The Sign at the Pool
John 5:1-15
When you look around at the people who attend church on Sunday, what do you see? Do you see remarkable people, dressed in fine clothes who have it all together? Do you see moral people who have overcome the weaknesses that plague the rest of the world? Do you see clever people who have figured out life and its mysteries? Or do you see hurting people in need of comfort. Do you see troubled people in need of peace? Do you see sick people who need healing? Do you see sinful people in need of a Savior?
All of us here this morning come in need. And the good news is that Jesus is always sufficient for every need that any one of us may have. But there are times when our need is so great, and the situation is so miserable, that – humanly speaking – it seems utterly hopeless. Some who are in such a condition have pretty much given up any hope of things being any different; and they keep on doing the same old things over and over that can never relieve them of their misery. That certainly describes the situation of the man in John 5. And the lesson of this story to us is that, no matter how miserable our situation is, or how hopeless things may appear, Jesus has the power to not only transform our hopeless situation but also to transform us in the process.
Listen to the story from John 5:1-15:
1 After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches.
3 In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water.
4 For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had.
5 Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years.
6 When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?”
7 The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.”
8 Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.”
9 And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked. And that day was the Sabbath.
10 The Jews therefore said to him who was cured, “It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your bed.”
11 He answered them, “He who made me well said to me, ‘Take up your bed and walk.'”
12 Then they asked him, “Who is the Man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?”
13 But the one who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, a multitude being in that place.
14 Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, “See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you.”
15 The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.
The context of this story is Jesus’ return to Jerusalem after having spent some time in the regions of Galilee. He had already begun to demonstrate to the world His identity as the Son of God in human flesh. In chapter 1 after John the Baptist identifies Jesus as the Messiah, several men from Galilee begin to follow Him and believe in Him. Then in Cana, He performed the sign of turning the water into wine (2:1-12). In Jerusalem, He cast the money changers and dove-sellers out of the temple (2:13-21) and performed many signs so that people began to believe in Him. He taught the Jewish teacher Nicodeums about being born again (3:1-21). Then, going through Samaria, He revealed Himself to the sinful woman at the well – with the result that all her townspeople also believed on Him (4:1-42). Then, returning to Galilee, He went again to Cana, and there John records the second sign when Jesus healed the son of a nobleman (4:46-54) and that man and his whole household believed in Jesus. The point so far in the gospel is that Jesus demonstrates by His signs and His words that He is the Son of God and people come to believe in Him.
Have you noticed something about the people to whom Jesus revealed Himself? They were people of all walks of life. He revealed Himself to John’s disciples, to fishermen, to friends, to guests at a wedding, to religious leaders and authorities, to learned scholars, to sinful outcasts, to an estranged people and to the noble and powerful of society. As the Samaritans said, He is “the Savior of the world,” (John 4:42).
And now Jesus comes again to Jerusalem. We’re told that the reason He returned was because of a feast of the Jews. It was during this return to Jerusalem on the Sabbath Day, as His identity was becoming increasingly revealed, that Jesus healed the poor man at the pool of Bethesda.
Now, I believe that the primary reason John is giving us this story is to show us what it was that caused Jesus to be in such conflict with the religious leaders in Jerusalem and to set the stage for His teaching in this chapter starting in verse 19. We will talk more about this next week. But today we will see that Jesus healed the man on the Sabbath. The Jewish leaders and teachers had distorted the Sabbath into a day of strict inactivity; but the Savior did good on that day, saying, “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working” (v. 17).
What Jesus did and said on this day put Him out of favor with the religious rulers and leaders from that point on (see John 7:21-23). In fact His actions that day so infuriated them that they immediately began to plot to have Him killed (5:18).
But even though this passage is primarily about that controversy, I don’t want us to miss the story of Jesus’ great mercy that began it all. It has so many lessons to teach us about how merciful Jesus is to rescue those who are in a hopeless condition.
One lesson we learn about Jesus from this story is that . . .
- Jesus sees and knows your hopeless condition (vv. 1-6a).
Consider where the man was found. John tells us, “Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches” (v. 2). The King James Version says that it was found by “the sheep market”; but neither the word “market” or “gate” is in the original language. The word in Greek simply indicates a place pertaining to sheep; and most scholars believe that it’s speaking of that portion of the old city wall known as ‘the sheep gate’,
Somewhere near the gate through which the sheep were brought to the temple for sacrifice (see Neh. 3:1, 32; 12:39) was a large pool of water, surrounded by five covered colonnades or porches. And on these porches had been laid a great multitude of people with terrible illnesses or disabilities. John mentions such people as those who were blind, or those who were lame or crippled in some way, or those who were literally “withered.” Imagine the despair and misery of such a place where multitudes of sick people lay helpless.
And all of them were there in hopes of perhaps being the recipient of a miracle of healing. As I read this passage to you a little earlier, perhaps some of you noticed that unlike the King James Version, your particular edition of the Bible’s skipped the end of verse 3 and all of verse 4, or had it in a footnote.
The reason for this difference is that many of the oldest and best Greek manuscripts of John do not contain them. And some manuscripts that do have these words also feature a mark or indication that they are of questionable origin. I could be that they were originally written down in the margin of the original text to explain what John meant in verse 7 when the man said, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up.”
One of the things about the New Testament that is really remarkable is the fact that there is such a large number of manuscripts of the New Testament. We do not have the original manuscript of any Bible book, but we have literally thousands of Greek manuscripts, vastly more than any other ancient writing. And even though some of these copies have differences, because there are so many of them and many that are very early copies, we can be very sure that the Bible text we have is accurate.
Concerning this text, I seriously doubt that an angel from heaven, sent from God and with His approval, actually came down to earth occasionally to unexpectedly stir the waters of this pool so that people frantically scrambled over one another in a desperate effort to be the one fortunate person who got healed. Rather, I believe they describe something that traps and ensnares so many hopeless people who are desperate for some glimmer of hope – just a plain old superstition. Perhaps someone at one time had gotten better after visiting the pool and the rumors mushroomed from there. Perhaps the legend grew out of pagan religion that often used water at healing shrines. It’s hard to blame people for believing in such a thing. Hopeless misery can make you reach out for anything that might help.
We meet the man in verse 5, “Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years.” This poor man had been sick or injured longer than Jesus had been on the earth. There he was, sitting by the pool, waiting with all the others for the slightest movement in the water. But every time he thought there was a chance for his healing, he failed and was disappointed.
Notice what it says about Jesus in verse 6; that He “saw” the man lying there – that is that, out of all those poor people, our Lord’s attention was drawn to that particular man. But notice also that Jesus “knew” that he had already been that way for a long time. Probably Jesus knew this in the same way He knew Nathaniel’s character before He met him in chapter 1 and the same way He knew on the Samaritan woman’s sinful lifestyle in chapter 4, because as John told us in 2:25, Jesus “had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man.” Jesus is the Son of God who knows all about you and your hopeless condition.
Don’t ever think for a moment that you are going through something that our merciful Lord Jesus doesn’t know about thoroughly and perfectly. He sees you, and He knows all about everything that concerns you. You can never, ever go through anything that He doesn’t know about perfectly, doesn’t understand the pain of completely, or doesn’t care about infinitely. You can confidently, as Peter says, cast all your care upon Him, “for He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7).
To my mind, one of the most fascinating aspects of this passage is what happens next. Another lesson we can learn about our Lord from this passage – one of the most crucial things we must come to terms with if we would be delivered by Him in times of helpless misery – is that . . .
- Jesus examines your willingness to be healed (vv. 6b-7).
Jesus healed lots of people that had been sick for a long time. He healed a woman who had an issue of blood for twelve years (Mark 5:25). He healed a young man who had been going into demon-inspired fits from the time he was a small boy (Mark 9:21). He healed a man blind from birth (John 9:1). He healed a woman who had a spirit of infirmity that had been preventing her from rising herself up for eighteen years (Luke 13:11). To have simply walked up and healed this man, who had been suffering for thirty-eight years, would have presented no problem to our Lord. And as we saw from the end of chapter 4 when Jesus healed the nobleman’s son, Jesus could have even healed the man from a distance. Jesus could have simply commanded it, and it would have been done.
But there was something unique about this man’s situation. There was something particular that was going on in his heart. Look at what Jesus does in this particular case. He walked up and asks the man a surprising question: “Do you want to be made well?” (5:6).
You may wonder, “If Jesus knew all about this man, then why does He ask him (5:6), “Do you want to be made well?” At first glance, it’s a strange question to ask a man who has been sick for 38 years! Didn’t Jesus know the answer to that question? Of course He did! Jesus never asked questions to gain information! He asks questions to get us to see our need for Him. He may have wanted the man to recognize his own helplessness and to look to Jesus for healing. Or, He may have wanted the man to recognize how discouraged and lacking in hope he was, as seen by his complaining answer (5:7).
Also, the question uncovers the fact, as strange as it may seem, that some people do not really want to get well because it means that they will have to change. As James Baldwin observed (in Reader’s Digest, 1/83), “Nothing is more desirable than to be released from an affliction, but nothing is more frightening than to be divested of a crutch.” If he became well, the man might have to stop begging and start working for a living. If he got well, he couldn’t complain about his circumstances. He couldn’t blame those who didn’t care enough to help him into the water. And, he may not have wanted to be healed because, as Jesus later tells him, he then needed to stop sinning so that nothing worse would happen to him. Some people are so comfortable in their misery that they can’t begin to want a life without it.
I believe we can see this in the man’s answer to Jesus. Why didn’t the man simply say, “Yes”? He didn’t say anything even close to “Yes”! Instead, he said (5:7), “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.” It’s hard not to detect just a hint of personal pride in the man’s complaint over the injustice of it all; and maybe even the expectation of the sympathy it would evoke from others. Most of us have had times when we have clung to our misery because of the attention and sympathy we want from others.
I believe that the Lord wants to set us free from the miseries that bind us. He is even able to turn the hopelessness of our misery into something glorious and good if we will let Him. But He first challenges us to truly want to be made whole and well by Him. He challenges us to become completely willing to be made free from all the shackles – and even the subtile, secret benefits – of the misery that binds us. He first makes us probe our hearts; and asks us, “Do you want to be made well?“
Another lesson we learn about the Lord Jesus from this story is that . . .
- Jesus is able to set you free from your misery (vv. 8-9).
Isn’t it interesting that Jesus didn’t send an angel to stir up the water for the man, and then offer to throw him into the pool? Instead, Jesus simply says to him in verse 8, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.”
And then, verse nine says, “And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked.” There was no waiting period between Jesus speaking and the man becoming well. There was no gradual, progressive improvement over time. There wasn’t even any need to ‘just add water’! The man was instantaneously, immediately made well. With the command, Jesus imparted the power.
The man simply obeyed. He rose up, picked up his bed, and walked. Listen, this isn’t just a story of a physical miracle, but it’s also a picture of what Jesus can do for you spiritually. He commands you to do something that you cannot do for yourself, any more than this crippled man could obey Jesus’ command to walk. He says to you, “Believe in Me and you will not perish, but have eternal life.” No matter how long you’ve been crippled by sin, if you will respond to Christ’s command, your response is not from your sinful heart. It’s the gift of God. When you obey His command, He imparts His power to give you eternal life.
When Jesus frees us from our place of misery, it’s not for us to continue in that place until we’re convinced. It’s time for us to rise up, pick up our bed and move on!
And finally, this leads me to make this final observation about the Lord; that . . .
- Jesus is seeking to heal your sinful heart (vv. 10-15).
The man had been laying along the pool a hopeless, suffering invalid. But now, he apparently so walked around with his bed in his arms – in obedience to Jesus’ command – that he got into trouble from the religious leaders because of it. What a transformation!
Now after healing the man, Jesus withdrew into the crowd and disappeared from the man’s sight (5:13). Apparently, all of this happened rather quickly. But later on, Jesus sought the man out – which, again, is a great act of kindness and love on the part of our Savior. And where do we read that Jesus found the man? In the temple! After his healing, the man demonstrated the transformation that had been brought about in his life by the fact that he went to the temple – perhaps for the first time in thirty-eight years – to worship and offer his thanks to the God who so graciously healed him.
The real transformation that Jesus wanted for this man is shown in His words to him. Jesus sought him out specifically to say to him (5:14), “ See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you.” Jesus told the man, “Sin no more . . .”; which suggests to me that the man had already taken stock of his life before God – perhaps in response to Jesus’ probing question – and repented of his sins. Maybe that is why he is in the temple now.
Jesus digs deeper into the man’s life by saying “Sin no more.” He makes it clear that it is the heart of sin that He has come to heal, not just the incapacitated body. Jesus had no intention of walking away from this man and leaving him with nothing more than a healed body. He wants the man to have a new heart that is free from sin.
John doesn’t tells us that the man believed. I like to think that he did. Verse 15 says, “The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.” Their interest in the Lord was, of course, different than his. They were seeking Him because – in their minds – He had given the man permission to violate the Sabbath; but I don’t believe that the man was seeking to betraying Jesus into their hands. The motives of the religious leaders were evil; but it may be that the healed man’s motives for pointing to Jesus were good. I believe that, whatever the circumstance, the man was becoming a witness for the Lord Jesus Christ.
If I am right in reading the story this way, then in hardly any time at all, this poor man went from being a nearly life-long, hopelessly miserable invalid to being a bed-carrying, temple-worshiping, sin-repenting witness for Jesus! What a transformation! Jesus doesn’t just simply heal our miseries and then leave us as we were; but He sets us free unto a whole transformation of every area of life! He heals us for holiness, that we would be empowered by His Holy Spirit to live a new life free from the power of sin and its penalty, death.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ; I don’t know why it is that Jesus doesn’t heal every physical ailment and relieve all suffering hopeless people from their physical misery. I know He can; but I also know that He doesn’t do so. He is wise and good; and one day, we’ll understand His reason. Why didn’t Jesus clear out the Pool of Bethesda by healing everyone there? He had the power to do it. But it wasn’t His purpose to do so. He only chose to heal this one undeserving man. It was completely an act of mercy and grace. He did it to show that He can heal us of our deadly sin disease as well. Jesus will say in verse 21, “For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will.” Jesus can give a new life to anyone to whom He wills to give it.
Your misery is not hopeless! I know that anyone who suffers the miserable effects of sin on the soul, and who cries out to Jesus to save, will find Him faithful. He knows our misery, can free us from it immediately, and will set us free into a complete transformation of our whole lives before Him.
The question that He asked that man, however, is one that He would also ask of you: “Do you want to be made well?“
