The Mindful Minute by Jon Heydenreich: Dumb Questions

This guy is an invalid. I do not know exactly what that means. He sat there for 38 years hoping someone would help him get into the waters when the waters were stirred. The belief was, first person in gets healed. 38 years... Never made it.

So along comes Jesus and Jesus asks “Do you want to be healed?”

What a dumb question. What person does not want to be healed? I mean come on. “I have been sitting here for 38 years – what do you think. Give me a break with that stupid question.”

Maybe, just maybe Jesus was getting in this guy’s face. Maybe this was not rolly, polly Pillsbury dough boy Jesus. Maybe this was Jesus getting real with this guy. Confrontation.

Some suggest this fellow liked being the object of sympathy, was content to receive whatever was given to him. Perhaps. Or, perhaps that in your face question was to provoke within this guy a realization that he had some control, some ability, some potential, some possibility that he may have buried in his consciousness. In other words, he had the potential to participate in, to affect, his own healing. It would not be something “done” to him, but it was something he could be a partner in. “Do you want to be healed?” Then let’s get after it. Maybe, just maybe Jesus triggers something in this guy. Maybe he had given up, and along comes someone who was not giving up on him.

I see the story as metaphor. The idea is that when we open ourselves up to the potential resident in us, then the Spirit can foster some changes. Obviously, not always. And this is not some religious Bible thing either. Go to an AA meeting. A lot of us get moved by the Spirit, whether it is to sobriety, some change, or a long list of other matters.

Be mindful – of the power of that Spirit, when we want to be...