“Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, ‘Do you want to be made well?’ The sick man answered Him, ‘Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk.’ And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked.”
December 7, 2022
In this passage, Jesus asked the paralytic a profound but very simple question: “Do you want to be made well?” That’s the question Jesus asked the man, but it is also one for you. Jesus is not merely in the healing business. He only healed one person in this passage. The Bible says there was a great multitude there. Had Jesus been only a great healer He would have healed them all. This miracle had a message: that we might believe Jesus is the Christ and believe that we might have life through His name (see John 20:31). We need to go beyond miracles and on to Jesus.
G. Campbell Morgan said every parable Jesus taught was a miracle of instruction and every miracle which Jesus wrought was a teaching. 1 Now, he didn’t mean the miracles were not real, but there is a miraculous message in the miracles. Jesus healed this one man to get a message across to all of us who feel we need spiritual strength. Apart from Christ, we are spiritually paralyzed and without strength, but in Christ, we have power for living. Jesus is God’s answer to man’s spiritual disability.
Ask God for help with something you know you can’t do on your own.
Learn to walk with Jesus moment by moment each day.
The 365 daily readings in this devotional were developed directly from the sound biblical teaching of Pastor Adrian Rogers. His way of simply stating the truth of Jesus Christ is unparalleled. Page after page you’ll get something new to think about and to talk to God about in your moments with Him.