MIRACULOUS HEALING AT THE POOL OF BETHESDA
Each
year during his Holy Land Pilgrimage our Lakes Church Lead Pastor Dr. Aaron D.
Burgner shares with us the biblical and historical significance of the
miraculous healing at The Pool of Bethesda, which was “in Jerusalem near the
Sheep Gate” (John 5:2), which places it north of the temple, near Fort Antonia. John gives the additional detail that
the pool was “surrounded by five covered colonnades.” During Jesus’ time, the
Pool of Bethesda lay outside the city walls. It was at this pool that Jesus
performed a miracle showing that He is greater than any human malady and that
superstition and religious folklore are foolish and feeble substitutes for
faith in God.
Have
you ever wanted something that always evaded you? The lame man by the Pool
of Bethesda knew what that feels like. He had been sitting by these “healing”
pools for 38 years—that’s 13,870 days—longing for something, and maybe even
watching others get what he longed for. But he was helpless. Prolonged trials
have a way of isolating you, and by this point, the man had no one who cared
for him enough to help him. He was alone. He may have even fallen into despair.
When
Jesus asked him if he wanted to be healed, he didn’t even say yes. Instead,
he replied with reasons why healing seemed impossible for him. Jesus cared
about what this man wanted—his heart and his desires. And He leaned into the
man’s despair with hope and healing. Then, after the man was healed, do you
know where he went first? To the temple. He went to draw near to the presence of
God. He’d never been allowed to go to the temple before because of his
lameness, and he didn’t have a way to get there even if he was allowed. But
now, healed and hopeful, he walked—walked!—to the temple to worship God.
The Pool of Bethesda was used in ancient times to provide water for the temple.
The mention of the “Upper Pool” in 2 Kings 18:17 may be a reference to the Pool
of Bethesda. The name of the pool, “Bethesda,” is Aramaic. It means “House of
Mercy.” John tells us that “a great number of disabled people used to lie
[there]—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed” (John 5:3). The covered colonnades
would have provided shade for the disabled who gathered there, but there was
another reason for the popularity of the Pool of Bethesda. Legend had it that
an angel would come down into the pool and “stir up the water.”
On
the day that Jesus visited the Pool of Bethesda, there was a man there who “had
been an invalid for thirty-eight years” (John 5:5). Jesus asked the man if
he wanted to be healed. The man 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” (verse 7). Obviously, the man believed the urban legend about
the stirring of the water. He blamed the fact that he was never healed on his
tardiness in getting into the water. 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. 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 Jews
inquired who would so brazenly promote Law-breaking, but “the man who was
healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd”
(verse 13). 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.
Jesus was a bona fide Miracle Worker, but the religious leaders couldn’t see
the miracle. All they could see was that someone had violated a rule. The issue
was not the breaking of God’s command, for Jesus fulfilled the Law and was
completely subject to it (Matthew 5:17). The only thing being broken was a
pharisaical interpretation of one of God’s laws. So, a
blessing meant to increase faith only increased the blindness of those who
refused to acknowledge the blessing. The postscript to the story reveals that
the man who was physically healed still needed some spiritual healing.
“Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, ‘See, you are well again.
Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you’” (John 5:14). Jesus’ words
are a rebuke of an unnamed sin—the man was living contrary to God’s will
somehow—and a warning of “something worse.” What could be worse than
thirty-eight years of paralysis? How about an eternity in hell (see Mark 9:47)?
Now
that the man knew who Jesus was, he returned to the Jewish leaders and told
them “it was Jesus who had made him well” (John 5:15). It is likely that
the man did this in praise of Jesus, to magnify the glory due His name, and
also from a sense of obligation—he had been asked a question and felt he should
respond with the answer, once he had it. Little did he anticipate the reaction the
leaders would have: “So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath,
the Jewish leaders began to persecute him” (verse 16). 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.
Now
let your unfailing love comfort me, just as you promised me, your servant.
Surround me with your tender mercies so I may live, for your law is my delight.—Psalm
119:76-77
When
we pray, Lord, may your unfailing love comfort those who need it today.
Surround them with your tender mercies. And may they feel and experience and
believe the love you have toward them, it is a powerful prayer that God
delights to answer, for he is the God of all comfort. He is full of
loving-kindness and tender mercies. Do you know someone who is in the midst of
a trial, someone who is sick, heartbroken, alone, or in distress and needs to
be comforted by the Lord’s unfailing love today? What friends or family members
need to be surrounded with God’s tender mercies? As you pray for your friends
and loved ones, you can be confident that there is no pain or suffering too
deep for the love and mercy of God to reach.
LORD,
you are the God of all comfort. How grateful I am. I pray that your unfailing
love will comfort my loved ones and that your tender mercies will surround them.
These dear ones need your Spirit’s tenderness today. May they experience you in
the midst of their pain, and please touch them with healing today. Lord, it is
such a comfort to know that your eyes watch over me and my loved ones, that
your ears hear our cries for help. Thank you for hearing our cries, for
rescuing us when we are crushed in spirit. You are always close to the
brokenhearted, to those who are in dire straits. I praise you for the hope and
courage your promises give us when we are face-to-face with the most difficult
of circumstances. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
Look
Up—meditate on Psalm 119:76-77…pray to see what it reveals about the
character of God.
Look
In—as you meditate on Psalm 119:76-77…pray to see how you might apply
it to your life. Be propelled to ask galvanizing questions about your
discoveries: "Because God is_________, I will_____________."
Look
Out—as you meditate on Psalm 119:76-77…pray to see how you might apply
it to your relationships with others. Let the nature of God impact on every
relationship, for your good, and for His glory.
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