Sometimes, God does not answer the cry of our heart. We think the pain we experience means we are either in sin or need psychotherapy.
Could it be instead we are experiencing the very same pain Jesus experienced at some point in his short life on earth?
Could it be our pain mirrors the pain in His heart, and thereby the pain of our Father's heart?
Anger, grief, sadness, weariness, loneliness, disappointment - these are all emotions He felt.
Wilder's play (1) demonstrates the spiritual reality of John 5 - the healing at the Pool of Bethesda.
The doctor wants to get in to the pool to relieve his melancholy and depression, but the Angel will not allow him.
The Angel says,
Without your wound where would your power be? It is your very remorse that makes your low voice tremble into the hearts of men. The very angels themselves cannot persuade the wretched and blundering children on earth as can one human being broken on the wheels of living. In Love’s service only the wounded soldiers can serve. Draw back.Those who are aware of their woundedness and willingness to work through the pain are people the Miracle Maker can work with. Those who are unwilling or unaware of their need to sit in the dirt on the side of the road and beg the passing Nazarene, "Jesus, Son of David, Have mercy on me," diminish their usefulness to the Master.
- He uses us despite our pain and wounds.
- He heals us through our pain and woundedness.
- He is glorified in our pain and wounds.
This is a spiritual principle as old as time and writing itself. Job 36:15 teaches,
"He delivers the afflicted by their affliction and opens their ear by adversity."
Martin Smith also wrote about this in his song, "Miracle Maker."
I'm waiting here for my life to change,
When the waters stir you can rearrange me.
Just one touch is all I need,
I've nothing much but the wounds I feel,
I'm looking for the hand of the miracle man.
Holy, you are holy,
Who was and is and is to come.
Holy, you are holy, Saviour, Healer,
I'm standing at the feet of the miracle maker.
I'm holding on, with your life in mine,
Living water's come,
And you've rearranged me.
Holy you are holy,
Who was and is and is to come.
Holy, you are holy,
Saviour, healer,
I'm staring in the face of the miracle maker.
Holy, you are holy,
Who was and is and is to come.
Jesus, precious Jesus,
Thank you, Saviour,
I'm walking in the shoes of my miracle maker.
I'm standing with the faith of a miracle maker.
Written by Delirious? ©2005 Curious? Music UK
“Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep
market a pool,
which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having
five porches.
In these lay a great multitude of invalid folk – blind,
halt, withered
– waiting for the moving of the water.
For an angel went
down at a certain season into the pool and troubled the water.
Whosoever then first stepped in, after the troubling of the water,
was
made whole of whatsoever disease he had."
(John 5: 12-14 NASB)
(1) The Angel That Troubled the Waters (A short play by Thornton Wilder)
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