Mini: The Chosen S2E4
268 | “That’s Creative License”
Enjoy Season 2, Episode 4 of the Chosen
Does God want to heal you, or do you want to be healed? In this episode of our Winter Watch Party, we explore The Chosen Season 2, Episode 4 ("The Perfect Opportunity"), where Jesus asks a paralytic who's been waiting 38 years for a miracle one of the strangest questions in the gospels: "Do you want to be healed?" We start with a "Bible Fact Check" to see what’s fact (the pool of Bethesda, 38 years) and what’s fiction (Simon the Zealot’s brother, the name Jesse). Then, we dive into four profound questions Jesus asks in the Gospel of John — questions designed not to gather information, but to act as a mirror for our souls. Finally, we challenge you to pick one of these questions to sit with this week as if Jesus were asking you directly.
Takeaways
The Big Idea: Jesus doesn't ask questions to get answers — he asks them to act as mirrors that reveal our true desires and awaken our faith.
Helpful Links
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Welcome to the Bible Geeks Podcast
Bryan: I said I think that's creative license. I'm confident that's creative license. I don't just
Ryan: that is creative license. Okay.
Bryan: Well, hello everyone and welcome to the Bible Geeks podcast. I'm Bryan Schiele
Ryan: I'm Ryan Joy.
Bryan: and today we're back with season two episode four of the chosen here in our winter watch party where Jesus asks one of the strangest questions in the gospel. Do you want to be healed and it's strange because the man he asks has been waiting for 38 years for healing.
Ryan: Yeah. But in John's Gospel, Jesus often asks questions that aren't really meant to gather information. They're meant to expose our desire to invite our decision and to awaken our faith. And today we're not answering Jesus questions. We're letting them answer us. See what I did there?
Okay, so this episode has, like we said, a powerful question from Jesus.
Bible Fact Check: Truth or Creative License?
Ryan: We're going to talk a lot about questions, but first I just wanted to do, kind of like we did a couple episodes ago, a Bible fact check here. We're working with some truths here. but also, you know, there's the old creative license that the chosen creators like to use.
So I'm going to throw some different things at you here and you tell me if this is Bible fact or creative license.
Bryan: Okay, here we
Ryan: All right. There was a pool in Jerusalem called Bethesda with five covered
Bryan: Oh, I believe that's true. Although I don't know the details about 5. You're giving me like details here in the questions.
Ryan: yeah, we got details, but you got it. You got it. It's all
Bryan: was John 5. There was a pool. Yes, I'm good with that.
Ryan: Okay. And sick and disabled people gathered there hoping for healing.
Bryan: They did indeed. Yes.
Ryan: Okay. And Simon the Zealot had a brother who lived, who went there to be healed.
Bryan: I think that's creative license.
Ryan: Yes, yes. We don't know. Both of these characters are in the Bible, but we, they're not
Bryan: I said I think that's creative license. I'm confident that's creative license. I don't just
Ryan: that is creative license. Okay. That guy that was there had been unable to walk for 38 years.
Bryan: Okay. So I'm fairly confident that that number was the same number. So 38 years I think is the right number.
Ryan: That's right. So this is all John 5. John 5 verse 5 says that.
Bryan: Okay.
Ryan: Okay. And people believe the waters were stirred and brought healing.
Bryan: Yes. Stirred by something. I think John says that it was the spirit who stirred the waters. But yes, I think it was something stirred the waters and caused healing. Yes.
Ryan: Yeah, there was a textual note on that that we probably won't get into, but yeah, we'll keep moving Okay.
And so the man there who was at the pool of Bethesda that Jesus healed, John says his name was Jesse.
Bryan: That's not in the text.
Ryan: That's not in that's fake. that is, that is also fake. And Jesus carried the man into the pool.
Bryan: Um, no,
Ryan: That's not even in the episode.
Bryan: not in the okay.
Ryan: Jesus healed him without using the pool.
Bryan: like wait a second. What am I? What? No. Okay. I'm with you.
Ryan: And most importantly, Jesus asked him, "Do you want to be healed?"
Bryan: Uh, duh. Yes, that was in the text for sure.
Ryan: That is in the text and that is in the episode. So yeah, so the setting's biblical, the question is biblical, and the question is the key.
The Power of Jesus' Questions
Ryan: And that's what we want to focus on in this episode, because what a strange thing, right? Do you want to be healed? Jesus doesn't ask, "Can I heal you?" He doesn't ask, "Why are you here?"
He asks about his desire and will. And I'll just ask you right now, like, why do you think Jesus asks him, "Do you want to be
Bryan: That's such a good question. I think I think he wants people to confront the thing that's so obvious, but he wants them to wrestle with it. You know, I feel like that's a like a no-brainer softball question, but his response could have been a lot of things that would have expressed his lack of trust or lack of faith or lack of interest in, you know, having this conversation.
It could have just been like, I really want food or I really want money or yeah, I that would be nice, but I'll take whatever I can get like, you know, there's there are so many responses he could have given that maybe would have expressed that he didn't believe that Jesus could do this. But the fact that the fact that the answer was, you know, of course, yes, I do like I feel like it's I feel like it's Jesus asking him a question that is is putting him to the test in a way but in a in a way that I think this man is easily going to be able to pass.
Ryan: almost like the fact that the answer is so obvious makes it a heavier question.
Bryan: Yeah, right. I agree with that.
Ryan: yeah, like, you know, if you're at a doctor and, you know, they're about to do a treatment or do a surgery or something, and they're like, "Wait, before I do this, do you want me to do this?" And you're like, "Well, I did until you asked.
Why are you asking?" You know, I don't know. It just seems like Jesus is creating a moment of truth here, and he does this all the time, a lot with questions, with other things as well. You know, you think about the rich young ruler and all these different moments where he creates this threshold for someone to walk through.
And I wonder if this is even related in some way to why God wants us to pray. Like, God knows, Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, God knows what we need before we ask him. Why do we ask him? Well, when we make a request, it is us being involved in—there's an act of will involved, right? It's a choice that we are making.
And,
Bryan: Well, can I even just go so far as to say that like so many of the miracles that take place involve the other party doing something to to, you know, to facilitate that right? Like some active obedience some, you know, it's not just Jesus lobbing miracles at people so many times. They often have to put themselves into a position that he can do that or you know, they have to go somewhere or like whatever it is.
So
for this man, yeah for this man to be like, you know, there's nothing really you need to do or like like they need to have a conversation about it. So he's he's giving him agency in this he's he's, you know, involving him in the process maybe in a way. I don't know. I think I think there's a lot of reasons you could give but it is so helpful to know that Jesus cares that this man, you know, has has buy-in about what's going to happen.
Ryan: And in John's gospel, this isn't an isolated moment. Jesus asks questions like this that function, I would say, they're like mirrors, you know, these questions.
Exploring Four Key Questions in the Gospel of John
Ryan: They're like soul-searching revelatory moments where you see yourself more clearly, or you have to confront yourself and your own desires, or, you know, to go to the prodigal son, you have to come to yourself and face, "What do I really think here?
What do I really want here? Do I want to be healed?" So I thought we could take a closer look at four different questions in the Gospel of John, including this one, where Jesus does this. And the first one goes back to right before our—was it our first or second episode of the season? Whenever Andrew, and then later Philip come to Jesus, and then later Nathanael there in John chapter 1.
This is in John 1:38, and the people are coming after him, Andrew and another disciple, and Jesus asks them, "What are you seeking?" And I think we've talked about this before, like what—you could say it, "What do you want? Like, what do you want?" And it could be taken as just like a surface-level thing, like so many things in the Gospel of John, there's like layers to it.
Like, yeah, "What can I do for you?" he could have said, but—which would have been profound in its own way—but he says, "What are you seeking?" And so it's about desire, and he asked this to these first disciples before their belief, before their commitment, he wanted them to think about what they want, right?
Bryan: Yeah. Well, and you know, obviously their response is as so many of the dialogues in John are they're so confusing right because he asked them like what are you looking for? What are you seeking? And they're like they answer his question with a with another question Rabbi. Where are you staying? It's like dude, you didn't answer my question like I want to know what you're looking for and actually I in a way their answer is an answer to his question like they want to know where he is going to be so that they can be there too and they use the word teacher which the text actually literally, you know says Rabbi but but it parenthetically explains that that means teacher.
I feel like this is really them expressing again in a similar way expressing that they you know this simple question. Do you want to do you want to find out more? Yeah, we want to find out more we want we want to know who you are better than we do today like a real basic check-in but necessary for for a first interaction for people who are eventually going to be called to do some really heavy things with Jesus,
Ryan: It's a really great point. Like, that is the essence of discipleship, is you're gonna learn from him, you call him teacher, and then you're gonna be with him, right? So where are you staying? And then he says to them, "Come and you will see." And those are the first two sentences of Jesus in the Gospel of John.
"What are you seeking? Come and you you will see.
Yeah. So the second question I pulled out was this one from—that he asks this man at the pool about, you know, "Do you want to be healed?"
Bryan: Yes.
Ryan: Right? And yes. Am I ready for the transformation that's coming? This is his whole life. He's been sitting at this pool for who knows how long, and he's been unable to walk for 38 years, and he wants him to take some responsibility for this choice, right?
He wants him to own, "I want to be healed," and then Jesus is going to do it. And so that's a powerful, you know, it's themed again around desire, but against will, you know, around our decisiveness, our commitment to a "yes, this is my request for you." And there's profound implications for all of these, and you know, I'll talk about that.
I have a little bit of a game for you later around this. Yeah. But the next one is in John 11 and verse 26, and this is when Lazarus has died and Jesus is coming and he goes to Martha, as he gets there and he meets up with her, he tells her that he is the resurrection and the life, and he asks her, "Do you believe this?" And that's a pretty powerful question. Like she knows, she says yes. Do you believe it? And now I have to check. Do I believe this about Jesus, that he is the one? This isn't abstract theology here. This is personal allegiance. This is affecting my life. This is commitment. I believe this in this moment when I need you most.
And so that's the third one. And then the fourth one is later on. This is with Philip, who we've seen now start playing into the Chosen episodes, and it's in that wonderful passage that, you know, "In my Father's house are many rooms, and I go to prepare a place for you," John 14. And in verse 9, when Philip is like, "Where are we going to go?
How is this going to work out?" Jesus says, "Do you still not know me? Don't you know that the Father's in me, and I am in the Father?" And, you know, he is speaking to, I think, not just, "Don't you know the things I've taught?" but, "Don't you know who I am?
And so in these four questions, you kind of see a discipleship progression that the book of John, in order, gives us. What do you want? Do you want to change? Do you want to be healed? Do you believe, and do you know me?
Bryan: know me. Yeah, and they all have to do with a presence right? They all have to do with really seeing Jesus in a very deep way like what he's capable of who he is what his mission is, you know, and I think I think for him to ask these questions to people who have been with him for so long, you know, he's he knows that they're capable of answering the question, you know, the deeper questions as you move on like the first one obviously is a little on the surface but then you get into these deeper ones later on and I think you Jesus has a lot of expectation of his disciples that they should be they should be out of level and he's asking them to check themselves which is you know, we need to be checking ourselves in these ways as well like asking ourselves these kinds of questions about our about our following of Jesus.
Ryan: Yeah.
Applying Jesus' Questions to Our Lives
Ryan: Well, it's funny that you should say that, because that's where I want to take this next, is to our discipleship and just our everyday life, like, this is what I think the Gospel of John, what Jesus is doing, but then what John is doing as the Son of Thunder sits down to write these things and capture all of these moments, and as he said, "If I told you everything Jesus did, there wouldn't be enough room, there wouldn't be enough books in the world," but he's choosing selectively and designing an inspired document that can call us to Christ.
And so these questions have power for our lives. So what I want to do is I'm going to give you a scenario, and then you tell me what question of these four you think we should be asking in that scenario. What do we need to hear? And it's just a way, I hope, of helping these questions to start to sit with us in a deeper way.
Okay, first one. You've lived with bitterness or resentment for so long it feels like part of your personality. What question of these four do I need to hear?
Bryan: want to be healed?
Ryan: Yes. That's it.
Bryan: Yeah.
Ryan: That's
it. Yeah, yeah. Like, no, I kind of, I want to be right. I don't want to be healed, I want to be right. Or I want to know that I can hold on to this anger that has now become a comfort for me, you know, right?
Rather than forgive. Yeah. Okay, next one. You're discerning a big decision in your life, you know, a job, a move, and you keep asking, "What's the safest choice for me? What question should I be asking?"
Bryan: Yeah. Oh man, what's the safest
Ryan: Okay, let me give you a little bit more. You keep asking, "What's the safest?" instead of, "What's the most faithful?"
Bryan: yeah. Well, I want to say do you know who I am or I that seems like it could be a real connector there
Ryan: Yeah.
Bryan: but it's also like, what do you want or you know, what what are you seeking like that kind of what is it that your goal is I guess, you know to see Jesus as the one who is able to you know, push us into the his will for us is one thing but also I guess what is our will for us like what what do I really want maybe is the the heart of that question in a deeper way.
Okay.
Ryan: I think that's it. That's what I was thinking of is, yeah, what are you seeking? Because, you know, that's whenever I have had to make hard decisions, that is a place of, you know, soul searching that you got to go to. If you're going to pray for wisdom and you're going to pray for the right thing to be done and for good things and you want to make the right choice, well, the right choice based on what?
And so you have to start aligning yourself with what God wants, and that's the correct place for that question, "What are you seeking?" to lead us to is, "What am I seeking? What do I want? What is my will? Well, if I can get to, my will is for your will to be done. What do you want? What is the most faithful thing I can do here?
That's what I want in this situation. What is--how can I serve you?" And so the alignment that comes from asking, "What are you seeking?" and the self-awareness, I think, is a key there.
Bryan: I'd agree with that. All right question three. I'm ready
Ryan: Question three, you believe in Jesus and you believe in resurrection hope after this life, but you live as though this life is all that really matters. If you're really honest in the way you're making your choices and what you spend your time in and what you think about most, what question do you need to ask?
Bryan: Well, I mean do I believe this like do I I mean that's pretty literally like the question I need to come to right is like do do I actually believe because you know, that is the that's the crux of it right? Am I am I just mentally acknowledging something or am I letting it change my will and what I actually want in the direction of my life and you know, there's a lot we could say about faith without works and what we do and only you know, our mind is engaged but our heart and our actions aren't as well like it's I think her question her the question she was asked Martha was asked there in John 11 was the one we need to be asking to
Ryan: right. Maybe I'm a little on the nose with resurrection hope,
Bryan: that. I didn't have
Ryan: but
Bryan: one.
Ryan: yeah, it's like, "What do we really believe? Do you believe this? Do you really believe this?" Like if you sit with that question, all of these questions speak to the power of a question that you don't answer you live with, right? And we've talked about that before, the power of inquiry.
So yeah, what do you want? What are you seeking, really? Sit with that. What do you want to be healed? And do you believe this? Last one, your prayer life has become functional and rushed. You serve faithfully, but you rarely rest in God's presence.
Bryan: Well, I'm going to say it's probably the question that Philip was being asked at the end. I do believe that I am in the father and the father is in me.
Ryan: Yeah, do you know me? Have you been with me all this time and you still don't know me?
Bryan: Yeah. And that knowing there of course is is so much deeper and I think it does throw back to the original like what are you seeking kind of question?
It's like are you looking for a relationship with me? Are you looking for a connection to me in which I bring you to a new place of healing and wholeness and rest, you know all of that stuff there and that is like the the pro level move at the end of all of this. I think it's why you know, it's why Jesus is asking this question nearing the end to some people who should have been so much further along than they were.
Yeah, and even in the chosen episodes like we're going through we start to see, you know, some of the disciples are trusting Jesus more deeply and seeing him more deeply than others at every moment that we see them.
Ryan: absolutely. Okay. So before we wrap up, I've allowed this whole thing to be about these questions because it was just, to me, so profound to think about that. Do you want to be healed? But there was a lot of other cool stuff in this episode. And so it starts with like an almost 10-minute montage sequence about these two brothers, right?
Jesse and Simon the Zealot, and Simon is like learning to be a Krav Maga master or something. And meanwhile Jesse's going through all of this. And then you see the storyline with Shmuel in Jerusalem, this Pharisee who's teaching that opposes Jesus. There's the plot. There's this interesting secret Roman police officer that's trying to thwart Simon.
And so all these things are playing out. There's other storylines as well.
Favorite Moments and Final Thoughts
Ryan: So I wanted to see, do you have other favorite moments here, or is there another storyline that you would want to draw out that stood out to you, and why? Yes.
Bryan: I feel like you know, we I sort of talked about it in the last episode in the like the bottle episode where all the disciples are sitting around and we didn't really meet him yet. But you know, this is where we get to Simon the zealot. We kind of pulled him in an episode early talking about him. But I think here in this episode where we really start to see him and his involvement he's just so like part of the pun but like he's so zealous right? Like I love how you know, he's very much like Peter in in some ways, you know, but it but even more so like just real intense really just pushing forward for something that he believes in and it's why like I think it's why I really enjoy listening to his story and watching his story because he feels so much like the apostle Paul to me and we're not going to see Paul, you know here in these in these you know episodes in this season, but like Paul is is so much like Simon the zealot in my mind, you know, just just this idea that they're like so dedicated to the Lord God and they are protecting the faith and all these things and maybe just going too far in so many ways that they were doing and like here Simon the zealot and we don't see a lot about his story in the Gospels themselves, but I appreciate his storyline here in this episode for sure.
Ryan: he is a really interesting character, and you have to think that even though we don't know much about him as a disciple, just that one detail that he was a zealot gives just lights the imagination with these kinds of storylines. And then, you know, just I think for me, seeing Jesse dancing, like his feet dancing there at the end in front of his brother was a great moment.
So,
Bryan: Yeah, this was a good one. This was this had a lot of you know meat packed into one episode and I would say, you know, if I was giving my loaves and fishes score on this one, I would say this was probably a four for me. I like this one a lot.
Ryan: was good. Yeah, there was a lot. Yeah, I'll go. I'm going to stick with my halves. I'm going to go four and a half here.
Bryan: Oh, okay. Yeah saving yeah, there. I got you.
Ryan: like there's some action there. There was some heart. There was a lot. And, you know, again, bringing it back to that powerful moment with the question, and then all of the things we were talking about here, just as a challenge, I would say, for all of us to choose one of these questions from John's Gospel, one of these four questions, and sit with it, and pray with it.
Like, if Jesus were sitting across from you right now, which of these questions would be hardest to answer? And, you know, what do you, what would he know, who knows your heart, ask you and have you sit with and have you work with? You know, do you know me? What are you seeking? Do you want to be healed or this idea?
Do you believe? Do you believe all of this, really? Yeah.
Bryan: so good. I love sitting with hard questions that if if we get nothing else out of this one, I'll be taking that one to heart for sure.
Closing Remarks and What's Next
Bryan: So thanks everybody for tuning in to the Bible Geeks podcast. You can find us on our website at biblegeeks.fm. You guessed it in the coming episodes. We're just going to keep rolling through the season here season two of the chosen you want to get ahead catch up on these things and follow along with us.
We'd love for you to watch them probably rewatch them because I'm guessing everyone has already seen them already. So until next episode may the Lord bless you and keep you
Ryan: Shalom.