HEALING A LAME MAN AT A POOL

Jesus is back in Jerusalem for the 2nd Passover of His ministry.

“Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed.”
‭‭John‬ ‭5‬:‭2‬-‭3‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Bethesda (or Bethsaida or Bethzatha) is an Aramaic name based on 2 Hebrew words:

• Beth – house
• Hesed – mercy, loving-kindness

House of Mercy. It’s the kind of name one might give to a hospital or… a hospice.

This is no small municipal pool. One of them was 45-50 feet deep!

The “castle-like” structure in the background is the Fortress of Antonia – a Roman Garrison. That’s where Jesus was taken to be flogged. I have stood in what remains of that courtyard (which is now – as is nearly every location from the Bible – in a church basement). It was overwhelming. You can still faintly see the game boards carved into the paving stones where soldiers would throw dice and gamble while on break.

😐 Wow. The church basements in Israel are way different than the ones in America. We usually have Sunday School classrooms, a janitor closet, and a fellowship hall. They have the homes of Mary and Joseph, the place where Jesus was born, Peter’s house, and the courtyard where Jesus was flogged.

Yes. It’s quite different. You won’t find any cupboards of cookies and Kool-aid or closets of VBS art supplies. Just, ya know, places where Jesus performed a miracle or something. Let’s go back to the pools…

✋🤓 Who’s going to the pool?! I’m in! ⛱️

😑 Not that pool…

Notice that the pools are just outside the city walls. They collected rain and were a major source of water for Jerusalem.

The year 700BC just happens to be smack in the middle of the reign of King Hezekiah – the guy who rerouted the Gihon Spring so the water would come under the city walls and fill the Pool of Siloam. He was very interested in having a good water-supply.

Of all the dozens, or maybe even hundreds, of sick and disabled people waiting around that pool for the water to stir, Jesus picks out one man and he asks him a very important question.

“Do you want to be healed?”

Being healed means you can no longer blame your affliction for your relationship problems or your attitude or your money woes. A lot of times, we choose something in our lives beyond our control and we blame it for things we don’t want to control.

Humans can also easily create their whole identity around an illness, disability, or dysfunction. They may whine about their malady, but if it was suddenly healed they would have no idea who to be or what to blame for their poor behavior.

Instead of a simple, “Yes! I want to be healed!.” the man immediately gives Jesus an excuse for why he is still infirm. “I have no one to put me in the pool when the water is stirred.” It’s someone else’s fault that I’m in this situation. I’m a victim. “No one will help me,” he says to the Divine Helper Who has come to help us all.

There is ALWAYS Someone to help you.

Jesus wants to make us healed and whole.

Some of you may remember a post (long ago now) where I shared my “Lord, make me a REAL Christian” prayer.

😐 Was that before the “burnt toast” prayer?

I think so.

I have had several short prayers I’ve prayed repeatedly during different seasons of life:

• Lord, make me a REAL Christian.
• Lord, if you have to make me burnt toast, get all the mess out of my heart.
• (Most recent prayer) Lord, let me be healed and whole.

🤓 Are all your prayers one-liners?

No. But I find that one-liner prayers, prayed with faith and sincerity are effective over time. It’s kind of like how a steady drip of water can wear away stone. The process of praying these prayers has pushed me to examine my own heart deeply, bring my faults and sins to the throne of grace, and receive that Divine grace for victory and growth. In this “healed and whole” prayer, I’m asking primarily about having a healthy soul, but I also know that infirmities of the soul affect the body. And I want to be thoroughly well. And I also understand that most times we are unaware of our soul-flaws. And I need the Lord to address the problems I cannot see.

It’s like going to the dentist. 🦷 They can see tiny cavities or plaque building up that I cannot see. And they address it. They even have tiny x-ray cameras now that go inside your mouth! And the next thing you know, pictures of your teeth are on the screen!

😏 Nothing is hidden from God or the dentist.

And it’s not wise to put off going to God or the dentist until you have major problems and pain. Maintain good daily habits and go in for regular checkups so you can be “healed and whole.”

Speaking of being healed…

Jesus tells the man to do something himself. Get up. Pick up your bed. And walk.

• Get UP.
  • Rise UP in your spirit. Don’t have a polite tea party with Depression. Rebuke it in Jesus name.
  • Lift UP your eyes. Get your eyes off of self and circumstances and have a staring contest with Jesus.
  • Get UP. Refuse to stay down in the dumps. Elevate your mind from earthly things to heavenly things.
• Pick up your BED.
  • You might’ve made this bed, but you DON’T have to lie in it. Instead, pick it up and go to the throne of Grace.
  • You have rested and reposed in this spot long enough. You don’t need to wait for the winning combination of an angel, magic water, and people to do something for you. You can pick up your bed yourself. Do this one small thing. Then do another. And another.
• And WALK.
  • Do not sit. Do not lie down and fold your arms. Keep moving. If you fall, get back up and keep walking. Whatever you do, don’t stop walking toward Jesus.
  • I’m not really a country music fan, but this old song popped in my head. Walk On Faith by Mike Reid. Maybe someone needs to hear it.

😐 So… do you just randomly have songs pop in your head that you haven’t heard in a few decades?

No. They have to be sparked by something. And all I could remember for this one was the line “keep on putting one foot down in front of the other.” And Google did the rest.

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Jesus healed this man and told him to pick up his bedroll on the Sabbath. And that really angered the Pharisees and teachers of the Law.

Remember how Israel and Judah were so bad in the past? Idolatry. Violence. Sexual perversion. Sin and vice of every kind. After the Babylonian captivity, remember how strict Ezra and Nehemiah were with the people? Well, that kinda mushroomed out of control.

By the time of Jesus, the Jews had created “guardrail” rules to keep themselves from getting within 10 cubits of breaking the Torah. As the kids might say, it was very “extra.”

Torah: Remember the Sabbath day. Do no work in it.

Traditions: If you are a scribe, you hold a pen for a living. And if you pick up a pen on the Sabbath you have picked up an instrument of your work and have therefore violated the Sabbath.

Torah: Let your animals and servants rest on the Sabbath.

Traditions: If animals and servants are to rest on the Sabbath then you certainly cannot have them plow a field, or even so much as dig a furrow. Or hoe a row in the garden. Actually, to be safe, just don’t even make a scratch in the dirt. So if you have a dirt floor in your home and you drag your chair across the floor and it makes a “furrow,” you have plowed. You have broken the Sabbath, you horrible sinner. So don’t drag your chair. Just sit in it. Very still. All day.

Pretty sure that the incarnate Word of Yahweh knows what does and does not violate the Sabbath better than the Torah interpreters.

And Jesus tells them that His Father was working on the Sabbath (shocking!) and so He was too. And that REALLY threw the fat in the fire. 🔥

“This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.”
‭‭John‬ ‭5‬:‭18‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Internet Atheists like to spout “Jesus never said, ‘I am God.’”

Well, not in those exact words, but He absolutely and repeatedly claimed Divinity by claiming to be the Son of God. Every time Jesus calls God His “Father,” the implication is, He’s the Son. (Is everybody on the back row following?) God is Divine. His Son is Divine. Deity.

And the easiest way to spot when Jesus is making a divine claim is when the Jews want to kill Him for it.

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Verses 19-29 are very important to having a high, biblical Christology and should therefore be read carefully and in as many translations as it takes to get clear on them.

These verses are primarily about the works of the Father and the Son. Jesus speaks of two:

• Giving Life
  • The Father has Life in Himself, so also the Son has Life in Himself. (These are not separate “lives” but one Life.)
  • Both Father and Son can give (share) this Life of theirs with whomever they will.
• Judgment
  • “The Father judges no one but has given all judgment to the Son,” v22
  • This is done for 2 reasons: 1) so that people will honor the Son just as they honor the Father, and 2) because Jesus is a human He has the right to judge other humans.

When this section speaks of the dead hearing the voice of God I think it may have a dual application. The spiritually dead are hearing the voice of God right then as Jesus is speaking to them. And, of course, the future application at the Resurrection.

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The 4 Witnesses in verses 30-47

Jesus rightly says,

“If I were to testify on my own behalf, my testimony would not be valid.”
‭‭John‬ ‭5‬:‭31‬ ‭NLT‬‬

So Jesus names 4 witnesses who testify that He really is the Son of God:

• John the Baptist, v32-35
• Jesus’ Miraculous Works, v36
• The Father, v37-38
• The Scriptures, v39-40

And then there’s this cryptic verse that some scholars say is a prophecy concerning the Antichrist:

“I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him.”
‭‭John‬ ‭5‬:‭43‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Jesus ends with a rather “mic-drop” moment. To grasp the force of His statement about Moses, we need to understand in what high regard the Jews held Moses.

Moses was basically their Chuck Norris.

Moses was in a barren desert with more than a million thirsty people. He told a rock 🪨 to give them water 💦 and it did.

The Amalekites attacked them. 🗡️ Moses fought the whole battle just by holding his staff over his head all day.

God needs to give the people His Law. He comes down in a cloud ☁️ on a mountain. ⛰️ If you touch the mountain you die. ☠️ Not Moses. Moses just climbs the mountain and walks straight into the God-cloud for a minute to get the Law, (hot off the God-finger press), and while he was in there, 40 days and nights passed on earth.

(And of course, the big one…) The whole nation is stranded on a beach 🏝️ with nowhere to go and an army 🗡️ closing in. They need to move forward but there’s a bunch of water in the way. Moses holds out his stick and the water gets out of their way.

If the Jews at this time had superhero underpants as boys, they were Moses underpants. 🩲 Forget Superman. Forget Batman or Ironman. Moses is their guy.

And Jesus says, Nope. Moses isn’t your pal. After he died, he opened a law office in Sheol (I mean he does have experience with the Law), and he has filed a lawsuit against you.

GASP! NO! WE LOVE MOSES! HIS LAW WILL SAVE US! WE KNOW EVERY WORD HE EVER WROTE! WE CAN QUOTE HIM VERBATIM!

Jesus: Just because you can quote him doesn’t mean you believe what he said.

🫳🏼🎤