John 5:1-9
Some
time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. 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. Here a
great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 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?” “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.” Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” At once
the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
The setting for this encounter
is a place called the pool of Bethesda (the word means house of Mercy). For
many years skeptics and scholars used this story as evidence that the New
Testament accounts were not always historically accurate or reliable. However,
in the late 19th century, biblical archaeologists discovered and excavated this
exact place. The pool is located to the north part of the Temple Mount, near
what is now called St. Stephen's Gate, which is, in fact, the site of the Sheep
Gate mentioned here.
If you have any Bible other
than the King James Version you will probably notice that Verse 4 is missing
(see above). Many versions include this verse in a footnote, which explains
why all of these people were there at the pool. They believed in a superstition
that from time to time when the water was troubled - when it would rise rapidly
and then sink again - that this was caused by an angel who visited the pool,
and the first man who got into it when it was stirred would be healed.
The facts, of course, are that
the pool of Bethesda, like many similar pools in the Jerusalem area, is an
intermittent spring. At times water is released in surges from hidden
reservoirs in the hills around the city, causing these springs to rise and fall
suddenly. This is what gave rise to the superstition about an angel troubling
the pool.
So here was a great crowd of
people - paralyzed, blind, lame, sick - all waiting for the water to be
stirred. It is really a sad and pitiful scene when you think about it. All of
these poor creatures waiting day after day, hoping for a miracle, scrambling
and clawing their way to be the first into the water. Out of
that crowd Jesus picked one lone man. He did not empty the five porches,
healing everybody. He did not invite them all to come down to line up for their
free miracle. He went to only one man. The value of a story like this, and the
reason it is in the Gospels, is to reveal to us who Jesus is, and to show us
how God deals with human helplessness and weakness.
Undoubtedly it was the
helplessness of this man that drew Jesus to him, and it was the compassion of
Jesus that caused Him to seek this poor fellow out.
We all can see ourselves in a
similar condition to this man (or at least we should be able to). In a
sense, this man is picture of the human condition apart from God; disabled,
desperate, disappointed and defeated. We all
have problems we can’t fix on our own. We all
need help. We all find ourselves disabled or paralyzed at times, unable to
do the thing we want or ought to do. We sometimes feel desperate and
defeated by our circumstances. We feel
alone in a crowd, with no one to help us.
This story is included in the
gospels in order that we might understand how God desires to help and to heal
us through the ministry of His Son, Jesus Christ.
Pastor Jeff Frazier
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