Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed.—Jeremiah.
When the great Master asked the impotent man at the pool of Bethesda, "Wilt thou be made whole?" it is evident that he had in thought something more than a physical cure, for a little later, after the man had been enabled to take up his bed and walk, we find Jesus saying to him in the temple, "Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee." Here was one with an infirmity of thirty and eight years' standing, who had doubtless resorted to various material means without receiving help. This poor mortal was probably seeking relief on a physical plane, not realizing that his freedom from disease would include the destruction of sin in his own consciousness. Possibly he had no thought of experiencing any moral or spiritual benefit. What he wanted was to be relieved of his lameness. Like many others, he presumably wanted to experience freedom from pain while continuing "to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season."
Jesus' explanation to him, that he was now made whole, and that he must cease sinning if he would remain so, opened up a new line of thought for him. It meant that from then on he must serve but one master if he would obey the divine will and remain in a state of perfect health. For the first time he learned the distinction between a physical or material cure and the Christ-healing. The Master's method of treatment in this case was the same as in all others, wherein he dealt primarily with sin, or the mortal's erroneous thinking which was the foundation of his seeming physical disability. In no case did he ever make the mistake of trying to cure disease without correcting the underlying moral fault. He understood the natural law of cause and effect, and that the only permanent and scientific healing must take place in consciousness in order to be made manifest upon the body; in other words, that wrong thinking was the root of the trouble, and that it must first be corrected before any lasting benefit could accrue to the sick man.
