The One Thing

John 5: 6b 38 years

The man who was healed at the sheep gate on the day of the Sabbath did not know Jesus. It was not his faith in Jesus that healed him. But he had been waiting for a very long time. We all have to wait for something or the other. When you have waited enough you become more confident of the reasons your wait is not coming to its conclusion. When Jesus asked the man if he wanted to be healed the man did not say yes. It was an obvious answer. It was also a very rude question. Jesus asked a man lying beside a healing pool waiting for someone to put him in the water so that he might be healed whether he wanted to be healed. Why did he do that? Jesus, the man who told the woman of Samaria everything she had ever done, why did he need to ask this man such an obvious question?

This man was still waiting for the healing of God. He was waiting for a miracle to overcome all the obstacles that he listed in order to be healed. Jesus readily became that miracle.

When the man stood up and took up his bed did he for once ask himself whether it was that easy to be healed. Yes, holding your patience and expectantly waiting upon a miracle for thirty eight years is really nothing.

I myself cannot imagine waiting for thirty eight years in hope. But I have waited in hopelessness. Because when you do not have hope, you still have God. Apostle Paul talks about Faith, Love and Hope in one sentence in the first epistle to the church at Corinth. However he does mention that Love is the greatest. The love of God can overcome the lack of hope. The man held on to his hope and Jesus rewarded him for it.

I chanced about 'Waiting on God' by Andrew Murray and I realized the difference between praying and waiting on God. In prayer we are focused on our wants and expectations and the wait is not for God but rather whatever of our desires are granted of our expectations. However when we reach the point where we lose our focus on our expectations and rely wholly in the providence of God that is true waiting on God. The man saw the obstacles before him but still waited. He waited on the way God would create among the impossibilities. That way came in the form of Jesus.