Who knew today happens to be National Best Friend Day?!
Do you have friends who would open the roofs of heaven to bring down a deliverance for you, like the friends of the paralytic man in Luke chapter 5? Well, you are blessed.
The house where Jesus was preaching was overflowing with people. So the friends of a paralytic man tore down the roof of the house and brought down the paralyzed man and laid him before Jesus. Luke 5:20 When Jesus saw their faith, He said to him, “I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house”. Immediately he rose up before them, and departed to his own house, glorifying God.
Sadly, not everyone is blessed with such friends, like the man at the pool of Bethesda (John chapter 5). A great multitude of people with various kinds of diseases stayed by the pool of Bethesda, because it was considered a miracle pool. At an unknown time, an angel would go into the pool and stir up the water. When the water got stirred, whoever got into the pool first was healed from whatever disease he had. As expected, a multitude of sick people stayed beside the pool, with their eyes on the water so that they could get into the pool when the water got stirred by the angel.
Beside this pool, a man who had an infirmity waited for 38 years to receive his healing. Not a year or two, but 38 very long years!
Unimaginable, as for most of us, that would make the most part of our life till now. He had no friends or family who longed for him to receive a healing so he was there all by himself at the mercy of others to carry him to the pool when the water got stirred. His 38 years of wait says that there was no one there to help him out because everyone needed their own healing first. And once healed, they just left.
Into the hopelessness of his situation, the hope of all hopes walked in – JESUS! No one told Jesus about this man. The Son of God knew that this man was stuck in his situation for a very long time. And yet Jesus asked him, “Do you want to be made well?”. The man replied, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool”. Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your bed, and walk. And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked. 38 years of being stuck became history the moment Jesus walked into his situation.
Just as the man who had loving, caring friends, the man who had nobody also was healed by Jesus.
