Get Your Hope Up
(6 minutes)
Then Jesus returned to Jerusalem to observe one of the Jewish holy days. Inside the city near the Sheep Gate there is a pool called in Aramaic, The House of Loving Kindness. And this pool is surrounded by five covered porches. Hundreds of sick people were lying there on the porches---the paralyzed, the blind, and the crippled, all of them waiting for their healing. For an angel of God would periodically descend into the pool to stir the waters, and the first one who stepped into the pool after the waters swirled would instantly be healed.
Now there was a man who had been disabled for thirty-eight years lying among the multitude of the sick. When Jesus saw him lying there, he knew that the man had been crippled for a long time. So Jesus said to him, "Do you truly long to be healed?" (John 5:1-6)
As we are entering the scene of Jesus' next miracle, we are given some specific details about the location. There is a pool situated near the Sheep Gate, where the sacrifices were brought into the temple, and it's called in Aramaic, The House of Loving Kindness. And this pool was enclosed with five covered porches or alcoves that signify the first five books of the Old Testament scriptures containing the Law. We're told that the outcasts of society, the culturally unclean, would lie around this pool all day long waiting for their chance to be healed. They were convinced that an angel would periodically stir the waters and the first one to be immersed in the pool after the waters were stirred would win. Sounds a lot like some of our past church experience, right? A bunch of spiritually sick people showing up to the same place for years and years, drenched in religious law-keeping, believing that their own self-effort will heal them one day if they don't give up and keep trying really hard. Except it's hard to make it into those healing waters when you can't walk or see. For those who can run fast enough, the system actually "works" and they find a measure of success (defined by religion). But for those who can't keep up, all that's left is shame. And the irony is we've called this system The House of Loving Kindness. But this doesn't sound like Abba's way at all. It sounds more cruel than kind. Let's pause and be filled with thankfulness that religion was dead wrong about the Father. The best that religion could give us was a disapproving God who was only kind to those that could keep up. But Abba is nothing like that!
As we move on in the story Jesus approaches a man who had been waiting at that pool for thirty-eight years. Thirty-eight years of lying around and watching those that were stronger and faster than him get to the miracle water before he could lift a finger. Thirty-eight years in that system of striving and self-effort left him hopeless. His ashes told him that he would never be healed. His ashes told him that no one cared about him.
Jesus passes a hundred other sick people and approaches this one man who was likely the most hopeless one at the pool and precedes to ask him what appears to be the most insulting question that you could ask someone in that position: "Do you really want to be healed?"
Dr. Simmons, author of The Passion Translation, gives us some insight into this profoundly rude question that Jesus just asked.
The question could also be read, “'Are you convinced that you are already made whole?' The Greek phrase 'genesthai' is actually not a future tense ('want to be healed') but an aorist middle infinitive that indicates something already accomplished. Jesus is asking the crippled man if he is ready to abandon how he sees himself and now receive the faith for his healing."
Now that changes things a bit, doesn't it?
Let's descend into this revelation today.
Are you convinced that you are already made whole?
Can you see yourself already healed?
Can you stop letting doubt hijack your imagination and allow your eyes of faith to see something different?
Jesus is coming to us today to awaken the eyes of our imagination to see what Yahweh sees. He's coming to us with the express desire to get our hopes up. He wants our hope to be as high as His. Anything less is an insult to the heart of God. Abba is about to take us on a journey that will be defined by our being full of faith and wildly hopeful. It will not make sense to the people around us because faith and hope stick out like a sore thumb to a culture of doubt and hopelessness.
What we need today is a lens correction. That is why Jesus poses the question in the first place. He could've easily healed the man without any conversation at all. But Abba's heart is to bring us into the process of healing. He wants us to be participants in the miracle taking place. He wants the seed of every miracle we experience to be germinated first in our heart and in our imagination. He wants us to see it before we see it. That is called hope. It's the miracle first taking place in our mind.
Now faith brings our hopes into reality and becomes the foundation needed to acquire the things we long for. It is all the evidence required to prove what is still unseen. (Hebrews 11:1)
Now faith is the certainty of things hoped for, a proof of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1)
Hope gives faith something to look at.
If faith can't see it, it will likely not obtain it.
On your walk today, invite Abba to come and correct the way you see. Like the man who was waiting by the pool for thirty-eight years, we need Jesus to come and renew our minds. We have a very active imagination that was given to us by Yahweh but it has been hijacked by our ashes for so many years. This week the Holy Spirit is going to teach us how to dream again. He's going to get our hopes up. Remember, we're releasing our ashes, resting in His love, and receiving our inheritance.
I pray that the light of God will illuminate the eyes of your imagination, flooding you with light, until you experience the full revelation of the hope of his calling--that is, the wealth of God's glorious inheritances that he finds in us, his holy ones! (Ephesians 1:18)
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
Worship: "Miracle of the Mind" by Amanda Cook
Honor: Give Online to The Wilderness Place
Share With Us: We would love to hear how you're encountering Abba in your daily walks. Don't hesitate to share what you're hearing, seeing, or sensing in His presence. Email us here!
