The Pool at Bethesda

A feast in Jerusalem. “After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem” (5:1). Many people came to the city to worship God. A pool full of hurting people. Bethesda was a pool by the Sheep Gate with five porches (5:2). On those porches was “a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed” (5:3). Hoping in the water. The people were waiting for the water to move. They believed the first person into the stirred-up water would be made well (5:7). It was the only hope they could see. Thirty-eight years. One man “had an infirmity thirty-eight years” (5:5). An infirmity is a sickness or weakness that will not go away. Year after year he stayed by the pool, and nothing changed. A picture of our world. Sickness, pain and death were not part of the world when God first made it. They came after sin entered the world. Every person on those porches needed more help than any pool could give. God sees. The Lord does not look away from people who hurt. “The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart” (Psalm 34:18). Help that is always there. “God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1). A refuge is a safe place to run to. What we learn. God sees every hurting person, even the one everyone else walks past. When you feel stuck or alone, God sees you.

The feast (5:1). Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. Jewish men traveled to Jerusalem for the great feasts each year (Deuteronomy 16:16), and Jesus kept them faithfully. Bethesda (5:2). The pool was by the Sheep Gate, near the Temple, where sheep for the sacrifices were brought into the city. The name Bethesda probably means house of mercy. In Jerusalem, archaeologists have uncovered two large pools near the Sheep Gate, with covered walkways on four sides and one more across the middle: five porches in all. Waiting for the water (5:3-4). The sick waited “for the moving of the water,” believing the first one in would be healed. The man himself believed it (5:7). His whole hope rested on being first, and a man who could not walk could never be first. An infirmity (5:5). The Greek word astheneia (say: as-THEN-ay-ah) means weakness, a body without strength. He had been this way for thirty-eight years. The number tells us how long he had suffered and how hopeless his case looked. A world that is broken. Sickness and death entered the world through sin (Romans 5:12). This does not mean that a sick person is being punished for their own sin; Jesus said so plainly about a man born blind (John 9:3). It means the whole world is broken and needs its Maker to restore it. Hopeless without God. Paul describes people apart from Christ as “having no hope and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:12). The porches of Bethesda were a picture of that kind of waiting. Where every person starts. Before Jesus spoke a word, Bethesda was full of people who could not save themselves. That is where every person starts: needing a Savior who comes to them. Application. Some people put their hope in things that cannot really save, like money, popularity or being good enough. Bethesda teaches us to look past every pool to the Lord Himself.

The pool of Bethesda was full of people who needed help. Some could not see, and some could not walk. Their bodies were weak and hurting. They hoped the water would make them well. One man had been sick for thirty-eight years. That is a very long time to wait! Year after year, nothing changed for him. Our world has a lot of hurting people too. Sickness came into the world after people turned away from God. People still hope in many things to fix their troubles. But only God can truly help us. God saw that man the whole time. He sees you too, even when you feel alone.

Many sick people waited by a pool. One man was sick for a very long time. God sees every person who hurts.

Jesus saw him. “When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time” (5:6). Jesus knew his whole story without being told. Jesus came first. The man did not call out to Jesus. Jesus came to him. That is how God's grace works: He comes to us before we come to Him. A real question. Jesus asked, “Do you want to be made well?” (5:6). After so many years, the man may have stopped hoping. Jesus' question invited him to hope again. An honest answer. “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up” (5:7). He was looking at the water and waiting for a person to help him. Always too late. “But while I am coming, another steps down before me” (5:7). He tried, but he could never get there first. The Helper beside him. The man said he had no one. But the Son of God was standing right in front of him! Jesus asks you too. Jesus wants us to come to Him and tell Him what we need. “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). Heavy laden means carrying a load that is too heavy for you. What we learn. Jesus sees the person nobody else helps. When you feel like you have no one, you have Jesus.

Jesus saw and knew (5:6). Out of a great crowd of sick people, Jesus went to one man. He knew how long the man had been sick without anyone telling Him. All through John's Gospel, Jesus knows people completely (John 2:24-25; 4:18). The question (5:6). Jesus asked, “Do you want to be made well?” The Greek word hygiēs (say: hoo-gee-ACE) means whole or healthy. It is the word for being made well in 5:9, 11, 14 and 15. Jesus was offering the man wholeness, not just a better day. Why ask? Jesus never asks for information He lacks. His question drew the man's hope away from the pool and toward a Person. It also gave him the chance to say his need out loud, as we do when we pray. “I have no man” (5:7). The answer is honest and sad: “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.” His hope depended on two things he could not control: a helper and speed. The true Helper. The psalmist asked, “From whence comes my help? My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth” (Psalm 121:1-2). The man was looking for a helper, and the Lord who made heaven and earth was standing in front of him (John 1:3). Grace first. The man did not show faith first, ask first or even know Jesus' name (5:13). Jesus acted first. That is grace: God's kindness that we do not earn (Ephesians 2:8-9). A High Priest who understands. “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses” (Hebrews 4:15). The word weaknesses comes from the same family as astheneia in 5:5. Jesus understands weakness from the inside. Application. Some people feel invisible, as if no one would notice if they were gone. Jesus notices. He also sends His people to be the helper someone else does not have.

Jesus walked into a crowd of sick people. He stopped beside one man. Jesus saw him and knew all about him. Nobody had to tell Jesus anything. Jesus asked, “Do you want to be well?” Jesus wanted the man to hope again. The man said, “Sir, there is no one to help me.” He was waiting for a person to carry him to the water. He did not know that Jesus was the help he needed! Jesus came to the man before the man asked for anything. Jesus loves to help people who cannot help themselves. You can tell Jesus what you need. He already knows, and He cares about you.

Jesus saw the sick man. Jesus knew all about him. Jesus came to help him. Jesus sees you too.

Not the pool. Jesus did not help the man into the water. He did not touch him or stir the pool. He simply spoke. Three commands. “Jesus said to him, ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk’” (5:8). Rise means stand up. The bed was a light mat that the man had been lying on for years. Right away. “And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked” (5:9). There was no slow recovery. His body was made strong in a moment. Power in His word. In the beginning God spoke, and the world came to be. Jesus speaks with that same power, because He is God the Son. “All things were made through Him” (John 1:3). Faith that obeys. The man had to try to stand. He did not argue that he couldn't. He obeyed, and as he obeyed, he found that Jesus had already made him well. On the Sabbath. “And that day was the Sabbath” (5:9). The Sabbath was God's gift of a weekly day of rest. That is why some leaders soon became upset. A sign. John calls Jesus' miracles signs, because they point to who Jesus is. They were written “that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God” (John 20:31). What we learn. Jesus' words have power to make people new. When Jesus tells us something in His Word, the best answer is to obey.

A word, not water (5:8). Jesus passed by the pool completely. The healing came by His command alone, so no one could give the credit to the water. His bed. The Greek word krabattos (say: KRAB-at-tos) means a poor person's mat or pallet, light enough to roll up and carry. For thirty-eight years that mat had carried him. Now he carried it. Immediately (5:9). The healing was instant and complete. A man who had been weak for thirty-eight years did not need weeks to learn to walk again. A sign. John calls Jesus' miracles signs because they point to who He is. They were written down “that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name” (John 20:31). Isaiah 35:5-6. The prophets said that when God came to save His people, “the lame shall leap like a deer.” At Bethesda, Jesus did what the prophets said God Himself would do. Faith and action. The man was not handed a list of facts to believe first. He was told to stand. Real faith hears Jesus' word and acts on it. At Cana, Mary told the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it” (John 2:5). The Sabbath (5:9). The healing happened on the Sabbath. God gave the Sabbath as a day of rest and worship (Exodus 20:8-11). Jesus' work of mercy on that day led straight into the conflict that follows (5:16-18). Application. Jesus still speaks through His Word. When He shows you something to do, obey Him without waiting until you feel strong enough. His command brings the strength to obey it.

Jesus did not carry the man to the water. He did not use the pool at all. Jesus just spoke. He said, “Stand up. Pick up your mat and walk.” Right away the man was well! He rolled up his mat and walked. Only God can heal like that. Jesus' words have the power of God. The man did what Jesus said. He did not argue or wait. God speaks to us through the Bible. When Jesus tells us something there, we can obey Him too. His words are always good for us.

Jesus said, “Stand up.” Right away the man could walk! He picked up his mat. Jesus' words are very strong.

Rules over mercy. The Jewish leaders said, “It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your bed” (5:10). God's law said to rest on the Sabbath. Over the years, teachers had added many rules of their own about what counted as work. The wrong question. They asked, “Who is the Man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” (5:12). They did not ask how he was healed. They cared more about the mat than about the man. He did not know. The healed man did not even know Jesus' name, “for Jesus had withdrawn, a multitude being in that place” (5:13). Jesus healed him before he knew who Jesus was. Jesus found him. “Afterward Jesus found him in the temple” (5:14). Jesus went looking for him a second time. Jesus cares about the whole person, not only the body. “Sin no more.” Jesus said, “See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you” (5:14). Does this mean every sickness is a punishment for sin? No. About a man born blind, Jesus said, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned” (John 9:3). But sin is more dangerous than any sickness, because sin separates us from God. Telling who Jesus is. “The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well” (5:15). After this, the leaders began to oppose Jesus (5:16). What we learn. Jesus wants more for us than a healthy body. He wants us free from sin and close to God.

The charge (5:10). God's law commanded rest on the Sabbath (Exodus 20:8-11), and the prophet Jeremiah warned against carrying loads through Jerusalem's gates on that day (Jeremiah 17:21-22). Over time, teachers built a large set of extra rules about what counted as work. Carrying a sleeping mat broke their rules. The man's answer (5:11). “He who made me well said to me, ‘Take up your bed and walk.’” To him, the One who had healed him had the right to tell him what to do. The question they asked (5:12). They wanted the name of the rule-breaker, not the name of the healer. A man made whole after thirty-eight years should have led them to praise God. Found in the temple (5:14). Jesus sought the man out. Healing his body was not the end of what Jesus wanted for him. “Sin no more.” The Greek present tense means stop sinning, or do not go on sinning. Jesus did not say the man's sickness was a punishment, and in John 9:3 He refused to connect a man's blindness with anyone's sin. Yet sin is real and serious. A worse thing than thirty-eight years of sickness is a life lived away from God, ending in “the resurrection of condemnation” (5:29). What followed (5:15-18). The man told the leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well. Then the leaders persecuted Jesus, because He healed on the Sabbath and because He called God His own Father, “making Himself equal with God” (5:18). Application. Jesus' kindness to us is never a reason to keep on sinning. He heals and forgives so that we can walk in a new way of life with Him.

Some leaders saw the man carrying his mat. Their rules said nobody could carry a mat on the Sabbath. They did not ask how he was healed. They only asked who told him to carry his mat. Later Jesus found the man at the Temple. Jesus said, “See, you are well now.” Then Jesus told him to stop sinning. Does God make people sick because they sinned? We should never think that. Jesus once said a blind man was not blind because of sin. But sin hurts us even more than sickness does. Sin keeps us away from God. Jesus wanted the man's heart to be well too.

Later Jesus found the man again. Jesus cares about our bodies and our hearts. He wants us to stay close to God.