John 5:1-47

Jesus invites each of us to leave the familiar patterns of brokenness that paralyze our spirits within us and to find the strength to walk in His ways.

"For thus says he who is high and exalted, living eternally, whose name is the Holy One: On high I dwell, and in holiness, and with the crushed and dejected in spirit, to revive the spirits of the dejected, to revive the hearts of the crushed…I saw their ways, but I will heal them and lead them; I will give full comfort to them and to those who mourn for them, I, the Creator, who gave them life. Peace, peace to the far and the near, says the Lord; and I will heal them. But the wicked are like the tossing sea which cannot be calmed, And its waters cast up mud and filth. No peace for the wicked! says my God." (1)


The Cripple

At the Bethesda pool, He met
A man crippled for many years;
In rigid, broken ways was set
His heart, chained by despair and fears.

No one will help the lame outcast;
Rejection's left him but a shell.
Jesus, the first to meet the last,
Asks him, "Do you want to be well?"

"Rise up, take up your mat and walk!"
The man was healed in heart and limb;
The hard-of-heart would only balk
And build resentment against Him.

The union of Father and Son,
The source of life for those He heeds,
Is Truth - in Him, God's will is done --
As testified by all His deeds.

The brokenhearted can be healed;
The hard-of-heart stay far afield.


May the Lord heal the deepest paralysis of our hearts that love may flow fully once more.

1. Isaiah 57: 15,18-21


(c) Paul Buis, 2005