John 9:1-31 2024/5/26 Osaka Church
Christ is Risen!
“Do you want to be healed?”
The Lord asked a man who had gone every morning for thirty-eight years to the shores of the Pool of Bethesda, where it was believed that anyone who entered the pool first when the water moved would be healed of any illness, waiting for a miracle.
The Lord Jesus asks, “Are you using illness as an excuse to escape from the hardships of standing on your own two feet? Do you have a true desire and will to get well?” He brings people to the brink. There is a “Driving force” that will push you to the edge of a cliff. Even now, each of us continues to be asked this question.
“A person who had once completely died was resurrected with an unmistakable physical body.”
We believe that this happened to Jesus, celebrate it at Easter, and proclaim it to the world. There is no point in having a pointless debate about whether such a thing could have happened as a historical fact. Christians, regardless of whether they can believe it or not, have at some point embraced this way of living.
However, at the moment when we were driven to believe, the fundamental concern was not “whether Jesus’ resurrection is a historical fact” or “whether all the dead will be resurrected at the end of time.” Like the protagonist of today’s Gospel, we were cornered by the Lord Jesus’ question: “Do you want to be healed?” At that moment, we were not leisurely pondering, “Was Jesus’ resurrection a fact?” The question was, “Do I truly want to be healed?”
At that moment, all we were interested in was whether it was possible for us to be resurrected, and whether it was possible for this weak, sin-damaged “me” to be resurrected and start a new step here and now. If we take up our own crosses and follow Christ, who carries the cross, we believe that it is possible, and we are the ones who have surrendered our lives to that faith.
When we proclaim to each other “Christ is Risen!” in the brightness of Pascha, we remember the hope and determination we had at that precipice that we had almost forgotten. And regain the ability to “do it.” In this fellowship, we mutually confirm our hope in the person called Jesus by calling out to each other “Christ is Risen” and “Indeed He is Risen!.”