John 5:1-14 Healing at the Pool of Bethesda
Jesus returns to Jerusalem and begins the process of fulfilling his mission. He demonstrates by word and deed his authority as Messiah. Jesus entered the covered colonnades that surround the pools called Bethesda. It’s a sort of open hospital ward with every kind of illness and infirmity present. There are many in need of healing but Jesus only heals this one man. Why are some healed and not everyone? We live in a fallen world where many kinds of need present us with the opportunity to demonstrate the love of God in practical ways and there is a day coming when everything will be made new, no more sickness or sadness or death.
This man had been kept alive by the charity of those who tended the sick for thirty-eight years. It was very kind of the attendants to feed him but no one would wait with him for the water to stir. He lived for the stirring of the water, the moment of hope of healing, but he lived for it without any hope of actually getting into the water. He lived in hope, minus hope for thirty eight years.
Jesus asks this man a rather pointed question, “Do you want to get well?” It seems like an obvious one but consider that Jesus was asking this man to leave his entire life behind to face wholly new challenges. This man did not have work experience or education no resume, no home to go to, nothing. Notice that this man did not say, “Yes I want to get well”. Instead he gave Jesus his excuse for not being well, “I don’t have anyone to help me.” Do I really want Jesus to work in power in my life? Or am I content to remain lame and feel justified with a multitude of excuses? Like this man who was surrounded by a multitude of sickness making his sickness his normal?
Jesus told him to get up and pick up his mat and walk. Jesus told him to do the impossible, pack up all his worldly goods and go out, without specific direction. There must have been a power to the words of Jesus that did more than heal his body they moved a man who hadn’t moved for thirty-eight years. The Word of God can dig up the deeply entrenched, free those stuck in a rut but it must be heard and acted upon.
The man got up, picked up his mat and walked. All this happened so fast the man didn’t know it was Jesus who healed him. When he was questioned he couldn’t answer who had told him to walk with his mat. But the mat was his evidence. That mat had carried him for thirty-eight years but see how one encounter with Jesus has turned his life on its head, now he is carrying the mat!
brotherpayne 