I led a discussion at Valley Mosaic tonight. We had some great meaingful discussion I thought. I talked about John 5:1-8, where Jesus encounters a crippled man on his way to Jeruselem at the pool of Bethesda. This is such a great story with many layers. I’ve been really interested in the Gospel of John lately. I’ve been reading N.T. Wrights commentary on the book and listening to various teachings. I find the theme of the external and internal focus in John extremely interesting.  Anyway, in this story Jesus encounters a man who is crippled for 38 years! Jesus’ question to this guy is fantastic:
“Do you want to get well?”

Although the answer to this question would seem obvious, as we concluded at VM tonight, it is an extremely insightful question. We think what Jesus is essentially asking this man is “are you institutionalized?”

As I said in my last post, sometimes we become comfortable in our suffering and pain. It becomes like home to us. I showed these two clips from one of my favorite movies and I think they helped us to understand how we can become prisoners to our pain, and actually become afraid of freedom.

Tags:gospel of johnN-T- Wrightshawshank redemptionsuffering