67. A Healing at a Pool

After these things, there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now in Jerusalem by the sheep gate, there is a pool, which is called in Hebrew, “Bethesda”, having five porches. In these lay many who were sick, blind, lame, or paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water; for an angel went down at certain times into the pool, and stirred up the water. Whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was healed of any disease. 

A man was there, who had been sick for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had been sick for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to be made well?”

The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I’m coming, another steps down before me.”

Jesus said to him, “Arise, take up your mat, and walk.”

Immediately, the man was made well, and took up his mat and walked.

Now it was the Sabbath, and the Jews said to him, “It is not lawful for you to carry your mat on the Sabbath.”

He answered them, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Take up your mat, and walk.’”

Then they asked him, “Who is the man who said this to you?”

But the man who was healed didn’t know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn to avoid the crowd in that place.

Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, “You are made well. Now sin no more, so that nothing worse happens to you.”

The man went away, and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. Because this healing was on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill him. Jesus told them, “My Father is still working, so I am working too.” Now the Jews sought all the more to kill him, because he not only broke the Sabbath, but also called God his own Father, making himself equal with God. 

Reflection

Here was a man with a great need who stayed near the healing waters of a pool he could never reach. The miracle for which he was hoping came in a way he never imagined. Has God ever stepped into your life at a moment of desperation when all seemed hopeless? If so, to how many people have you told your story? 

Prayer: Give me boldness, Lord, to not hold back from telling others how you helped me at my time of greatest need.