Ask the Hard Questions

When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” John 5:6
 
Are you really sick?
 
Beth blindsides William with this question after he first learns Randall had opened his home to his biological father whom she has just met. It seems like a harsh question however, we as audience members question what William’s motives are as well. When William enters their home, she steps in to protect her husband and children. Although it seems like she should just open her home with no questions asked, she launches into an explanation as to why she is protective of her husband:
 
Eight years ago, I was pregnant for the first time. And Randall was vying for partner at his firm. We just bought this house on faith, even though it needed a lot of work. Even though we couldn’t afford it whatsoever. Randall made partner, he did all the work on the house himself so that we didn’t have to spend a penny and he made sure I didn’t lift a finger during my pregnancy. The problem is he stopped sleeping, and one morning when I was in the bathroom he called out to me and he was confused, you know? He was confused because he couldn’t see anything. My mountain of a man could no longer literally see anything through his eyes. His twenty-eight years of being perfect finally caught up to him that morning and he pulled himself out of it. He self corrected, because that’s what my man does. Randall is not free of vice. His vice is his goodness. It is his compulsive drive to be perfect. That’s why I love him, but that is also why I have to protect him sometimes.”
 
This is why we love Beth. She completes Randall in a way no other woman can.
Jesus asked hard questions too. In John 5, Jesus heals a man who has been lying on a mat at the pool of Bethseda for thirty-eight years. Jesus asks a peculiar question to the man before he heals him:
 
Do you want to get well?
 
Considering the man offers nothing but excuses when Jesus asks this question, the reality is he was so busy justifying why he hadn’t done what he needed to do, that he never did what he was supposed to do. Often, we say we want to do something (lose weight, build a savings, get organized,) but we waste our time making so many excuses we don’t do what we set out to do.
 
Beth asks the hard questions. Jesus asks the hard questions. The hard questions make the difference between staying sick and getting well.