Denzel Washington, a two-time Academy Award winner and licensed minister, was named the “greatest actor of the 21^st century” by the New York Times. But don’t call him a “Hollywood” actor.

Washington and fellow actor Jake Gyllenhaal were interviewed by CBS News recently. The two are starring in a production of Shakespeare’s Othello, which has become the highest-grossing Broadway play ever. During the conversation, Washington said, “What’s the definition of a Hollywood actor? Myself, I’m from Mt. Vernon, so I’m a ‘Mt. Vernon actor.’ I don’t know what ‘Hollywood’ means. Someone who’s famous on film? A film actor, great success on film?”

He continued: “I’m a stage actor who does film; it’s not the other way around. I did stage first. I learned how to act on stage, not on film.”

Then he made a distinction I find significant: “Movies are a filmmaker’s medium. You shoot it, and then you’re gone and they cut together and add music and do all of that. Theater is an actor’s medium. The curtain goes up, nobody can help you.”

Employing his contrast, let’s ask ourselves: Are we in a play or in a movie today? Are we on our own on the stage, or are we part of a larger project being produced by an unseen filmmaker?

Our answer determines the direction and significance of our lives.

Why did Jesus wait so long?

Today let’s return to John 5 and the pool of Bethesda. As we noted yesterday, Jesus healed an invalid here because the man was willing to be healed and chose to partner with Jesus in this remarkable miracle (vv. 1–9).

This morning, let’s focus on a fact we bypassed yesterday: this man “had been an invalid for thirty-eight years” (v. 5).

Assuming he had been placed by the pool across these years hoping for healing and seeking alms from the religious people on their way to the temple, it is likely that Jesus had encountered him many times in the past. Every observant Jew was required to come to the Jerusalem temple at least three times a year. The pathway from the Sheep Gate past this ritual cleansing pool to the temple was frequently used by worshipers.

It would therefore seem that Jesus could have healed this man many years before he did. Why did he wait so long?

The text doesn’t say. But we do know that if Jesus had healed this man before our Lord launched his public ministry, this miracle would have begun that ministry before the timing was right. Or, if he had done so during the “anonymous” earlier years of his earthly life, the miracle would not have had the public and redemptive impact it possessed then and still today.

So we can conclude that God’s timing had to do with the kingdom significance of this event occurring—not just where and how it did, but when it did.

The providential producer of every scene in Scripture

Now let’s connect this story with Denzel Washington’s observation. Across the Bible, God is the director of every “movie” we encounter, the providential producer of every scene. At times he enters the scene personally, as when he parted the Red Sea to liberate the Jews and joined the human race through his incarnate Son at Christmas.

Consequently, the first question to ask of every text we find in Scripture is this: What does this say about God? At the pool of Bethesda, we learn:

• Jesus knows us and our challenges today.
• He wants to meet our needs.
• He honors our free will and thus invites us to partner with him in accomplishing his will.
• We can trust his timing and purposes. In fact, the less we understand him, the more we need to trust him.
• When we do what he calls us to do, he does what we cannot do.

Now, imagine that the invalid had insisted on being a self-reliant actor on the stage rather than playing his role as directed in the film. We can envision him rejecting Jesus’ compassion since it was not offered earlier on the man’s preferred timeline. We can see him refusing to “get up” until Jesus healed him rather than acting in faith that he would. And since “that day was the Sabbath” (v. 9), we can see him rejecting Jesus’ command to “take up your bed” since this violated the religious traditions of their day (v. 10).

Would he then have been healed? As Denzel Washington said, if you’re an actor on the stage, “nobody can help you.”

The lure and danger of “radical individualism”

In Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life, the famed American sociologist Dr. Robert Bellah writes that the biblical tradition “teaches concern for the intrinsic value of individuals because of their relationship to the transcendent.”

He adds that because this tradition “asserts the obligation to respect and acknowledge the dignity of all,” it has “played a crucial political role since the beginning of the republic.” This is because it “guided the nation’s founders . . . to insist that the American experiment is a project of common moral purpose, one which places upon citizens a responsibility for the welfare of their fellows and for the common good.”

By contrast, Dr. Bellah references “radical individualism” ten times in his book and notes that it “tends to elevate the self to a cosmic principle.” While it clearly defines our existentialist, postmodern, “post-truth” secularized culture, he notes that it is incapable of sustaining our society. In prosperity, we congratulate ourselves for our self-reliant success. In adversity, we tell individuals that they must look after their own interests.

At all times, when you’re an actor on the stage, “nobody can help you.”

“You lead. I follow.”

The story of the man healed beside the pool of Bethesda is in the Bible because it is as relevant to us as it was to him. We are all spiritual invalids. No sinner is capable of forgiving his own sins or saving his own soul. Like a swimmer drowning in an undertow, no amount of “radical individualism” can rescue us.

If we insist on being the lead actor in our own play, we forfeit what an all-knowing, all-powerful, all-loving Director can do for us and through us. Conversely, if we submit to the One who is directing the eternal movie of the cosmos, play our role, and trust him with the outcome, we experience his omnipotent best in our lives.

Said differently, we say to God every day and all through every day, “You lead. I follow.”

Who is directing your life right now?

Quote for the day:

“Use me, God. Show me how to take who I am, who I want to be, and what I can do, and use it for a purpose greater than myself.” —Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Our latest website resources:

• Why “Anora” and “The White Lotus” are making headlines: A biblical response to a broken culture
• Growing up on the Gaza border: My view on the war in Israel and why there can be no peace until the hostages come home
• Artificial Intelligence: Tool or threat?
• The troubled youth and surprising legacy of George Foreman
• Is Amazon’s House of David worth the watch?

Denison Forum

Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of the Atlantic, wrote an article Monday titled, “The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans.” In summary, he reports that he was inadvertently included in a group chat with high-ranking Trump administration officials via the messaging app Signal. Their discussion regarded military strikes in Yemen that took place on March 15, among other geopolitical issues.

In an interview last night, National Security Advisor Michael Waltz assumed “full responsibility” for the leaked group chat. “It’s embarrassing. We’re going to get to the bottom of it,” he said.

“Politics is downstream from culture”

Response to Mr. Goldberg’s report was immediate and continues this morning.

Democrats castigated the administration as “complete amateurs” who “texted out war plans like invites to a frat party.” Several called for Mr. Waltz and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to resign.

Many Republicans, by contrast, were less concerned. One called it a “mistake” that “is not going to lead to the apocalypse.” Another said, “This is what the leftist media is reduced to . . . now we’re griping about who’s on a text message and who’s not.” In an interview yesterday, President Trump said he still had confidence in Mr. Waltz, stating that his inclusion of Mr. Goldberg had “no impact” on the military strikes in Yemen.

We should not be surprised by these partisan responses. In a pragmatic society, truth is what works for us. Capitalistic consumerism defines truth as what we want it to be. In the case of partisan politics (is there any other kind today?) our party is our “tribe” and the other party is evil. We don’t shoot at our friends, only our enemies.

Since “politics is downstream from culture,” we should expect a similar approach to truth in our relativistic society. With no true north on our moral compass, secular people go where their fallen nature takes them. (For examples drawn from the immorality of popular culture, see my latest website article, “Why ‘Anora’ and ‘The White Lotus’ are making headlines.”)

There is a better way. You and I can actually partner with the God of the universe in finding the healing we need for our hurting souls and broken society.

To do so, we need to answer one of the most overlooked questions in Scripture.

“Do you want to be healed?”

John 5 tells us about a man lying beside the pool of Bethesda who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years before Jesus healed him. When speaking to tour groups at this site over the years, I focused on a subtle question embedded in the story: “When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, ‘Do you want to be healed?’” (v. 6).

We might wonder why Jesus asked such a question. Of course a paralyzed man would want to be healed, we think.

But, as the verse states, this man had “already been there a long time.” Invalids often congregated around public places like this pool to seek alms from religious people passing by (cf. Acts 3:2). Historians believe that the pool of Bethesda served as a mikveh, a place of ritual cleansing for worshipers on their way into the temple. Since almsgiving (tzedakah in Hebrew) was a core duty in Judaism, this man likely lived off such generosity.

If Jesus healed him, he would then have to get a job to support himself. But he was at least thirty-eight years old, which was longer than many people lived in his day. Due to his infirmity, he likely had not learned a trade. At his age, what employment could he find? How would he survive?

As a result, Jesus would not force the man to accept the gift of healing against his will. The man made clear his desire to be made well (v. 7), but our Lord still required his permission and engagement in his healing: “Jesus said to him, ‘Get up, take up your bed, and walk’” (v. 8).

Two stages were involved: the man was to “get up” for the first time in four decades, then he was to pick up his bed and walk. Verse 9 tells us, “At once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.” It seems that he was healed “at once” when he tried by faith to “get up,” then he subsequently “took up his bed and walked.”

“Let down your nets for a catch”

From this discussion, it is clear that Jesus honors the free will he gives us, inviting us to partner with him in his redemptive work. When we do what we can do, he does what only he can do.

As we work, God works.

We find this divine-human partnership all through Scripture:

• The Lord commanded Noah and his family to go into the ark Noah built, and when they did, “the Lᴏʀᴅ shut him in” (Genesis 7:1, 16).
• God called the Jewish priests to step into the flooded Jordan river, and when they did, the waters “were completely cut off” (Joshua 3:13, 16).
• He instructed the Jewish people to march seven times around Jericho, and when they did, the city’s fortified walls came down (Joshua 6:15–16, 20).
• Jesus told a man with a “withered hand” to “stretch out your hand,” and when he did, he was healed (Mark 3:5).
• He told Peter and his fellow fishermen to “let down your nets for a catch,” and when they did, “they enclosed a large number of fish” (Luke 5:4, 6).

Do you see the pattern?

Do you want to be healed?

“Covered in the dust of your rabbi”

When we choose to live by biblical truth, rejecting the consumerism and immorality of our broken society and staking our lives on God’s word and will, we position ourselves to experience what he can give only to those who trust him for his best. Like a patient who trusts her surgeon or a client his lawyer, we place ourselves unconditionally in his hands and at his disposal.

Then, as we do what we can do in prayer, Bible study, worship, and biblical obedience, God does what only he can do.

The key is to follow the living Lord Jesus so closely that, as the Jews said, we are “covered in the dust of your rabbi.” As John Mark Comer explains, this meant to sit at his feet or to walk closely by him on the path. Either way, the dust produced by his feet covers us.

I’ll ask again: Do you want to be healed?

The author Chris Cruz summarizes our theme:

“If we’re not intentionally choosing to be discipled by Jesus, we’re being unintentionally discipled by the world.”

Which will be true for you today?

Quote for the day:

“Let your house be a meeting place for the rabbis, and cover yourself in the dust of their feet, and drink in their words thirstily.” —attributed to Yose ben Yoezer, second century BC, quoted by John Mark Comer in Practicing the Way

Our latest website resources:

• Why “Anora” and “The White Lotus” are making headlines: A biblical response to a broken culture
• Growing up on the Gaza border: My view on the war in Israel and why there can be no peace until the hostages come home
• Artificial Intelligence: Tool or threat?
• The troubled youth and surprising legacy of George Foreman
• Is Amazon’s House of David worth the watch?

Denison Forum