In our daily meditations, we focus on the Lord Jesus's supernatural power when He walked among us. Today, we look at the healing of an invalid:
1Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. 2Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. 5One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6When 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." 8Then Jesus said to him, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk." 9At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked (John 5:1-9).
The apostle John writes of a pool near the Sheep Gate on the north side of Jerusalem called Bethesda. He describes a scene of total misery with a “great number” of people lying there. How many would constitute a great number? (v. 3). More than a hundred, do you think? They were all as close to the water's edge as they could get, cramped and huddled together, desperately waiting for any water movement. As you will notice from the passage written above, verse 4 of the New International Version of the English language is taken out—I do not know why. In the King James Version, verse four says, “For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool and troubled the water; whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had” (John 5:4 KJV).
From the description in the KJV, the healing of anyone gathered around the pool depended on how quickly anyone got in the water after ripples appeared on the surface. Perhaps their desperate faith that God would heal through the water was why they were healed. God answers desperate and faith-filled prayers. From the Scripture passage, it seems that after the angel stirred the water, God healed the first person in the pool. Some, like the invalid, would be at a severe disadvantage. Everything depended on how quickly a person could get into the water when the ripples occurred; the closer a person was to the edge of the pool, the better their chance of getting healed.
In the middle of the degradation of the place, we read of Jesus visiting this mass of desperate humanity. The invalid had been in that condition for thirty-eight years (v. 5) and had no one to help him into the pool. The Father saw this man’s desperation and sent Jesus to help him. Only with Christ's coming to him in grace would he finally experience the healing mercy of God.
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?" (v. 6).
This man was looking for an angel to stir the water when the Lord Jesus, God Incarnate, was there to minister to him personally, and still, he was asking for help into the water! Later on, when they asked the man who healed him, he replied that he did not know. Scripture tells us that Jesus had “slipped away into the crowd.” Christ had been there "incognito." As soon as He healed the man, Jesus departed (v. 13). This withdrawal by the Lord says a lot about His character. Jesus didn't do miracles and healings for any reason other than relieving the pain of hurting people and glorifying the Father. The Lord didn't even require faith in His true identity as the Son of God, for He didn't tell him who He was.
Jesus told the man to do something impossible to him: "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk" (v. 11). God instantly healed him as he began to obey Christ. Christ did not lay hands on him or even help him get up. Nothing! Imagine the scene. A word of command and healing was the result! The Scripture says, “At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked” (v. 9). How kind the Lord is! Keith Thomas
The complete study is found in the All Studies box on the Home Page. Click on the Gospel of John and then the 10th study, The Healing at the Pool.
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