Article March 29, 1993 Issue

"Wilt thou be made whole?"

We all want to be healed—so are we ready for the new ways of thinking and acting that are part of healing?

Käte Meier

Original in German

One of the instructive accounts reported in the Gospel of John is of Christ Jesus' healing of a man who had been sick for thirty-eight years. The man was lying beside the pool of Bethesda, hoping sometime to manage to step into the water at the right moment and be healed. Before healing the man, Jesus asked him what might seem a startling question: "Wilt thou be made whole?" Prior to my introduction to Christian Science, I could not understand why Jesus asked him this. How could Jesus doubt the man's desire to be healed?

After becoming a student of Christian Science, I came to see that his question had a deeper meaning. According to my reading of the passage now, it could mean: "Are you willing to become a new person? Are you willing to give up old ways of thinking and acting in order to be healed?"

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