“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. Now that day was the Sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, ‘It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.’ But he answered them, ‘The man who healed me, that man said to me, “Take up your bed, and walk.”’ They asked him, ‘Who is the man who said to you, “Take up your bed and walk”?’ Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, ‘See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.’ The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, ‘My Father is working until now, and I am working.’”

I confess that I was becoming tripped up with the timeline in trying to start this off. Time has passed in the Galilean ministry, but how much? Jesus has gone up to Jerusalem for a feast, but which one? John’s gospel gives such a different perspective from the three synoptic gospels that I sometimes get turned around trying to chronologically track one from the other. After chasing my tail a bit, researching and theorizing, I arrived at the blessed conclusion that I was wasting time and quite possibly missing the point. John doesn’t tell us which feast, as he does at other times, because it’s not important to the account. There was a feast, Jesus is no longer in Galilee and has returned to Jerusalem, this provides us with the context we need. While digging deeper and looking into the logistics of Jesus’s ministry is always interesting, it neither adds nor detracts from the power of the Word or the lessons imparted.

 John unapologetically shouts from the first verse of his gospel that Jesus is God. So far, we’ve seen him support this in different ways, giving us different angles and insights into the depth of Jesus’s knowledge, power and perfection. What we’re about to see is an example of might that bridges the gap between light and dark, between sin and salvation – between God and His children.

1. The Unbridgeable Gap Between us and Salvation

“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.”

When Jesus last entered Jerusalem, it was with a grand public display of authority and zeal, cleansing the temple of salesmen and moneychangers. As we see Him come to the city for a second time, His focus seems significantly more singular, but no less powerful in displaying His authority and power. The remains of the referenced pool near the sheep gate can be found in Jerusalem to this day, the ruins of the pillars that supported the roofs still visible in places. Called Bethesda in Aramaic which translates to “house of mercy,” we see that the site was a collecting place for the disabled. While not stated explicitly, there is evidence to support that the site may have belonged to the cult of Asclepius. This would make sense, as Asclepius was believed by the Greeks to be the god of medicine and healing. It is “the rod of Asclepius” that we see even today as a symbol in the medical field, the staff with a serpent wrapped around it – a symbol that was actually given to Moses by God in Numbers 20, and was destroyed by king Hezekiah in 2 Kings 18:4. The people of Israel had taken the bronze serpent that Moses made in the wilderness and fashioned it into an idol, a practice that we can see did not end altogether with Hezekiah breaking the original.

“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?’”

In the midst of a throng of invalids, in what may have been a pagan site of healing, Jesus seeks out one man. The man had been an invalid for thirty-eight years in an era when the average life expectancy was in the high thirties to low forties. While it’s important to remember that this average is skewed significantly by the high infant mortality of the era, this doesn’t undermine the fact that the bulk of this man’s life had been dominated by his infirmity and that by the standards of the day, it’s a miracle that he had lived as long as he had. While the story shows us the literal interaction between Jesus and this man, the symbol that’s provided reflects the scope and reach of Christ’s power as the Son and right hand of the Father. This man, broken and hopeless paints a picture of each of us. Lost and defeated in sin, there is no hope for any of us, no path by which any man can bridge the gap between himself and God – a gap that spans an eternity. We see this explained by Paul in Romans 3:9-20,

“What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: ‘None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.’ ‘Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.’ ‘The venom of asps is under their lips.’ ‘Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.’ ‘Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.’ ‘There is no fear of God before their eyes.’ Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.”

Here he references Psalms 14, 53, 5, 140 and 36, as well as Proverbs 1 along with his own words to paint a picture of the wickedness and depravity of mankind and our rebellious state before God. Condemned under the law we cannot follow in our perpetual imperfection, we have no justification before Holy God and face only the accountability of His righteous judgement. If we look to the broken man by the pool of Bethesda with pity (which we should look on all who suffer with compassion), we must see that we are in a far worse state in our sin, separated from God by an expanse we can’t bridge – but God can. Just as Jesus seeks the single invalid by the pool, He reaches out to each of us, offering salvation to all, but on an individual basis. We see that His knowledge of the man extends beyond what He can see on the outside, knowing that his suffering and desperation had been long. God’s knowledge of each person in personal and intimate, His sacrifice and the offered salvation carries the same qualities. We see Jesus ask the man a single question, which is the same question posed to each person who hears the Truth of the gospel: “Do you want to be healed?” The Greek word “doulos” can be translated differently based on context and can mean “slave,” “servant,” or “bondservant” with the cultural understanding of “slave” being radically different from what we think of as the slavery that existed in the transatlantic slave trade. I point this out because our position in God’s creation as servants, not slaves is reflected in the fact that Jesus asks the man if he wants to be healed. Salvation in Christ, a relationship with God is not forced upon us. We are given the freedom to accept the gift prepared for us. Do we reject the grace and mercy of God at our own peril? Absolutely. For us to deny the Salvation we’re offered would be more foolish than if the crippled man by the pool had told Jesus, “No thanks, I’m all set here.” But one of the stumbling blocks in accepting Christ is reflected in this man’s response – the offering can be too amazing to believe.

 “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.’”

The man can’t begin to comprehend the depth of Jesus’s power or the gravity of what He’s offering him. He assumes, understandably, that Jesus isn’t directly offering to heal him, but asking about his accessibility to the pool. The man explains that he’s without aid to get to the water and stepped over by the others at the pool seeking healing “when the water is stirred up.” There are some manuscripts that insert between John 5:3 and 5:5, “…waiting for the moving of the water; (verse 4) for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool, and stirred the water: whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was healed of whatever disease he had.” However this is not present in the earliest manuscripts and is not counted as part of the inspired canon. I believe that the acknowledgment of some kind of healing taking place at the pool, along with the exclusion of the information that attributes this to an angel of the Lord supports the idea that the Bethesda pool was the site of pagan practices which, if there was something supernatural taking place there, would have been demonic in nature. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 10:19-20,

“What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons.”

Putting these pieces together gives a new gravity to the entire situation – Jesus doesn’t just step in and offer a physically broken man hope of healing in his flesh, He walks into a camp of the enemy, a space full of desperate people clamoring for the gifts of demons, and displays what a fraction of the power of the one true God looks like.

2. Christ Bridges the Gap

“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.”

Jesus is not dependent on waiting for the water to stir, the man doesn’t have to stumble or drag himself into the water to receive some kind of favor. Jesus speaks, gives a command that he rise, take his bed and walk, and the man is healed. A cripple for thirty-eight years, lying by the Bethesda pool for a length of time that only God knew. Broken in body, crushed in spirit, the man was given hope and new life by Jesus in a sentence. There is nothing, absolutely nothing that we can do to reach God by our own power. His holiness and perfection are farther away from our sin-stained hands than we can imagine, it would be easier for us to reach out and pluck stars from the sky than to reunite ourselves with God on our own. But God is not limited, and in His abundance of love for us, in His desire that the barrier of sin should be removed, and a relationship had between Himself and man, He made a way. Paul wrote to the depth of our sin in Romans 3:9-20, but if we read on in verses 21-26 he says,

“But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for fall have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

Jesus fulfilled the law. God in flesh, He laid down His life as the Good Shepherd. Covering our sins with His blood, overcoming the sting of death with His resurrection. The gap that existed between God and His creation, between the Holy of Holies and fallen man is bridged. We can approach the throne, washed clean before God, just as a man who was broken and hopeless was lifted up and made well with just a few words from the Christ. Our hope is in Jesus, our healing, understanding and purpose all lie in Him and His provision. But in the comparison between the miracle by the pool and the miracle of our own salvation, it’s important to note what the man does upon receiving the blessing from Jesus – he obeys. The man doesn’t just receive the first part of Jesus’s command, “get up,” and leave it at that, but upon being healed we see that he immediately complies with the entire direction, “take up your bed, and walk.” Jesus says to His disciples in John 15:14-15,

“You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.”

In receiving the gift of salvation, we now pursue the things of God instead of the things of the world. We will stumble and fail at times, still warring against the sin nature of our flesh, but with redeemed souls and new hearts, our aim is to be in line with those of the Spirit of the Living God. This isn’t a gift with strings attached, but a liberation that frees us to a higher calling than we can ever know in the flesh, and a key element of that is obedience.

3. The Law in Flesh and the Law in Spirit – The Gap That was Bridged

“Now that day was the Sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, ‘It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.’ But he answered them, ‘The man who healed me, that man said to me, “Take up your bed, and walk.”’ They asked him, ‘Who is the man who said to you, “Take up your bed and walk”?’ Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place.”

We’re not explicitly told that the man Jesus heals is Jewish, but the context of the story seems to support it. This would also be in keeping with Jesus’s ministry. While Jesus did not exclusively minister to Jews, the bulk of His ministry was directed to them, fulfilling prophecy that was made through them as God’s people and delivering salvation that would ultimately be offered through them to the entire world. As Paul writes in Romans, “to the Jew first and also the Greek.” In light of this it would be fitting that Jesus seeks out and rescues the lone Jewish man, desperately seeking healing from a false god in the midst of a group of pagans, healing the man and displaying the blessing of a power that will one day soon be opened to all those who are broken and hopeless. We see that these things took place on the Sabbath and that the Jews responded by chastising the man for violating the law, which it would make no sense for them to do to a gentile. It’s worth noting, both for accuracy’s sake and to show the nature of these ruling Jews, that his taking up and moving his bed was not a violation of Sabbath law. Exodus 20:8-11 says,

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”

What the man was violating was part of the additional rules that the scribes and lawyers had layered upon the original laws. These are the kind of men that Jesus addresses in Matthew 23:1-36, those who “tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.” Their delight is in flexing their authority, the depth of their rigorous public morality, but Jesus calls them “blind fools” and “whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness.” When the man explains that he was following the instructions of the man who healed him the Jews completely sidestep the miracle that has taken place, looking to hold someone accountable for what they see as a legal violation. In this we’re given a clear contrast between the function of the teaching and ministry of Jesus and what was provided by the religious teachers of the day. As Jesus points out in Matthew 9, these men have no knowledge or comprehension of mercy, only obsessions with their own outward piety and adherence to the letter of the law they have betrayed in spirit. The man who was healed gives them no information, as Jesus vanished in the crowd, and he doesn’t know that the man who healed him is the Christ.

“Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, ‘See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.’”

I admit that when I read this passage in the past, I usually interpreted verse 14 more in the flesh without thinking too deeply about it. “Now make sure you don’t sin anymore, or my blessing will be undone, and you’ll be more crippled than you were before!” Praise be to God, I can see better now, and the message is far more fitting to God’s character and the implications far greater than my prior understanding. It’s constantly striking me that so much of Jesus’s teaching is centered around guiding people to understand the significance of the Spirit over the flesh, the intent over the appearance, the quality over the aesthetic. Everything is based around the aim of the heart and mind toward being toward God, knowing that actions will follow, instead of performing actions for the sake of ceremony and appearance. Once again, this is completely opposite to the legalistic and judgmental leaders of the Jews. Meeting the man at the temple (which once again, seems to affirm that he was Jewish), Jesus speaks to him concerning his spiritual condition. “Sin no more…” While all have sinned and fallen short, this man’s specific sin that Jesus could be speaking to could have been placing his hope in something other than God, in the waters of the pool to provide healing. “…that nothing worse may happen to you.” To sin, to depart from the truth of the might and salvation of God would put him in a state of separation from the Father. Jesus says in Matthew 10:28,

“And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”

And in Matthew 16:26,

“For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?”

While the man’s condition before being healed by Jesus was without question miserable, there is no suffering in the flesh that can compare to the state of one who is separated from God for eternity.

“The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath.”

While not explicitly stated, I don’t think the man who was healed ran to tell the Jews Jesus’s identity just to narc on Him. Nothing about the account paints the man in a particularly negative light and it seems reasonable that he, elated over having his body miraculously restored, wanted to make sure the identity of his healer was known, and due credit was given. Once again, living up to being the “blind guides” that Jesus calls them, the Jews completely blow by the fact that He healed a man, improving his quality of life beyond what anyone could have dreamed for him. This took place on the Sabbath. Jesus wasn’t supposed to have healed on the Sabbath, He shouldn’t have told the man to move his bed on the Sabbath, and so they seek to persecute Him for His miracle work.

“But Jesus answered them, ‘My Father is working until now, and I am working.’”

When confronted, Jesus doesn’t bother rabbinical discussion, but declares His authority in the spirit of His work and His mission before the Father – His Father. In Matthew 12, when confronted by the Pharisees over the laws of the Sabbath, Jesus says in verses 5-8,

“Or have you not read in the Law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”

Jesus has the authority and the purity in His divinity to do whatever is necessary in His mission from God. But rather than leave it at that, here Jesus cites examples where the Pharisees’ interpretation and enforcement of the law is wrong. Jesus says in Matthew 5:17,

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”

It is written in Hebrews 4:14-16,

“Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

By Jesus’s own words and in seeing His fulfillment of the role of great high priest, we gain perspective on His regard for the law. He has not come to cast down and scatter the laws that were given from God, but to fulfill the spirit of the law instead of the hollow mask it has become. To dispel teaching that is outward and wicked and teach that which is righteous and pleasing to God – worship that is done in Spirit and Truth.

**Disclaimer**

I always post the video of my pastor’s sermon at the end of each outline. On this particular section, he and I took very different approaches to the nature of the character of the man who Jesus healed. I reached out to my pastor, wanting his thoughts on what I’d written and frankly wondering if I’d missed the mark in interpreting this man. After rereading my own outline and speaking with him, I realized that both his sermon and my outline were totally valid. The commentators make cases for both sides, the text itself could have the man interpreted both the way I did originally, and in the way he’s mostly reflected in my pastor’s sermon. What remains the same is the gospel and the offering of salvation in Jesus. While different understandings and contexts led us there, the overwhelming power of God’s Word still drives to the truth and heart of the message.

Pastor Chris’s sermon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlR3YGpj8Pc