“Do you want to get well?”, Jesus asked the invalid.
“Yes!”
Obviously. Thirty-eight years is a long time to suffer. It’s also a long time to not give up waiting for a miracle.
There’s a saying: “The answer is in the question.” It’s sometimes used to imply that a question is so simple that it seems silly to even ask. It’s also sometimes used to inidcate that a further question is the real question.
“Will I ever get well?” was the real question. The only real question. The that the question the invalid desperately needed answering for what must have been nearly his entire life.
The answer is the same: “Yes.”
If Jesus ever seems to ask you such a question, with an apparently obvious answer, listen for the deeper question that he is inviting you to ask him.
The real question.