Tuesday of the Fourth Week
In January 2019, my sister and I stood with other pilgrims from her parish next to the excavated and restored pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem, imagining Jesus talking with the man who had been ill for 38 years. We were startled by a rock landing nearby, thrown by a boy well above us on the overlooking cliff. Priests and tour guides shouted in angry Arabic at the boy who had threatened our safety. Was he a young Palestinian who was striking out in the only way he could? In a land of complex and competing needs and perspectives, we wonder if there will ever be justice and peace, true healing.
Jesus asks the man who is ill, “Do you want to be well?” He answers that he is not able to get to the pool in time to be healed by the stirred waters. He’s focused on the one solution he recognizes, the pool. Even after he is healed and walking away, he doesn’t see Jesus in the crowd. How often do I do the same? The answer, solution, or healing happens, but not in the way I expect. Do I remember to say ‘thank you, Jesus’ in gratitude for something I don’t understand? Do I fail to see the Holy Spirit acting, indeed ‘healing on the Sabbath’ because it does not conform to my notions of what and how healing is supposed to happen?
Prayer
God is our refuge and our strength; therefore we fear not. Come! behold the deeds of the Lord, the astounding things he has wrought on earth. (Ps. 46)
Jan Hancock M’12, P ’99 and ’09
Member of the Worshipping Community
Psalm 46:2-3, 5-6, 8-9
Gospel: John 5:1-16
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