Do You Want to Get Well? – John 5:1-15

Some Bible translations include a verse in John’s Gospel at 5:4 that explains why people would hang out at the pool of Bethesda for healing:  “because an angel would go down into the pool from time to time and stir up the water. Then the first one who got in after the water was stirred up recovered from whatever ailment he had.”  Crosswalk.com explains the discrepancy by noting that earliest and best Greek manuscripts of John do not contain this verse.  But it is helpful to see what was behind the sick man’s reason for staying at the pool, before Jesus healed him, that is.

After these things there was a feast of the Jews and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.  Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep’s Gate a pool, called in Hebrew, Bethesda, that had five covered colonnades.  In these there laid a multitude of sick people, some blind, some crippled, some paralyzed.  And there was a man there who had been ill for thirty-eight years.  When Jesus saw this man laying there and knowing that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to get well?”  The sick man answered, “Sir, I don’t have anybody when the water is stirred to put me into the pool.  While I’m going another goes down in before me.  Jesus said, “Get up, take your sleeping mat and walk.”  And immediately the man became well and he picked up his mat and walked.

Now it was the Sabbath that day.  So the Jews began telling the man who was healed, “It is the Sabbath and it is not lawful for you to pick up your mat and walk.”  They asked him, “Who is the one who told you to pick it up and walk?”  But the man who was healed did not know who it was, because Jesus had slipped away while there was a crowd in that place.  After this Jesus found the man in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well.  Don’t sin anymore lest something worse happens to you.”  The man left there and declared to the Jews that Jesus was the one who had made him well.  (John 5:1-15)

Following up on John’s remarks in his Gospel about how many feasts Jesus attended we learn that his ministry on earth spanned about 3 and a half years.  John has more focus on Jesus’ ministry in Jerusalem than the other Gospels.  And here, the third miracle he mentions takes place in the holy city at a pool where locals believed the first one in after a supernatural stirring of the water occurred would be healed.  But for 38 years there was a man there who had been an invalid and unable to get his healing.  Jesus does not presume that the man wants to be healed.  Sometimes we prefer the “safety” of our current condition.  But this man yearned for healing so Jesus chose to heal him.  Did Jesus ask any of the others?  We are not told.

Because the Jewish teachers of that day had added restrictions to observance of the Sabbath beyond what the Law of Moses detailed, it caught their attention that this man was violating the Law by carrying his bed and walking.  They didn’t even pay attention to the fact that this man had experienced a healing from Jesus.  They only focused on his infraction and that of Jesus telling him to pick up his mat and walk.

When Jesus later finds the man in the temple he tells the man to sin no more, not meaning he expected him to become sinless, but because evidently a particular sin on his part had contributed to his illness.  God does not always send such problems in the lives of sinners because of sin (see John 9) but in this case He did.  Jesus’ has knowledge of this man by the power of the Holy Spirit.  The Spirit sent him for this divine appointment.

Discussion Questions

1. What unusual methods have you tried for personal healing?
2. Why do you think people try unusual methods for healing?  What moved this man to try this particular method?
3. Wouldn’t the fact that this man was at the pool waiting for the water to be stirred up mean that he wanted to be healed?  Why did Jesus ask him this?
4. What does the Jews’ reaction to this miracle tell you about their priorities?
5. How does Jesus’ statement to the man strike you about not sinning anymore or he might get a worse condition?
6. Have you experienced sickness or some negative condition that is a discipline from God for specific sin?