Probing Our Hearts

Do You Want to be Well? John 5:6

JESUS IS THE MASTER of asking the obvious!

Who would walk into a hospital where someone has lain for two years in bed, chronically ill, too sick to go home, unresponsive to medical treatments and ask “Do you want to get better?”

But Jesus did just that!

For 38 years this man had been in the portico by the sheep pool waiting to be healed.

So why did Jesus ask him what he wanted? Wasn’t it obvious?

Jesus was probing the man’s heart.

Interestingly, the man didn’t answer the question.

He complained about not having anyone to help him into the water.

Jesus cured the man and told him to go home.

The man didn’t ask to follow Jesus, didn’t express gratitude.

Neither did Jesus invite him to accompany him as a disciple.

The man didn’t know his heart well enough to know really what he wanted in life.

And you, what do you most deeply desire for yourself? Your family? The world?

Sr. Kathryn James Hermes, F.S.P.

Ezekiel 47:1-9, 12 Psalm 46:2-3, 5-6, 8-9 John 5:1-16