Seven Miracles - Pt 10

After this 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 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. (John 5:1-9 ESV).

First, let’s look at his knowledge. John recalls for us: “When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time” (v. 6). Jesus knew this man’s situation without having to be told. Thirty-eight years he had been paralyzed and unable to walk, and perhaps all of that time he had been brought here to the pool to wait, ever hoping for some kind of miracle. Jesus knew his situation. I have found that while many believers have no doubt about the omniscience of Jesus, they do not understand what difference it makes. We know God knows us, and that he knows our situation. It has not somehow escaped his attention that we are suffering. Yet, we inevitably do not make the connection between his knowledge and our deliverance. I might have been in that position had I been this man who had been paralyzed for thirty-eight years. After all, he had been faithful in his belief that God could heal him. If he could somehow just get into the waters when “the water is stirred up” he believed he could be healed. However, he didn’t believe he had any chance of that good outcome since so many others pushed him aside. It was not what he believed, but what he doubted that crippled him. He doubted God’s timing. This seems to be my own failure at times of difficulty. I believe in God’s ultimate good in my life. However, I have a hard time seeing that at work in my immediate life. That is a failure to really know Jesus. When you know Jesus, you know a person who knows you perfectly. He knows everything about you, inside and out, and all you have ever felt or thought or done. David declares, “You discern my thoughts from afar. . . . Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether” (Psalms 139:2-4). This ought to give us a great deal of encouragement and peace in the circumstances that challenge us. This truth about Jesus is foundational to our contentment. Anxiety has a hard time gaining any traction in our lives when we root ourselves in his promise that he is presently working everything to our good (cf. Romans 8:28). Thirty-eight years was no more than the blink of an eye once the man was healed! Your healing is near too!