Explained: The Healing at Bethesda--the Pool

The healing at the pool called Bethesda is located on the northeast corner of Jerusalem just inside the Sheep Gate. The temple was located near the same area. Jesus would have used this gate often on his way to teach in the temple courtyard.

House of Mercy

Chapter 5 of John begins, "After these things there was a feast. . .". You have no time-frame for the phrase, “after these things.” Neither can you know which feast is being talked about here. However, many agree it was the Passover. However, John doesn't identify which feast. Nonetheless, you do know that Jesus goes up to Jerusalem to attend a feast. 

Bethesda in Aramaic means “house of mercy.” You can see that the name is appropriate since the people who lay by the pool were afflicted physically and needing a miracle. However, to most, the house wasn't too merciful. The blind, lame and paralytic lay beside the pool waiting for an angel to stir the water—legend had it that the first in after the waters were stirred would be healed. 

Searching for a Miracle

Notice that the ones who lay beside the pool all hoped for a miracle and believed in the miraculous. Also you might suggest that each one secretly in his/her own heart wanted to be first and receive the blessing of a healed body. 

Talk about competition! Can’t you imagine the pushing and shoving that took place whenever the waters were stirred or “moved?” 

I would point out that from the last part of verse 3, “waiting for the moving of the waters; “ and all of verse 4 are surrounded by brackets in the NASB that I use with permission. This means that these words were not found in the earliest manuscripts. However, verse 7 is in all the earliest manuscripts, which gives credence to verse 4. If your Bible has a verse 4, just know that the translators took advantage of context and added it. 

John Alone Records This Miracle

John’s account of this portion of Biblical history tells you that among those at the pool was a man who was ill for thirty-eight years. We know the man is mostly paralyzed; therefore, he is unable to get into the pool quickly when the waters are stirred. 

Jesus knew the man had been in this condition for a long time, but does not put a number to his knowing. The above verse says he had been there 38 years. Apparently John asks the man or a relative how long he has been in this condition. Whenever someone is in the same state for 38 years with no hope of getting better, he might simply accept his plight and become content to remain that way. 

I’ve known alcoholics and drug abusers who had been in their state of illness for so many years they didn’t want to get well. These abusers of chemicals saw no hope of ever getting rid of their illness. 

Do You Want to Get Better

So Jesus gets right to the point. Do you want to quit. Some people like their mistakes, miseries and bad memories so much they do not want to give them up. Jesus will ask you if you want to get better. 

Jesus wants to know if this man, like many in our churches today, is just sitting on a pew taking up space or sucking oxygen, or does he wish to get into the game. So he asks him if he wants to get well. 

Often, the realities of your past will dictate your view of your present and future. However, Jesus shows you by this example from scripture that your present and future does not need to be controlled by the realities of your past. 

Other Miracles Occur

Several miracles had to take place for the man to walk. First, the healing took place. Aside from the miracle of healing that took place here, you can see evidence of other miracles that had to take place, too. The man had to believe or else he wouldn’t even try. Since he hadn’t walked in 38 years, he would have to learn to walk all over again without a miracle taking place. However, he could walk immediately. Then, he carried his bed on the Sabbath. This was totally against Jewish tradition. 

So you see much more than the miracle of healing took place when Jesus commanded the man to take his bed and walk. This is a good example of why you do whatever Jesus asks of you. Sometimes what he asks seems impossible, There is much more than the simple request hanging in the balances. 

You now know John’s reasoning for mentioning it was a Sabbath. No work could be done on a Sabbath. Even healing could not take place on a Sabbath according to Jewish traditions. However, Jesus didn’t follow man-made traditions. 

You are breaking rule number 1 by working on a Sabbath. You can’t do that.” Watch how the man answers them! 

Are Churches Interested in Tradition Rather Than People

Does it seem to you that churches and believers are more interested in stuff than with the value God places on a human being? The religious folk were more interested in the fact that he was carrying stuff, a bed, on the Sabbath than they were in the fact that he had been healed and could walk.

A great miracle had taken place and all the religious folk could see was someone breaking one of their own rules—not God’s. Many people today are more interested in the rules of their organization than souls saved. 

H. R. Ministries, Inc. located in Princeton, Kentucky, at the Job Corps in Sturgis, Kentucky were getting young people saved, baptizing them and sending them to other churches. The other churches began to complain because these young men and women hadn’t been baptized in their church; therefore, they weren’t baptized and had to be dunked again.

For some of these young believers, the second baptism was just too much. They simply dropped out of church altogether. 

Finger Pointing

The man who has been healed would tell on Jesus. He told them that a man told him to take up his pallet and walk. Now, they want to know who did this terrible deed. 

However, the man can’t truly rat out Jesus because he doesn’t know the name of the man who healed him. Do you find this amazing that a man is healed after 38 years, is now walking and he doesn’t know who healed him or preformed the miracle 

After the Pharisees and onlookers have questioned him, Jesus finds the healed man in the temple. He tells the man to straighten up or something worse can happen. 

Since he was carrying his pallet and had been healed on a Sabbath, the Jewish leaders use these two things to try to arrest Jesus for breaking one of their man-made laws. No one could do work on the Sabbath, and they considered healing on the Sabbath work. Their traditional religion dictated that no work could be done on the Sabbath. However, the overriding code of love is what Jesus followed, c.f. Leviticus 19:18. Is there anyone who wouldn’t love himself enough to heal himself on a Sabbath? 

Does God Work on the Sabbath

Jesus tells the religious leaders that God works on the Sabbath to do good, and I work to do good on the Sabbath. Maybe you should take a lesson. Now the Jewish leaders can add another charge to Jesus. He claims to be equal with God. They recognize his claim here to be more than merely human. He claims to be God and equal to God. 


The House of Mercy certainly became that to the man in John's scripture. The man had to fight through some traditions, and he partially blamed the one who healed him. He didn't want to get in trouble with the religious leaders.
We also see that a couple other miracles and some prejudices had to be overcome as well. Our church traditions can keep people out of church and out of the Kingdom. Don't allow traditions to cloud your beliefs.
I'm here to help. If you have questions or comments, please leave them in the comments section.

Blessings,

Howard

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