A Man Healed at the Pool of Bethesda

He leads me …

In John chapter 5:1 - 11 we read –

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. 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?”

“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! 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.’” (NLT)

Have you ever wondered why the Lord Jesus asked the man if he wanted to be made well? Surely it was obvious. He had been there for 38 years waiting to be healed.

But was it obvious? If he had really wanted to be healed, he would have tried to get a position close to the edge of the pool so that as soon as the water began to move, he would just roll into the water and be made well. He had been there 38 years, so he had plenty of time to work out how to make sure that he would be the first one into the water.

Maybe he was not sure that he wanted to be made well. If he has been at the pool for 38 years, someone had to be feeding him and taking care of him to some degree.

If he was healed he would have to then look after himself. How would he get a job? Where would he live? Questions like this would actually be quite daunting to someone who had not done these sorts of things for almost four decades.

It would appear that this is maybe why the Lord Jesus asked the question. Was the man prepared to face the changes that would happen in his life if he were made well? Although he was obviously not in a good place, the prospect of change could mean that he was happier to accept his existing situation, even though it was not very good, because it was what he knew and could handle.

Isn’t this a bit like us? It could be that we may not be happy with our job or we may face an operation to make us well. Maybe the Lord is bringing other change in our life either individually or as a family. But we have got used to what we have and the changes that would occur are in fact a bit more daunting than staying with what we are used to.

If we had a different job, would we have to move away from everything and everyone we know? Would we be able to earn enough money to live the life that we have become accustomed to?

If a future operation made us well, would we have to be more independant rather than have others do things for us? Would it mean that others would expect more of us than what we are comfortable doing?

Maybe the Lord wants us to confront an issue in our lives, like forgiving someone, or dealing with an addiction (anything that has become more important to us than the Lord Himself). We come up with all the excuses we can think of to justify our behaviour, but deep down we know that He is right.

People find comfort and security in what they know, and the routines of their lives, but if we look to the apostles in the first century their boundaries were being challenged all the time.

In reality, are we limiting what the Lord wants to do in our lives because we are not prepared to face whatever the changes might bring?

Maybe we should reflect on what the Lord says in Proverbs 3:5,6 -

‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart,

And lean not on your own understanding;

In all your ways acknowledge Him,

And He shall direct your paths.’ (NKJV)

Do we trust Him enough to let go and let Him do what He needs to? Look at what He has already achieved. Perhaps we just need to remind ourselves that, ‘Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow.’ (James 1:17 NLT)