Suffering does not only come from a pandemic

You don’t have to look hard to see people in this world in great need and suffering. There is disease, death, broken relationships, broken families and broken lives. This is why this passage is so important, because it points to hope for people who are hurting. It shows us that it is not how life is meant to be.

The scene is one of great suffering, both physical and emotional, making the people outcasts of society. Those who had come there for healing believed the pool had great healing power. The man was waiting for it to be stirred so he could enter the water.

He was, however, about to learn the most important lesson … our suffering is not sovereign. Jesus is. There is still hope even after 38 years. Jesus asks ‘do you want to get well?’ This was not an absurd question but a necessary one. There is a great risk of letting suffering become our identity.

Receiving Jesus means receiving a new identity.  This should be like a light which guides us home. It is not just infirmity and disease which have no place in heaven, but neither does sin. What Jesus is doing is alerting the man to the seriousness of continuing in sin. This is where he provides the greatest healing …… through the cross and received by faith alone.