Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
This automated analysis scores the text on the likely presence of emotional, language, and social tones. There are no right or wrong scores; this is just an indication of tones readers or listeners may pick up from the text.
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Emotion Tone
Anger
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Disgust
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Fear
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Joy
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Sadness
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Language Tone
Analytical
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Confident
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Tentative
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Social Tone
Openness
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Conscientiousness
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Extraversion
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Agreeableness
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Emotional Range
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Tone of specific sentences
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Anger
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I hate being sick.
Don’t you?
I don’t handle it well, usually.
You might be like me where you have this pattern—when you first start to feel bad, you try to ignore it.
I just didn’t sleep well, or it’s the weather or allergies or something, but I’m fine.
Once I finally acknowledge it, though, there is a dramatic switch.
I will take whatever you can give me to get over it quicker.
I will keep checking the clock to see if it has been four hours since I took my last Dayquil and I am ready to pop another one.
I want this over and done with, and I want to get on with my life now.
I imagine most of us are this way.
We don’t like being sick, and we want to get better as quick as possible.
That’s what makes the encounter we are going to look at so unique this morning.
In John 5, Jesus encounters a man who has been paralyzed for 38 years, and he asks him something that seems like a ridiculous question: “Do you want to get well?”
He’s been paralyzed for 38 years!
That’s as long as I have been alive.
Of course he wants to get well, right?
As we look at this question more deeply this morning, I hope you will see that it is not ridiculous at all.
In fact, it is a question that you and I need to answer as well—do we really want to get well?
As we wrestle with that question, we are going to be confronted with another question: do I want others to get well?
We are also going to see the Jewish leaders react to this man’s healing in a way that seems cold and calloused, but if we are not careful, may be the same kind of reaction we have.
Before we answer those questions, though, let’s pull back a second and talk about the main point of what Jesus is doing and what John is accomplishing in recording these events.
Jesus is about to heal this man, and he is going to do it on the Sabbath day.
For the Jews, healing the man on the Sabbath was considered work, so they think Jesus is violating the command to not work on the Sabbath.
They also get mad at the man who was healed, because he was carrying the mat he had been lying on for all those years—in their minds, that was work as well.
When you read all of chapter 5, you see that Jesus is creating a moment to teach the Jewish leaders that he has authority, not only over disease and disability, but also over the Sabbath.
In fact, in verses 17-18, we see that he is establishing that he is equal with God the Father, which then makes him God as well.
We are only going to cover the first 16 verses, but we will read the rest of chapter 5 in November as we go through our reading plan together.
We are also going to pick up other passages along the way where John talks about Jesus’ relationship to the Father.
So, now that we understand the context, let’s dive into the story itself and see where these two questions come from.
Along the way, I want you to keep coming back to them: “Do I want to get well,” and “Do I want others to get well?”
Let’s read the passage, and I will make a few observations along the way.
Start with me in verse 1-9; 14-16
Jesus is in Jerusalem again for a festival.
Those celebrations would take place at the Temple, but Jesus is instead in a place filled with people who are blind, lame, and paralyzed.
If you notice, the CSB does not include verse 4 in the text.
If you look at the footnotes, you will see it there with a note that says “Some mss include vv.3b-4...”
What does that mean?
Without getting into too deep of a discussion, the earliest manuscripts don’t have those verses in them.
They don’t show up until after 400AD.
That means they may not have been in the original text.
They may have been where a scribe wrote a note to explain what the man was referring to in verse 7, and then someone copying it thought it was part of the text and put it in there.
The Bible doesn’t ever describe anything like what verse 4 contained, so it may have just been a superstitious belief that people there held.
Pick back up in verse 5-9
Jump down to verses 14-16...
With all of this in mind, let’s look closer at this man and the question Jesus asked:
1) Do you want to get well?
Go back to verses 5-6
At first glance, this question sounds absurd, doesn’t it?
The man has been paralyzed for thirty-eight years.
Like I said, that’s how old I am—thirty eight years ago was 1983.
How many of you were alive in 1983?
You might remember:
That was the year Sally Ride became the first American woman in space.
That was the year the US invaded Grenada
Fraggle Rock debuted on TV and the final episode of MASH aired
The first Mario Bros. game was released in Japan.
Ronald Reagan was president, and the average income per year was $21,070 [1]
That’s how long this man had been sick.
So why does Jesus ask if he wants to get well?
Maybe he knows more about this man’s heart than we do—in fact, maybe he knows all of our hearts better than we do.
Have you ever heard of something called “illness identity?”
I bet you will at least recognize it, even if you haven’t heard the term.
Researchers have coined the term “illness identity” to describe how much a person’s illness has impacted their identity.
In its least healthy stage, the illness engulfs a person so that they define their entire existence in terms of their illness.
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Have you ever known someone like this?
Their struggle with a disability or disease becomes a consuming part of their life.
When you face a serious condition, it makes sense—suddenly, everything is brought into question, and depending on the severity, the disease or disorder can impact every area of a person’s life.
Unfortunately, we sometimes have a hard time getting past this.
It begins to define who I am as a person.
When that happens, you have to answer the question: do I really want to get well?
Sometimes, we don’t know who we would be without the disease or disability anymore.
This doesn’t just happen with physical illness, by the way.
The same can happen with mental health issues, especially when they stem from trauma.
For years, you have been defined by the thing that happened to you.
You have built barriers around your heart to make sure it never happens again.
You wake up angry or afraid or numb, and you can’t imagine what it would be like not to have that any more.
You have always been an anxious person, or always been depressed—it’s just who you are.
Do you want to get well?
Maybe for you, though, it isn’t something mental or physical; it’s spiritual.
You have a sin issue that you have fallen into time and time again, and you know it is wrong.
How serious are you about becoming well?
Are you serious about breaking your habit of lying or pride or pornography or laziness or critical speaking?
What is the thing about which you say, “Well, I know I should do better, but...”?
Remember what the Bible says about our hearts—we are all sick!
You and I lie to ourselves and don’t realize that just how sick we are.
However, God knows, and he is looking at you asking this question: do you want to get well?
"Sean, I can’t.
I am too far gone; God can’t still care.”
Listen, that’s why Jesus came!
He came to save people from their ultimate sickness—the sickness in our hearts that leads them away from God and toward trying to fix things on our own.
This man’s paralysis led him to utter and understandable despair.
Did you see how he responded to Jesus?
Look back at verse 7...
He doesn’t answer the question, because in his mind, it is impossible.
He is a paralytic, and he is alone, and he will always be that.
Do you want to get well?
I don’t even think I can get well.
It’s impossible; there is no hope.
Are you willing to trust that Jesus can work to help you become well?
Don’t get me wrong—I cannot and will not promise that Jesus will instantly heal every trauma or disease.
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