Have you ever had a great dream? Oh not necessarily of fame and fortune. But a great dream, nevertheless. Maybe, to be able to climb a high mountain; or to be able to swim an ocean. Or - to gain the Laurels for victory in the Games. Even, just to run in the Games!
Yes. That would be something! IF, of course, you were able to walk there in the first place. For, that has always been my great dream; just to walk! The years and years that I have spent, day in, day out, here by the pool - with legs that are lifeless. Just sitting, day after long weary day, on my mat; thirty eight years or so of absolute misery.
The worst of it is, - Bethesda, - that's what folk call this pool, - is claimed to have healing powers. When the water is stirred, that is to say. AND, - if YOU are among those who can get there in time. For there is always a mad rush and it is those who can at least run, (whatever else is wrong with them) who get there first. I have never stood a chance.
Only, - last Sabbath, my life long dream was to come true, did I but know it! It was a feast day so there were more folk here in Jerusalem than usual. I never noticed HIM - at first. Rather I was more aware of being watched! I could almost feel that somebody's eyes were on me. As indeed, they were! Almost piercing eyes; as if they could see right through me; as if they could see me ... the real me... better than I could myself!
The stranger asked me how long had I been like this. Very sympathetic, he was. But then, folk often were sympathetic, only - sympathy won't buy necessities, will it? Yet, his next question was odd, really. "Do you want to get well?" he asked me. Did I? - Well of course I ... only ... well it would mean a massive change in my lifestyle, of course. In some ways, oddly enough, life would not be so easy; I would have to fend for myself; I would have to earn my living, and not depend on what people threw to me!
I started to explain how difficult it was to get into the water in time, to be able to test its healing powers, when he interrupted my excuses with a "Get up!! Pick up your mat and walk!" Yes, -just like that! And, before I realised what I was up to, that was precisely what I did! Mat in hand, I walked!!
But I walked straight into a load of trouble for the local Church leaders were watching me, and in no uncertain terms they came down on me like a ton of rocks! For, - you do not carry a load on the Sabbath, and in their eyes, my mat was a load I was carrying! Not that strictly speaking this was one of the laws of our great ancestor Moses... but the way our local Church leaders interpret the Law, you could scarcely do right for doing wrong, on the Sabbath!
"But" I protested, "the man who cured me told me to pick up my mat and walk!" "Alright they countered, "and who was it then, who told you?"
I didn't know, - then. But later, I saw my life-saver, in the Temple. Moreover, he instantly recognised me! He looked straight into my eyes and said to me, "Stop sinning, or something worse could befall you." What authority! Now I knew who HE was!
For,- no earthly power could have had such authority, nor worked such a miracle on me; no power on earth could have changed my life so completely! No power,- except One with the power of GOD!!
(You can read the story of the cripple and the worker of the miracle, in St. John's gospel, chapter 5, verses 1-5).
W. W. W.