John 5:8…… 8 Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.

John 5:14…… 14 Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.

This is the story of the impotent man lying by the pool of Bethesda.  He awaits the water to be stirred so that he can be put in, and thereby be healed. Everybody saw him as a sick man, including himself.  Jesus, however, saw him as a broken man.  He asks the man, “…wilt thou be made whole?”  He did not ask the man if he wanted to be healed.  He asked him if he wanted to be made whole?

The mans response reveals what he was thinking.  He thought Jesus was asking him if he wanted healing.  He is not unlike most of us reading the bible today.  We make assumptions based on what we have read before.  We don’t carefully read God’s word until one day they “jump off the page at us.”  Then we begin to see the subtle nuance that provides further revelation of our Saviour. 

Jesus asked the man if he would be made whole.  Jesus saw him more as a broken person than a sick person.  He saw him as a man requiring to be fixed rather than a man who needed to be healed.  He saw him as a man who was only part of a man, missing something, and needing that missing part.

Jesus asks, “wilt thou be made whole?”  The man responds that he has no way to be healed.  Jesus does something to him and “immediately” the man is made whole (John 5:9).  The Jews see him as “cured” (John 5:10). He tells them, “The same guy that made me ‘whole’ healed me as well. He told me to take up and walk, and I did.”

Later Jesus found him and said, “…thou art made whole: SIN NO MORE, lest a worse thing come upon thee.”

Sin didn’t make him sick.  Sin made him broken.  One of the many side effects of sin made him sick, but sin only broke him.

How many people of the world today are living broken lives?  Maybe they never got sick at all, but they are still broken.  Anybody who has not accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour is certainly broken.