The SinnerThe man lay on his rags, his gaunt and listless eyes fixed on an uncertain spot in the blue sky.
His emaciated bones were covered by his leathery skin and his deformed legs scattered about his body like discarded sticks.
He had quit hoping and caring years ago. The pool-porch where he’d been brought had eventually just become a sort of home for him, a place to stay to pass the time away until he died.
The PoolNo one could quite trace the origins of the superstition , and no one really knew if it were angels that disturbed the placid surface or if it were just a stray, playful zephyr. But all The suffers that surrounded that body of water were eager to be the first in after the “angel” stirred the water and thus offered healing.
The fact that the healthier individuals with the least disabling conditions were able to jump into the pool first after such a disturbance and thus were the most likely to recover from their maladies only furthered the superstitious myth of salvation from a pool of water.
The SaviorA shadow fell across the listless eyes and suddenly there stood a man before him. This man had his eyes fixed upon him in a way that made him feel exposed and he drew his rags around him.
The man suddenly asked him, “do you wish to be healed?“
The question at first startled him in its rawness. He hadn’t considered healing in a very long time.
The doubt“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.”
Is eyes grew listless again because he knew he was beyond hope. He knew he was a sinner and that’s how he had gotten into this condition. He knew that you had to claw and scratch to earn God’s favor. 38 years of being pushed aside by those more able than himself had taught him this.
He had watched men fight and wrestle over the random crumbs of mercy God threw into the pool in the infrequent stirrings of the water.
He’d often wondered if God laughed to watch these poor miserable sinners scrapping with each other over the slight favors he tossed their way.
Maybe, he thought,
it was God’s way of enjoying a good **** fight.The Arbitrary Salvation Now here was this man asking him if he wanted to be healed.
That strange intense man who did not ask for alms, repentance, obeisance or money.
Then a strange thing happened. Without waiting to be asked, without waiting to be pleaded with, without him even expecting it or having faith that it could possibly happen the man said to him, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” And immediately there came a surging burning warmth through his body. He didn’t know how but suddenly he knew he could walk and he stood up into the fall stature of a man.