The Healing at the Pool
5 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” 7 “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.” 8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 10 and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.” 11 But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ” 12 So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?” 13 The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there. 14 Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” 15 The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.
Jesus healed this man who was lying on a mat for 38 years beside the Sheep Gate, through which the sacrifices to God went into. There are 3 mysteries that I want to know about this scene. I wonder why Jesus did this act of healing a man on the day, Sabbath, on which no one should do work or cook or even move. I wonder why Jesus talked to and healed only this man among a lot of disabled men lying around the pool. And I wonder how the pool could have such a power to heal people whenever it stirs.
Jesus used to do this kind of acts of healing someone on Sabbath, so He became the target of being blamed and condemned from the teachers of the Law and Pharisees who knew well about the Law and wanted to keep them all. As a result, it seemed that He was opposing against the Law and their teaching as well. However, Jesus was teaching them anout who was the owner of the Sabbath. It was not the Sabbath itself, but Jesus Himself and also humans themselves.
Then, why didn't He heal everyone in there, but healed only a man? Maybe He knew that he really wanted to be healed eagerly as he had no one to help him, so there was no hope at all. When he heard, "Pick up your mat and walk!", he could do it right away. Even though he was said to stop sinning after being healed, he went to the Jewish leaders and said that it was Jesus who had made him well, which didn't look like sinning, but in reality, it became a kind of sinful acts of blaming Jesus for walking on the Sabbath.
Lastly, I have been curious about the pool, Bethesda, for long. Was it a real place of healing the disabled men? Looking through the history in the bible, from time to time there were some kinds of miracles happened, but it was a case of absolute sovereignty, I mean, in case those kinds of miraculous signs were needed. I am not still sure of that pool's work, but I just guess that if it were, it could be the universal grace of God that anyone who are sick could have hope in it.
However, here I see something more important point I need to keep in mind. It is the Question if I really want to be healed or not, even on the Sabbath, which is the real day for healing for my souls and body. It should be the day for stopping sinning and stopping something worse from happening to me by looking back on the other days. One more thing is that I'd better call Jesus'name, rather than just watch the pool stirred and wait.
