Editorial February 14, 1983 Issue

Three views of a healing

NATHAN A. TALBOT

We often gain a useful perspective by seeing things through another's eyes. For example, put yourself in the shoes of those you read about in the Bible—try to understand things from their point of view.

Take the Gospel's account of the man by the pool of Bethesda.^{See John, chap. 5 .} He was healed of a thirty-eight-year illness. His view of the healing was not the one entertained by many of the witnesses. And their standpoint differed radically from that of the man who brought about the healing.

Here was a man whose view was focused in one direction. He wanted to reach that pool when the waters were stirred. The first to step in was supposed to be healed. Who today, after a lifelong struggle with disease, wouldn't make every effort to reach a solution? In fact, this man's thought was so fastened to the pool that he responded to Christ Jesus' question "Wilt thou be made whole?" not with an eager "yes" but with an excuse. He couldn't be healed because he couldn't reach the pool.

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