“Institutionalized”
SCRIPTURE
Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha, which has five porticoes. In these lay many ill, blind, lame, and paralyzed people. One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be made well?” The ill man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am making my way someone else steps down ahead of me.” Jesus said to him, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.” At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk.
John 5:1-9
DEVOTIONAL
The movie Shawshank Redemption was released in 1994 and is about a man named Anthony Dufrane (played by Tim Robbins) who is wrongly convicted of murder and sent to Shawshank prison to wait out 2 life sentences. He quickly learns that life inside the prison is a world unto itself with its own set of codes and complacencies that not only shape this world but also shape those who live in it long enough. Dufrane got to know these characters and their own resignation to the waiting – a community whose survival was based on accepting the fate that nothing would change.
So those who lived on the inside just existed to pass the time with ease. They found their place in that world and expected nothing more. Their identities were based on their habits, how well they could manipulate the system and what they could offer to the other inmates. Parole became a joke. That is, until the point when the eldest inmate’s parole came up and he was going to be released after 50 years inside the prison.
When he found out, this gentle, elderly man grabbed his close friend and put a knife to his neck and threatened to kill him. It turns out that he was so frightened of living free that maybe if he killed someone, they would let him stay inside. After so much time on the inside, how could he learn to survive as a free man? He couldn’t imagine that the sacrifice of leaving his prison would be worth it.
After the episode, Red (played by Morgan Freeman) described this as being “institutionalized.” Red explained, “I’m telling you, these walls are funny. First you hate them, then you get used to them, enough time passes you get so you depend on them.” 1
When Jesus saw the man lying by the pool of Bethzatha, Jesus asked him this profound question, “Do you want to be made well?” It seems like an odd question, but the man’s response sounds as if he couldn’t even imagine the thought. He answers not with what he was waiting for, but rather with the reasons why he was still waiting. “Sir, I have no one to put me in the pool…while I am making my way, someone else steps down in front of me.” He sounds resigned, even bitter. I am sure that the justification for “the way is” had beaten out of him any hope for the way that it “could be.” The man had settled in his world. Or maybe this world had settled in him. He was “institutionalized.”
“Do you want to be made well?”
The season of Lent haunts us with this question. Not, “Do you want to see if you can actually give up chocolate for forty days?” or “Be ‘nicer’ as others step over you on their way to the pool.” This isn’t a New Year’s resolution. It is an invitation to a radical transformation that takes sacrificing the walls of safe predictability. If you don’t want to risk it, it is certainly understandable. No one can blame you. But if you do, listen to the invitation of Jesus Christ, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.”
- What comforts in your life (a bad relationship, old resentments, regret, etc.) keep you from being free? If you could live in a way that made you whole, what would that look like? What sacrifices would you have to make?
- Do you even want to be made well?
- How would your new found freedom empower you to be a more faithful disciple of Jesus Christ?
“A familiar captivity is frequently more desirable than an unfamiliar freedom.”
C.S. Lewis
PRAYER
Lord, you come to each of us with loving accountability. Convict us of our fear. Challenge our complacencies. Lead us to freedom, as scary as that might be. Amen.
1 The Shawshank Redemption, dir. Frank Darabont, writ. Stephen King (short story) and Frank Darabont, perf. Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman, Castle Rock, DVD, 1994.
The daily devotionals for the season of Lent are written by Rev. Dr. Kirk Hall, Associate Pastor of Formation at First Presbyterian Church from 2010-2013. He is currently a founding partner at The Metis Project, LLC. and lives with his wife and two girls in Salisbury, Connecticut.