man a question.