We see in this passage that Jesus is heading back to Jerusalem to attend one of the three main annual festivals held there which could have been Passover, Pentecost, or the Feast of Booths - but the text doesn’t specify. We do know that while Jesus is in Jerusalem, He visits the pool of Bethesda. This pool was quite large, with five open patios with coverings to protect people from the elements.
1 After these things there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2 Now in Jerusalem, by the Sheep Gate, there is a pool which in Hebrew is called Bethesda, having five porticoes. 3 In these porticoes lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, limping, or paralyzed. 5 Now a man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. 6 Jesus, upon seeing this man lying there and knowing that he had already been in that condition for a long time, *said to him, “Do you want to get well?”
7 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.” 8 Jesus *said to him, “Get up, pick up your pallet and walk.”
9 Immediately the man became well, and picked up his pallet and began to walk. Now it was a Sabbath on that day. 10 So the Jews were saying to the man who was cured, “It is a Sabbath, and it is not permissible for you to carry your pallet.” 11 But he answered them, “He who made me well was the one who said to me, ‘Pick up your pallet and walk.’”
12 They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Pick it up and walk’?” 13 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. 14 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.” 15 The man went away, and informed the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well (John 5:1-15).
Multitudes of people who were sick, blind, lame, or paralyzed would lie around the pool - all waiting to get into the water. They believed that when an angel moved the waters it somehow had a mystical power to heal people and whoever got down to the pool first would be cured.
“But this belief was all based on a myth.”
In reality, it is likely the water simply bubbled up from the spring below or from a pipe that supplied the pool. It is also very possible that this site had some therapeutic, medicinal value as even the Romans had constructed baths at the Bethesda Pool a few centuries later as archeologists have confirmed. In the midst of this scene in John 5, there are three things we can observe:
Jesus’ response to the man
The man’s reluctance to answer
The religious leaders’ reaction
Jesus' response
Jesus is walking in the midst of the multitudes of the sick who are waiting for the water to be stirred up in the hope of being healed. For some reason He picks this particular man out of the crowd.
This man was considered an outcast because of his self-imposed condition and misery, and no one was wasting their time visiting him and listening to his story. But Jesus' compassion compels Him to get involved. He was concerned with more than just this man's physical health and asks the man
““Do you want to get well?””
The man’s reluctance
The lame man had a mystical, superstitious concept of God and how He would heal him. It was first come, first serve. But his hope was based on a myth, not on the reality and truth of who God is.
This man couldn’t seem to grasp that where he had been hanging out and what he was believing all this time was not going to make him whole and well and he was not about to give it up his place at the pool.
Jesus showed compassion on him and said in verse 9:
“Get up, pick up your pallet and walk.” Immediately the man became well, and picked up his pallet and began to walk.
This was an incredible miracle, plain and simple! Jesus did not demand that this man have faith for healing or that he finds his own strength to obey.
When Jesus commanded the man to get up, He gave the man the power he needed to do it. It was immediate.
The religious leaders’ reaction
When the religious leaders saw that this man had broken the Sabbath rules by being healed and walking around carrying his mat, they were angry. For the religious crowd, keeping Sabbath rules was more important than the wellbeing of the people. To them, traditions and beliefs trumped life and healing.
When the Pharisees saw this man carrying his mat they pounced on him, “how dare you break the Sabbath, who gave you permission?” This man had no idea who healed him and, in his defense, put the blame on the man who told him to take up his bed and walk.
Later in this chapter Jesus said to the Pharisees,
You search and keep on searching and examining the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and yet it is those [very Scriptures] that testify about Me; (John 5:39 AMP).
He was saying to them that you will find life in the One to whom the Scriptures point - that is Me, the Messiah.
Jesus was not concerned about the rules and religious beliefs of the rabbis. He was far more concerned about people and showed amazing compassion by healing this man on the Sabbath. He had performed a miracle on this sacred day and told the man to pick up his mat and get going.
But there is more to this story than what can be read on the surface, this man’s healing was not complete, he needed healing from within, he needed to be restored in his relationship with God. Later Jesus finds him in the temple and say:
Behold, you have become well; do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you.
After being healed physically Jesus spoke with a sense of urgency “do not continue to sin anymore.”
