The receptionist, all blue-green eyeshadow and tarantula lashes, insisted I note down my sick nephew’s full details — My dear, I’ll need his full name, date of birth, where you stay and phone number, Acha!
They just fitted the 10 x 5cms paper she handed me. She continued — Okay, there are nine patients ahead of you and because your nephew has a fever he’ll have to wait downstairs and I’ll call him when it’s his turn.
We waited for more than an hour. Most of the patients were so frail they had to be helped up the steep tiled stairs by their carers. No one looked twice at the ‘slippery when wet!’ sign. I wondered why the doctor chose the second storey for his clinic when there were enough rooms on the ground level. It was as if he was testing his patients’ resolve — if they were serious about getting healed then they’d endure the climb. And the wait.
Like the multitude of sick, blind, lame and paralyzed people enduring the wait by the Pool of Bethesda. Waiting, wondering and then struggling to get into the water when the angel stirred it.
Imagine living that way for so long that when you’re offered hope, your default response is your lack and how trying your circumstances are. Imagine being so near to the pool that you can practically smell the algae but you no longer have the strength to swing your legs over the sides. Imagine seeing person after person getting healed and you’ve been there so long, you’re starting to think you’ll die there. Imagine being immobile and in a twinkling of an eye you’re on your feet carrying your makeshift bed. Healed. Imagine that feeling of wholeness.
We trust a doctor’s diagnosis and follow their prescription to the letter because we want to get well. Doesn’t that seem easier sometimes than to trust our Lord and Saviour, who offers wholeness and eternal life? Ever wondered why?
The Jewish people, scholars and teachers of Yeshua’s day were no different. They trusted the letters of the law more than they did the Lord God who created those laws, like those sick people by the Pool of Bethesda who trusted more in a seasonal angelic visit than in the God who chose them to be His people. So blinded were they by their self-righteous knowledge of the laws that they couldn’t recognize the Son of God even when He was standing right in front of them.
Unlike the doctor’s prescription of antibiotics, Yeshua Hamashiach offers complete healing in our bodies, mind, soul and spirit. He offers it now and for all eternity. All He asks is that we receive Him at His word, and believe and trust Him with all our cares and burdens. And He asks us to ‘stop sinning lest something worse may happen to you.’ He’s more than a healer, He is our very life. The Resurrection and the Life.
Pray with me
LORD God Almighty, Thank You for healing our every physical and emotional pain. Guide to sin no more. In Yeshua, we pray this. Amen.
Images by Siteri (March 2025). Collage designed in Canva
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