John 5:1-9 NRSV
“After this there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha, which has five porticoes. In these lay many invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be made well?” 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 making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.” Jesus said to him, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.” At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk.”
You know the story of the man who had been differently abled for 38 years, and he laid at the pool of Bethesda wanting to be healed. That was the state that Jesus found him in at the pool, just inside the sheep gate. This pool had five covered porches; and accommodated quite a few people who had different disabilities. It was not the place where the proper people went; they actually avoided that area because the felt the people there unclean. But when Jesus was in Jerusalem, he didn’t stay at the best hostels, no he stayed near the everyday people. The common people. The people who really needed his help.
This passage speaks of healing through the stirred waters at the pool. In later translations, scribes added the reason why the waters were stirred, possibly to explain to the exiles returning home in case they had forgotten. With the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, it was found that this explanation was not in the original translation. That’s why you see verse 4 in King James but not in the New International Version, New Revised Standard Version, or any dynamic version. With translations written later it was added as a scribal note about the fourth verse that says, “From time to time an angel came to stir the waters and the first one in after the stirring was healed.” When I was young that was my favorite part of the passage.
One thing to hold on to. We must be clear on what we hear and who is making the offer. The differently abled man had been trying to get into the water- for his healing. He could not have heard with clarity what Jesus offered. You see those years of desperation may have clouded how he thought. Trauma will cause you to not think clearly, and make moves out of desperation.
When Jesus asked him, “Do you want to be healed?” he gave excuses why he couldn’t get healed. The man was trying to get in the water for a healing when a healing was being offered- period.
Jesus offers compassion and healing to us. Do we accept it? Or do we give excuses on why it can’t happen, can’t be. Let our answer to him be “yes”! Yes to any kind of way he wants to heal us. Yes, and thank you. And let us walk- walk out of and away from those things that have hinders our growth in him and with him. Yes, we want to be healed! more later.
