John 5:1-9,14 NASB95
After these things there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. [2] Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porticoes. [3] In these lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered, [waiting for the moving of the waters; [4] for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water; whoever then first, after the stirring up of the water, stepped in was made well from whatever disease with which he was afflicted.] [5] A certain man was there who had been thirty-eight years in his infirmiyy. [6] When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had already been a long time in that condition, He said to him, “Do you wish to get well?” [7] 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.” [8] Jesus said to him, “Get up, pick up your pallet and walk.” [9] Immediately the man became well, and picked up his pallet and began to walk. Now it was the Sabbath on that day.
[14] Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “Behold, you have become well; do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you.”
Notice it says, “A certain man was there who had been 38 years in his infirmity.” (That is the way the grammar in the original language says it)
The Holy Spirit doesn’t say, “And he had been sick for 38 years.” Instead, it says he had been there 38 years in his infirmity, as if the Holy Spirit is differentiating the man from the infirmity he lived in. When you’ve been sick or broken in some area of your life, especially for a long time, it is easy to identify with your infirmity as who you are, but Jesus did not see the man that way. Jesus wanted to get rid of the physical infirmity, but He wanted to heal the man on the inside who had to live with it all those years. Jesus doesn’t just see the pain, but he sees the person who is living with the pain and ministers to the person. He wants that person the be free from sinning because the sinning part (what is going on the inside of the person) is significantly more important than the sickness itself. Obviously, every physical ailment is not connected to a person’s interior brokenness, but in this particular situation, it seems to be true because after his physical healing, Jesus sought him out because it was important that the man understood even though his sickness was gone, he was still in danger of something worse befalling him because the sickness was not the real problem – it was just a symptom.
The point I’m trying to make is not about this man’s physical condition being connected to any interior darkness in his life. The point I want you to see is that God in Christ came to this man because He wanted him to be whole. Jesus saw the man’s condition physically. What He also saw was the man on the inside and his need to be well in his soul. You are the most important person in the world to Jesus, and He came so that you might have life and have it more abundantly. God is the God who comes to us – He looks for us – not because He is disappointed in us, but because He wants to make us well. When Jesus told the man to sin no more so that nothing worse would befall him, it wasn’t a rebuke but an invitation to inner healing and wholeness. Jesus did not mention what the sin was because I imagine He didn’t need to – the man knew. Jesus just wanted the man to be whole, and to stay that way.
This is the God Jesus revealed – the one who comes looking for us in our pain and sickness. He is the one who knows how long we have suffered and wants to heal our suffering – Jesus came to heal the brokenhearted and to set the prisoners free – he came to bring good news to the afflicted.