Moses Wrote of Me - Part One
SCRIPTUREJohn 5:1-9
After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.
LESSON
After these things there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 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, withered"' John 5:1-3. Archeology has uncovered the ruins of a colonnade area that probably was the ancient pool. It was in the form of a trapezium-a four-sided area with no two sides exactly parallel.
In the shady section under the covered colonnade lay the town invalids. An ancient tradition held that, every so often, an angel came down from heaven to stir up the waters. The first person to enter the water after this agitation would supposedly be healed. For this moment of agitation, all the sick of the community waited.
In all probability, the waters did have some medicinal qualities, as do certain springs or baths the world over. However, the tradition about the angel (John 5:4) does not have too solid a foundation textually. Presumably it was a later addition to John's Gospel to explain certain healings that did take place at the pool. Most of the modern translations of the New Testament have deleted the verse on textual grounds.
Regardless of the existence or nonexistence of the angel who stirred the waters, the fact remains that sick folk lay in the sheltered portico waiting for the moment to step into the waters and find healing.
We have no idea how this is a picture of life today in many of the great cities of the underdeveloped world-the multitude of the impotent folk, the blind, the withered, waiting for something. Spiritually speaking, there is also a tremendous lesson here of the multitude of impotent folk who are waiting for God's moving of the water of life and bring healing to their souls.
One man at that pool had been ill for 38 years. And when Jesus came to that pool, He singled out that one man and asked him what appears to be a most ridiculous question, "Do you want to be healed?" (v. 6).
That's what the Lord Jesus Christ is waiting to say to men today. Oh, how many people are frustrated and have many longings which they know are not being satisfied in life. Many of them are not even being satisfied by formal Christianity. They recite creeds, they know all the orthodox answers, but they are impotent and they need to be healed by Christ.
The man replied with the same excuse that he had probably been relying on for a long while. (See v. 7.) He said he had no one to help him into the pool. Our Lord did not argue with him or waste any pity on him. He simply said, "Rise, take up thy bed, and walk." (See v. 8.) The man was healed and went on his way.
In a sense, this is a picture of the way God effects the miracle of the new birth. God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world. (See Eph. 1:4.)
Then God arranges the factors through which we are confronted by the claims of Jesus Christ. He comes to each of His own in such saving grace just as He came to the impotent man by the pool of Bethesda. We receive Him and become sons of God.
STUDY QUESTIONS
- Is God primarily concerned with healing peoples health needs or spiritual needs? Is that the main point of this passage?
- How does this small passage teach us about the mercy of God?
- In what way can you be more like Christ through living this passage out?
