Before Jesus healed the helpless man at the pool of Bethesda, he asked him the simple, forthright question, "Wilt thou be made whole?" John 5:6;
From the point of view of Christian Science there are several implied meanings in this brief query. It might be restated in several ways: Are you willing to accept the simple truths of divine Science in contradiction of tradition and treasured beliefs and opinions? Are you willing to accept the fact that God, the divine Mind, made man in His own likeness and governs him as surely as He does the universe? That there is no birth nor death for man because man made in His likeness is therefore spiritual, eternal? That God saw every detail of what He had made, and it was very good? That if it is not good, God did not make it, and consequently it does not exist at all in reality but only appears to illusory mortal mind to be real, although it remains an illusion?
The invalid answered Jesus, "Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me." v. 7; Good withheld from one and given to another, belief that an angel stirred up the water to make it ready to heal one more person—these were lies of limitation, which the man had accepted. God does not withhold from one and give to another more favored person. We are all His beloved children. Water can have no power to heal, because materiality has no power at all when we understand God's allness.
