Today’s Reading: John 5:1-15; Psalm 13

Afterward Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holy days. Inside the city, near the Sheep Gate, was the pool of Bethesda, with five covered porches. Crowds of sick people—blind, lame, or paralyzed—lay on the porches. – John 5:1-4

Picture with me crowds of people who are battling some kind of illness, disease or handicap. They have gathered together in this place, each of them desperate for a different life. The lame hope for the freedom of movement, the blind hope for the beauty of sight, and the deaf hope for the echo of sound. Some were born this way while others remember what it was once like to be healthy and free from this ailment.

THEY WERE AT THE POOL OF BETHESDA BECAUSE THEY HAD HOPE. THEY HAD REACHED FOR THE POSSIBILITY BUT MISSED THE HEALING.

If they did not have hope, they would have stayed home. If there was not a dream of healing, they would not be here waiting for the waters to stir. If they themselves did not have hope, someone who loved them must have had hope on their behalf because here they were amongst the crowd. Here they were anticipating the possibility of healing. But there was at least one at the pool who had given up all hope, and Jesus was there that day to change his life forever.

One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, he asked him, “Would you like to get well?” – John 5:5-6

Consider the reality behind these words — Jesus saw him and Jesus knew. In a crowd of people with needs, this man was seen by the Messiah himself; in a world where he had never had the opportunity to meet the Lord, he was known by the One who had the ability to heal him.

JESUS WAS THE HOPE THEY HAD BEEN CLINGING TO BUT THEY DID NOT YET KNOW WHAT HE WAS CAPABLE OF.

“I can’t, sir,” the sick man said, “for I have no one to put me into the pool when the water bubbles up. Someone else always gets there ahead of me.”
Jesus told him, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!” Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up his sleeping mat and began walking! – John 5:7-9a

I long to know what the man was thinking between Jesus’ command and the man’s healing, but scripture says it happened immediately. It seems the sick man did not even have the chance to consider what was about to happen. One moment he was sick and the next moment he was not. But he did have the choice to respond in faith when told to stand up, pick up his mat, and walk. His response allowed others around them to know the impact of Jesus’ words on his life. He had been healed without human methods but by the power of the Lord, and everyone who had known him as the sick man at Bethesda now knew him as healed and whole.

But this miracle happened on the Sabbath, so the Jewish leaders objected. They said to the man who was cured, “You can’t work on the Sabbath! The law doesn’t allow you to carry that sleeping mat!”
But he replied, “The man who healed me told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’”
“Who said such a thing as that?” they demanded.
The man didn’t know, for Jesus had disappeared into the crowd. But afterward Jesus found him in the Temple and told him, “Now you are well; so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you.” – John 5:9b-14

THE MAN WHO HAD LOST HOPE WAS NOW EXPERIENCING PHYSICAL HEALING, BUT HE WAS STILL MISSING THE SPIRITUAL HEALING THAT JESUS HAD FOR HIM.

Jesus was there to help this man who had been sick for 38 years find hope, not in the physical but in the eternal. He arrived to make a difference in this man’s life, to turn the focus from how he was dying to how he was living. Jesus did not just want to change his circumstances but to transform his heart — to use his physical healing to bring him to a place of spiritual healing. He wanted the man to go from not knowing who Jesus was to personally knowing Jesus as Lord.

This man’s healing would not just impact him but also all who knew him. I imagine that everyone in his community saw him as the man who had been coming longer than anyone else, yet no one had helped him down into the water. They had accepted his plight and expected nothing to change for him. BUT JESUS.

Lord, thank you for the reminder this morning that we cannot lose hope in what you might want to do for us or for our loved ones. It is so easy to be discouraged by our circumstances, but we ask for a renewed confidence that you see us and that you know what we are going through. You are our hope. May the impact of our faith be evident for others to see as we wait patiently for you to move on our behalf. May our obedience to your instructions make a difference in those around us who need your healing touch. Amen.

But I trust in your unfailing love.
I will rejoice because you have rescued me.
I will sing to the Lord
because he is good to me. – Psalm 13:5-6