For thirty-eight years the man in today’s gospel (John 5:1-9) has sat on his … mat. That’s a long time. Every day for thirty-eight years doing the same old things. Waiting. Watching. Hoping. Wondering if today is the day.

Sitting on his mat has become a way of life for this man. His life is stagnant. He’s unable to see that the deep well of life is within him. He’s convinced himself that life will bubble up outside of him, over there, in that magic pool of water. So he sits on his mat waiting, watching, and hoping that one day things will change. 

There was a belief that this pool of water called Beth-zatha had healing properties and that it could change one’s life. It was said that every now and then an angel would stir the water, the water would begin to bubble, and the first one in the water would be healed. The man in today’s gospel won’t get up off his mat until he sees the first bubble. He is living an “as soon as” life. 

“As soon as the water bubbles then I will get up off my mat. As soon as I get to the water my life will be better. As soon as I get into the water my problems will be fixed.” 

We probably all have our pool of Beth-zatha. It is an illusion we often live with. It convinces us that our life is nothing more than our circumstances. It deceives us into believing that life is to be found outside ourselves. It tricks us into living an “as soon as” life. 

I know what that’s like, don’t you? We say to ourselves or maybe even out loud to another, “As soon as this or that happens everything will be better. I’ll be happy. Life will be easier. I’ll be satisfied. All will be well.”

The pool of Beth-zatha has a strong attraction for us. Children often say, “As soon as I get big, grow up, am an adult ….” It continues throughout our life. “As soon as ….” 

• As soon as I graduate, get a job, get a better job;
• As soon as I get married or get out of this relationship;
• As soon as I have more time, more money, a better house;
• As soon as he changes the way he acts or she apologizes; 
• As soon as I feel better or get through this time in my life;
• As soon as they do what I want;
• As soon as I get a vacation, retire, get away to the mountains or the beach;
• As soon as I get over this grief and no longer feel sad;
• As soon as I lose ten sounds and get in shape.

“As soon as ____” How would you fill in that blank today? 

What are you waiting on? What is keeping your life on hold? How long have you been waiting for the pool of Beth-zatha to bubble?

The problem is that there will always be another pool of Beth-zatha. Meanwhile life has been put on hold. The pause button has been pushed. We sit on our mat, self-imprisoned by the circumstances of our life. 

The imprisonment is so great that when Jesus asks the man, “Do you want to be made well?” the man doesn’t even say, “Yes.” Instead he offers circumstances and excuses. “I have no one to put me in the water. When the water bubbles others get there first. They take cuts.”

Here’s the thing. If we aren’t living the life we want or becoming the person we want to be today, it’s probably not going to happen tomorrow. How we are here is usually how we are there. 

I’m not suggesting that the circumstances of our lives are irrelevant, don’t matter, or have no effect. That’s just not true. They do affect us. We are, however, more than the circumstances of our life. Life is not to be found outside our various situations or circumstances but within them. To believe something other than this is to live constantly looking for the next pool of Beth-zatha. 

Jesus does not help the man get into the water. He comes to him on his mat, the same mat and situation the man so wants to escape, and speaks words of life and resurrection. “Get up off your mat!” To quote Jesus a bit more accurately, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.” 

The man does not leave his mat behind. It goes with him. His circumstances are real. His new life arises within the circumstances of his life not apart from them. That’s true for you and me too. It’s true for Uvalde three years after the Robb School shooting. 

Jesus doesn’t change our outer circumstances. But he does see more for us than we often can see for ourselves. He calls us into a new ways of being, seeing, acting, speaking, thinking. I wonder what that means for you today. For Uvalde.

That doesn’t necessarily make life easy or mean we no longer have to deal with the circumstances of life. It means we engage our circumstances from a different place and position. The pool of Beth-zatha is drained of its power over us. There is freedom where there was once imprisonment. Inertia gives way to creativity. Once stagnant waters now bubble within us.

The life Jesus offers does not happen “as soon as ….” It happens in this place, at this time, in these circumstances. But we have a responsibility in bringing about that new life for ourselves, one another, Uvalde.

Are you sitting on your mat? Are you looking for a pool of Bethzatha? Waiting for something to bubble up? 

It’s Easter. “Stand up, take your mat and walk.” What does that mean and look like for you today? What is it asking of you?

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Image Credit: By Unknown author – Codex Egberti, Fol 36v, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons.