Who was that man?

We visited the ruins of the Pool at Bethesda when we were in Israel. 

There was once water there, as well as five porticoes, which are steps with columns. How beautiful it must have been!
John says that a multitude surrounded the pool. We don't know how many, but there were probably hundreds of people seeking healing.

Occasionally, during a certain season, an angel would stir the water and the first one in the pool was healed. The Bible doesn’t contradict the tale of the angel stirring the waters. It does not trivialize it, but states the visitation as simple fact. 

Jesus is there. He doesn’t go down to the water and stir it and say “Everybody jump in!” 

Jesus doesn’t even announce that He’s there. He simply goes up to a man who has been sick for thirty-eight years and asks if he wants to be healed.

Jesus asks that question a lot in the Gospels. He asks it now.

The man misunderstands. He thinks Jesus is talking about the pool and says he hasn’t anyone to help him get there when the water is stirred. Maybe he thinks Jesus will give him a little push.

Jesus heals the man, then tells him to take up his bed and walk. In a lot of stories Jesus heals people and tells them to go home, but in this case He gives no destination.

Who was that man?

Conflict ensued. The man was carrying his bed – on the Sabbath! The Jews were all over that disobedience. They are not saying “Hey, that’s fantastic that you’re healed! Come to my house for dinner.” 

The Jews focused on the infraction of the law instead of looking for the lawgiver.

Intimidated, the man explains that it is an order from the man who healed him, but he doesn’t know his name. Jesus didn’t give him a business card.

The other people around the pool were watching the waters of the pool, awaiting an opportunity to be healed when the Healer himself walked by.

Not a single one said to Jesus, “Hey, could you spare some more of that?”

Nothing says that Jesus was mobbed with more requests for healing.

Jesus finds the healed man in the temple. The man goes off and tells the Jews that it was Jesus who healed him. It must be the same Jews who asked earlier.

Was he ratting out the Messiah? Did he feel he needed to justify why he was carrying his pallet? I would like to think if it were me, I’d just thank Jesus and keep my mouth shut.

You don't need to await an angel to stir the waters.

Jesus is available to all. For more about salvation check the Sagemont site.

God bless you, and have a Happy Easter Sunday.



John 5:2-15 (NASB)

Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porticoes. In these lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered, waiting for the moving of the waters; for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water; whoever then first, after the stirring up of the water, stepped in was made well from whatever disease with which he was afflicted. A man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had already been a long time in that condition, He *said to him, “Do you wish to get well?” The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I am coming, another steps down before me.” Jesus *said to him, “Get up, pick up your pallet and walk.”Immediately the man became well, and picked up his pallet and began to walk.Now it was the Sabbath on that day. So the Jews were saying to the man who was cured, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not permissible for you to carry your pallet.” But he answered them, “He who made me well was the one who said to me, ‘Pick up your pallet and walk.’” They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Pick up your pallet and walk’?” But the man who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away while there was a crowd in that place. Afterward Jesus *found him in the temple and said to him, “Behold, you have become well; do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you.” The man went away, and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.