Those who wish themselves to be sick cannot be healed even by God.
This is a strange question, “do you want to be healed?” Jesus asked this question before healing people. He particularly asked this question to the paralyzed man lying by the side of the pool for thirty eight years. I wondered why Jesus asked this strange question to people who come to him for healing. I did not know the answer. Then, I looked at myself and found the answer within me.
There are many habits in me which need healing. I pray to Jesus for healing with my lips, but deep within my heart I do not want to part with those strongholds. The reason is that the habits have taken roots in me as a form of defense mechanism. I can easily blame the system, for my laziness rather than confronting my laziness. If I confront my laziness, I have to wake up early, work harder and relax less. I don’t want to do that, because I will lose my present complacency.
So, I play a hypocritical double game. I pray, “Jesus, heal me from laziness,” without meaning what I speak. Jesus sees my heart. He is the truth. He confronts me, “Jacob, do you really want to be healed?”
Habits are the end results of mind games. We are playing games. Under cover, we blame our parents, spouses, siblings, neighbors and friends for our failures. We are the reason for our failure. We are not facing the ugly and stinking aspect of our lives.
If we really and truthfully look into our minds, we will see one thing; we all play hypocritical games with our minds. Jesus faces us upfront and asks directly to our soul, “Really, do you want to be healed?”
In India, I saw a beggar. He lived in a nearby village. He had big bandages tied around his legs. He wore dirty clothes. He will give a sick look, and then ask for money. One day my brother saw him having a bath in a nearby river. After the bath he washed his clothes. Then he did a strange thing, he sprayed dirt and dust on his clothes and body. He tied huge bandages around his legs. He then took his begging bowl and limped towards the village square to beg.
This beggar is the typical example of a man who has mastered the mind game of sick-role. He had no physical sickness, but he is sick in his soul. He doesn’t want to be healed. Sick-role is his way of earning livelihood with out working.
We are all like that beggar and that is why Jesus is struggling to heal us. We are sitting in the village square with our begging bowl. We play sick-role. We play victim-role. We play poor-me role. We play holy-me role. We play unending roles.
The Lord is fed up with our sick games. Still, Jesus doesn’t give up on us. He is asking “Do you want to be healed?”
– – – written by Dr. Jacob C Tony
