Waiting at the Pool

 

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).

 

Picture the scene of our reading: a pool of water surrounded by covered porches. Bethesda was known as a place of healing. It was often crowded with destitute people who were blind, lame, and paralyzed. Among them was a man who had been lame for thirty-eight years. Jesus asked the man, "Do you want to get well?" On the surface, the answer would seem obvious. Of course the man wanted to be well! But Jesus was asking a deeper question. He was probing the man's heart. Did he really want to be made whole, transformed inside and out, healed in body, mind, and soul?

 

Jesus spoke to him a second time: "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk." From a human standpoint, it was impossible for the man to get up. To others who were listening, this may even have sounded a bit cruel. But at that moment the healing power of Jesus touched the man, filling his body, mind, and spirit with wholeness. As Jesus healed the man, he was saying, in effect, "Pick up your mat and be out of here. You never have to think of coming back to this kind of life again."

 

It may be that you have been waiting by “the pool” of life, hoping and praying that God would somehow heal you of your hurts and infirmities. I want you to know it is not a matter of anything you have done or will do that caused or sustains your infirmity. Our reading shows us clearly the steps Jesus took in healing this man. This gives us an outline of how our Lord meets us today. He probes our hearts, commands the impossible, provides the power, and tells us to leave our old life behind. I want you to notice that the man was already healed. Him walking away from the pool was not a prerequisite of him being healed… it only meant he could experience the joy of the healing. Perhaps there is some part of your old life you are still clinging to… let it go. It doesn’t belong to you anymore anyway. The pool of healing is no place for a child of God! He’s already finished that work of grace!