Healing at Bethesda - John 5:2-14

[29th April 2025]

2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda which has five roofed porticos. 3 In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. 5 One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 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?” 7 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.” 8 Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” 9 And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.

Now that day was the Sabbath. 10 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.” 11 But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’” 12 They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” 13 Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. 14 Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well!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

a.     In 1970’s I went to university at Bangor in North Wales. A town which experienced great religious revivals in 1859 and 1904. In this very small place there were said to be thirty two, mostly empty, chapels built out of revival. They were often given names from places in Israel like: Zion or Bethel or Penuel or Shiloh. One chapel was called Bethesda after this story in John ch5, because Bethesda was a place of healing and salvation, which is a good name for a church in a time of revival!

b.     The story of the healing at the pool of Bethesda is set on a Sabbath day in Passover season in Jerusalem at a public pool. The pool had five roofed porticos and was near the Shepherd Gate to the north of the temple. One poor man had lain paralysed by this pool for 38 years and was reliant on others to put him in the pool for healing – but no-one had ever done so in 38 years. He had lain there through 38 Passovers and had never been healed.

c.     A diligent Jew would remember the significance of 38 years, it being that for 38 years Israel had wandered in the desert after their rebellion with the golden calf - before they were finally allowed entry into the Promised Land. The five porticos were also significant, five being the number of the five books of the Law, Genesis through to Deuteronomy. These descriptive comments were significant for the author.

d.     A whole range of people with physical ailments at the pool are listed – the blind, lame and paralysed lying there with him. They were all people kept out of the temple by the Jewish law. The spiritual life of Israel, including the law (represented by the five porticoes), had been unable to help this poor man.

e.     And into this situation walks Jesus, the Good Shepherd of Israel. He comes in by the Sheep Gate and becomes the friend and saviour the  paralyzed man had never had before: And Jesus asks this lost sheep of Israel: “Do you want to be healed?” 7 He 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.” 8 Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” 9 And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.

f.      Jesus heals at a word. He cuts across the 38 wasted wilderness years. He cuts across all the ceremonies, feasts and traditions of the law the man had lived through. What the law, and religion of Israel had been unable to do, Jesus does instantaneously, saying. “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.”  This was total healing. No physiotherapy or post-op treatment needed. After 38 years of paralysis, he just gets up and walks out, carrying his bed, at Jesus’ command. This wasn’t just a physical healing, which was real enough, but a picture of spiritual salvation.

g.     Grace breaks in. Jesus, full grace and truth sweeps away the grip of dead religion, the Jewish law, which was powerless to heal, making way for true healing and salvation. Later, the healed man is able to enter the temple for the first time in 38 years. He was free. Free of paralysis and dead religion.

h.     Instead of rejoicing that the man had been healed supernaturally from his paralysis, the Jewish religious leaders quibbled about him being healed and carrying his bed on the Sabbath.

·      Some of you encountered Jesus at Bethesda many years ago and know and love him and you rejoiced.

·      Others may still be reliant on your private rules and self-righteousness for spiritual healing and salvation. If you are, let me tell you a secret, you will never make the grade! It will be a dead end. You need something else.

·      If you are still lying by the pool waiting for something to happen, Jesus asks you: “Do you want to be healed?” If you do, embrace the grace of God in Christ Jesus through faith in him, and you will receive true healing and eternal life. It’s the free gift of God.