When the Apostate King's Son Gets Sick

When the Apostate King’s Son Gets Sick
1 Kings 13:33-14:20

Last night a friend of mine was blowing a fuse concerning the sermon at her church a couple of Sundays ago. The preacher was talking about Jesus’ healing of the man who had been lying sick by the Pool of Siloam for thirty-eight years and suggested that he had no business lying there for that long. It sounded as if he had not taken responsibility for his healing. My friend blew a fuse because someone close to her is chronically ill, and she knows that a person can’t necessarily just decide to get better. As the husband of someone who was sick for forty-three years, I echo that point. What makes a preacher say something so stupid? Part of the answer (we reflected) is that there is something frightening about being sick or having someone near us sick. It makes us feel helpless. We are no longer in control, and control is important to us. Advertisements play on this when they urge us to take control of our asthma or arthritis, even of our cancer...