19/05/2025
I have recently been reading through the Gospel of John. It’s taking me longer than I imagined because I keep finding little “nuggets” of new truths. But when I got to John 5:2-8, something I had never considered was brought to my attention.
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. One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” 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 going another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.
Another day had dawned beside the pool of Bethesda. Each day, this unnamed man sat lonely amid a crowd of other sick and needy people. And those in this crowd were not friendly but solely focused on one thing – the place of hope and the opportunity for their own healing. The group of people kept Bethesda in their sights and drew near to the water, looking to take advantage of the stirring waters whenever they had the chance. … Not thinking of the man unable to make it to the pool.
Yet, there he sat.
The man had missed out on experiencing the healing for himself for 38 years until the hope for the hopeless arrived.
To receive help from Jesus you have to want it.
