The Paralyzed Man by the Pool

Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed.

One man has been there thirty-eight years. Jesus asks him: 'Do you want to get well?' The question is strange—of course he wants to get well. Unless he's gotten used to being sick. Unless his identity is bound to his sickness. Sometimes we need to be asked what we actually want, separate from our justifications.