John 5:1-9
Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. 5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 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?” 7 “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.” 8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath,
The pool
The Pool of Bethesda was “in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate” (John 5:2), which places it north of the temple
During Jesus’ time, the Pool of Bethesda lay outside the city walls
The name of the pool, “Bethesda,” is Aramaic. It means “House of Mercy.”
The first person into the pool after the stirring of the water “was made well from whatever disease with which he was afflicted” (John 5:4). The Bible does not teach that this actually happened
On the day that Jesus visited the Pool of Bethesda, there was a man there who “had been an invalid for thirty-eight years”
Are You Waiting for God?
How long do we live with trouble before we’re on our knees, asking God for healing of any sort—physical, emotional, or spiritual?
The miracle of this story is that even though the lame man thought and behaved in a typical, self-defeating way, Jesus noticed him and healed him.
The Miracle
Jesus swept aside all superstition and bypassed altogether the need for magic water with one command: “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk” (John 5:8)
The man was instantly cured, and “he picked up his mat and walked” (verse 9). The man did not need quicker reflexes or beneficent angels or enchanted water. The man needed Jesus.
Superstition and false belief can keep you stuck in your healing process but Jesus will set you free
Reactions
Amazingly, not everyone was happy about the man’s miraculous healing. The day Jesus healed the man at the poolside happened to be a Sabbath
As the man left Bethesda, the Jewish leaders saw him carrying his mat, and they stopped him: “It is the Sabbath,” they said. “The law forbids you to carry your mat” (John 5:10). The man told them that he was simply obeying orders: “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk’” (verse 11)
The reaction of the Jewish leaders shows that, no matter how much proof God provides, there will be some people who refuse to see the truth.
The Pool of Bethesda was the focus of a local legend about healing, but Jesus showed that faith in legends and superstition is misplaced. In contrast, faith in Jesus Christ—the One who can heal with a simple word, the Savior who can forgive any sin, the true Master of the “House of Mercy”—is never misplaced.
Jesus healed an invalid man at the pool called Bethesda