Do You Want To Get Well? John 5:1-9

 The Healing at the Pool

5 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. 5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” 7 “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.” 8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.

Jesus left Capernaum and went back to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. There were three major festivals (Passover, Purim and Pentecost), but we don't know which one it was.  Jesus went to a pool called Bethesda, which had five covered colonnades, or what we could call porches.  This pool was excavated in Jerusalem just north of the temple and was found to have five porches.  

Many thought the pool had magical healing properties, which is why so many disabled people would go there and hope that if they touched the pool's water they might be healed. Verse 4, which is omitted in the NIV translation, says that from time to time an angel would go down and stir the waters and whoever stepped in first was made well from whatever the disease they had.  

You can see how this sets up for the man who had been an invalid (paralytic) for 38 years, as his disability would not allow him to get to the pool soon after it was stirred.  Importantly Jesus says, "Do you want to get well?"  It would seem pretty obvious that that the man wanted to get well. After all, he had been paralyzed for 38 years and who knows how long he had been coming to this pool.  But when someone is in a chronic condition for so long, they may feel stuck and grow hopeless.  

"This was a sincere question. Jesus knew that not every sick person wants to be healed, and that some are so discouraged that they put away all hope of being healed. Jesus dealt with a man who may have had his heart withered as well as his legs. Jesus therefore attempted to build the faith of this man." (Guzik)

Then Jesus suddenly says to him, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk!" Jesus challenged the man to do something he never thought possible. After all it would be impossible for him to pick up his mat and walk without some divine intervention.  But something happened as the man responded in faith to Jesus' command.  He picked up his mat and walked.  You might ask, "Was he healed and then he got up and walked?" Or, "As he got up to walk he was healed."  

I guess we don't really know exactly, but the bottom line is the guy could never have known he was healed until he picked up his mat and walked.  And after 38 years of being paralyzed that took quite a great deal of faith.  The man didn't question Jesus, or make excuses for why he didn't want to get up. He merely did what Jesus asked him to do, and in that moment he was healed.

How would you have responded if you were the paralyzed man?  What must have been going through his mind when Jesus asked him to get up and walk?  Where do you need healing in your life? Or, maybe where in your life are you feeling paralyzed and afraid to move or stuck in a hopeless situation?  This could be in a relationship, a job, or even a habit that has paralyzed you spiritually and emotionally.  Do you want to get well?  Would you be willing to get up and walk at Jesus' command even at the risk of embarassment?