"The God Who Sees Your '38 Years'"

A Sermon for the 19th Sunday after Trinity

Texts: Exodus 34:4-10; James 5:13-16; John 5:1-16

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Dear friends,

In our Gospel reading, we meet a man who was stuck. For 38 years, he was paralyzed, lying by the Pool of Bethesda. Every day, he hoped for a miracle, but his hope was in a pool he could never reach. His sad summary of life was: “I have no one.” No one to help him. No one to lift him.

Maybe you know what that feels like. Maybe you feel stuck right now.

• Stuck in a long-term sickness, where healing feels like a distant dream.
• Stuck in a financial struggle, where the month is always longer than the money.
• Stuck in a broken relationship, paralyzed by hurt or resentment.
• Stuck in a pattern of sin, where the same failure repeats itself.

We look at our problems, our families, our own hearts, and we can feel just like that man. We can’t save ourselves.

1. God Comes to You

But the beautiful truth of the Gospel is this: God does not wait for us to find our way to Him. He comes to us.

Jesus went to Jerusalem, to that pool, and walked right into this man’s 38-year problem. He didn’t wait for the man to cry out. He saw him. He knew exactly how long he had been there.

And He asks a question that seems almost strange: “Do you want to be healed?”

It’s not a cruel question. It’s a profound one. After 38 years, your problem can become your identity. Your "mat" can become your home, your story, your excuse. Jesus is asking, “Do you truly want a new life?”

The man explains his old plan: “I have no one to help me into the pool.” But Jesus doesn’t follow the man’s script. He doesn’t help him into the water. Instead, He speaks a word of pure power: “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.”

And immediately, the man was healed. After 38 years of paralysis, he stood up, picked up the very mat that was his prison, and walked.

This is the heart of our hope. Our salvation, our healing, doesn’t depend on our weak efforts to get to God. It depends entirely on the powerful, life-giving grace of Jesus Christ. He does for us what we could never do for ourselves.

2. God Heals Us for Community

The story doesn’t end with the healing. Jesus later finds the man in the temple and tells him, “See, you are well! Sin no more.” This is a call to a new way of life. True healing isn’t just physical; it’s spiritual. It’s a call to leave behind the old, paralyzing patterns of sin.

And this is where God places us: in community. In His church. Our other reading from James shows us what this looks like: “Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him… pray for one another, that you may be healed.”

We are called to be the “someone” for the person who says, “I have no one.” We are to pray for one another, confess to one another, and bear each other’s burdens. The God who commanded healing then now works through His people, the Church, today.

Conclusion: Get Up and Walk

So what is God’s word for you today?

It is this: The God of compassion and steadfast love sees you in your stuck place. He sees your 38-year problem. And right now, He speaks His powerful word to you: “Get up.”

• To the one paralyzed by guilt, He says, “Your sins are forgiven. Get up and walk in freedom.”
• To the one paralyzed by despair, He says, “I am your hope. Get up and walk in faith.”
• To the one paralyzed by sickness, He says, “I am your healer. Get up and walk in my strength.”

You are no longer defined by your paralysis. You are defined by the word of Christ.

So, in the name of Jesus, get up. Pick up the mat of your old identity, your old despair. You don’t need to lie on it anymore. And walk. Walk in the new life He has given you. Walk into this community of faith. Walk as a living testimony that the God of Bethesda is still at work, and that in Him, no one ever has to say, “I have no one.” For you have Christ, and you have His Church.

Amen