Pick up your mat

The King James Version has a verse saying that now and then an angel stirred the water of the pool of Bethesda, and whoever stepped in first was healed. That verse is missing from the oldest manuscripts. But the man lying there, ill for thirty-eight years, was certainly waiting for the water. Jesus doesn't use the water.

He gives three short commands: get up, pick up your mat, walk. The mat the man had lain on for years, he now carries himself. What held him down, he takes with him. Jesus' word is enough, even when it sounds impossible.