P
RSM Primary English
SHARE
Do you Want to Get Well?
Author: Ray C. Stedman
READ THE SCRIPTURE: JOHN 5:1-17
I picked up the latest issue of Time Magazine last week and found that the entire issue was devoted to a celebration of Time 's sixtieth year in publishing. The theme of the magazine was, The most amazing sixty years in history. It was a review of many events of the past sixty years, a highly biased one, which centered around Time's own existence. Even for such dramatic years as the past sixty, I thought that claim was rather ludicrous. It reminded me of the man who said to me last week that his tie was the greatest thing since peanut butter! I regarded both claims as having about equal validity.
There have been some great events in the last sixty years, many of world-shaking importance, but none of them, or all of them taken together, can remotely approach the impact that has been made upon this earth and its inhabitants by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. Any honest historian would have to admit that to be true. No account of the explosion of an atom bomb, a voyage to the moon, or the outbreak of a world war equals in significance the words of John in his gospel, "the Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth," (John 1:14). It is that marvelous life we are focusing on in this gospel.
The fifth chapter marks a major division in the Gospel of John. In the prologue, John introduces the life of Jesus, and in the first four chapters Jesus presents himself to the Jews as the promised Messiah. But now, in Chapter 5, John begins to trace a growing rejection of the claims of Jesus, and a growth of virulent and malicious hostility in official circles against the ministry of the Lord. As a preview of what is covered in the gospel, this rejection will gather around three remarkable acts of healing by Jesus: here, in Chapter 5, the healing of the impotent man at the pool of Bethesda; in Chapter 9, the amazing account of the opening of the eyes of the man born blind; and in Chapter 11, the greatest of our Lord's miracles, the raising of Lazarus from the dead. All of this increases the hostility against Jesus until it culminates at last in his death.
Today we will look at the first of these miracles, the healing of the impotent man, John 5:1-5:
After this [i.e., the ministry he had in Galilee] there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Hebrew called Bethzatha [Bethesda], which has five porticoes. In these lay a multitude of invalids, blind, lame, paralyzed. One man was there, who had been ill for thirty-eight years. (John 5:1-5 RSV)
For many years the site of this pool was lost, covered with the debris of the centuries, but about 20 years ago it was discovered and excavated. (I was in Jerusalem in 1967, shortly after the porches were discovered.) The pool is located to the north part of the Temple Mount, near what is now called St. Stephen's Gate, which is, in fact, the site of the Sheep Gate mentioned here. In these porches, set at various levels around the pool, during our Lord's time it was the habit of many to gather during feast days, hoping for a healing miracle.Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Hebrew called Bethzatha [Bethesda], which has five porticoes. In these lay a multitude of invalids, blind, lame, paralyzed. One man was there, who had been ill for thirty-eight years. (John 5:1-5 RSV)
If you have any Bible other than the King James Version you will notice that Verse 4 is missing. Many versions include the verse in a footnote which explains why these people were there. They believed in a rather superstitious way that from time to time when the water was troubled -- when it would rise rapidly and then sink again -- that this was caused by an angel who visited the pool, and the first man who got into it when it was so troubled would be healed. This is akin to what is found in many parts of the world today. Lourdes, in southern France, has a spa which many believe has healing capacities. The shrine of Guadalupe, in Mexico City, has thousands of crutches stacked along its walls where people have been healed in this special place where they thought they could receive a blessing from God.
The facts, of course, are that the pool of Bethesda, like many similar pools in the Jerusalem area, is an intermittent spring. At times water is released in surges from hidden reservoirs in the hills around the city, causing these springs to rise and fall suddenly. This is what gave rise to the superstition about an angel troubling the pool. Undoubtedly healings did occur there. Even today healings take place in these special areas where people go, believing they can be healed. But most of these healings can be explained psychologically. When people believe they are going to be healed, and they are in a place where healings supposedly occur, and they do the expected thing, many of them are healed. Thus the pool at Bethesda had established a reputation as a place where people could be healed.
By Ray Stedman. Authentic Christianity.
