6th Sunday of Easter – May 24, 2025

Jesus said to the man, “Do you want to be made well?” And how does he answer? He says, “I have no one to put me in the water. When the water bubbles others get there first. They cut in line.”

So often, we think we know what’s going on. We make assumptions and move forward holding onto those assumptions. But what would happen if we stopped, and listened to the question that we’re asked?

Let’s revisit the Gospel for this morning… Thirty-eight years is a long time to sit on your mat. Every day is the same. Waiting… Watching…. Hoping… But not much changes. For this man, sitting on his mat has become a way of life. His life is stagnant. He’s unable to see that the life that is within him. He’s convinced that life will bubble up outside of him, over there, in that magic pool of water. And so he sits on his mat waiting, watching, and hoping that things will change.

There was a belief that this pool of water called Beth-zatha had healing properties and that it could change one’s life. It was said that occasionally, an angel would stir the water, the water would begin to bubble, and the first one to get into the water would be healed. But the ill man in today’s gospel wouldn’t get up off his mat until he saw the first bubble. He was living an “as soon as” life. Because, he thought, “As soon as the water bubbles then I will get up off my mat.” Or, “As soon as I get to the water my life will be better.” Even, “As soon as I get into the water my problems will be fixed.”

The problem is that the pool of Beth-zatha is an illusion. It convinces us that our life is nothing more than our circumstances and that we are constantly needing to wait for God to make things happen. It deceives us into believing that life is to be found outside ourselves. It tricks us into living an “as soon as” life. We say to ourselves or maybe even out loud to another, “As soon as this or that happens everything will be better, I’ll be happy, and my problems will go away. I’ll be satisfied. All will be well.”

The pool of Beth-zatha has a strong attraction for us. Children often say, “As soon as I get big,” or “As soon as I grow up,” or “As soon as I am an adult….” It continues throughout our life. “As soon as:”

I graduate, I get a job, I get a better job;
I get married, or I get out of this relationship;
I have more time, I have more money, or I have a better house;
He changes the way he acts, or she apologizes;
I feel better, or I get through this time in my life;
They do what I want;
I get a vacation, or I retire, or I move to the mountains;
I get over this grief and no longer feel sad;
I lose ten pounds, or I get in shape….

“As soon as ….” You can fill in the blank with most anything. You see, there will always be another pool of Beth-zatha. And while we look for that thing that we’re waiting for, our life has been put on hold. We sit on our mat, self-imprisoned by the circumstances of our life.

The imprisonment is so great that when Jesus asks the man, “Do you want to be made well?” the man doesn’t even say, “Yes.” He offers circumstances and excuses.

Now, that the circumstances of our lives are not irrelevant; they do affect us. But, we are more than the circumstances of our life. Life is to be found within our various situations and circumstances. To believe something other than this is to live constantly looking for the next pool of Beth-zatha.

Notice that Jesus does not help the man get into the water. He comes to him on his mat, the same mat and situation the man so wants to escape, and speaks words of life and resurrection. “Get up off your mat!” To quote Jesus a bit more accurately, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.” The man does not leave his mat behind. It goes with him. His circumstances are real. The difference is he now carries them. They no longer carry him.

Jesus doesn’t change our outer circumstances. He changes us. He calls us into a new way of being, seeing, acting, speaking, thinking. When we stand and rise to that new life we discover the circumstances have somehow changed. That doesn’t necessarily make life easy or mean we no longer have to deal with the circumstances of life. It makes our circumstances more manageable and we engage them from a different place and position. The pool of Beth-zatha is drained of its power over us. There is freedom where there was once imprisonment. Once stagnant waters now bubble with new life.

The life Jesus offers does not happen “as soon as ….” It happens in this place, at this time, in these circumstances. Are you sitting on your mat? Are you looking for a pool of Beth-zatha? My friends, it is time to “Stand up, take your mat and walk.”