When Jesus saw him lying there …

The encounter  between Jesus and a crippled man takes place at the pool of Bethesda which was a bathing  complex north of the Jerusalem temple.  Two separate, rectangular shaped pools  were  enclosed by four covered columns  and shaded from the desert sun. A fifth column separated  the twin pools.  As  described in John 5,  the Pool of Bethesda was  “five roofed colonnades” beneath which “lay a multitude of invalids – blind, lame and paralyzed.” The waters of the pool were reputed to have healing and quasi mystical properties as evidenced by the many sick people who lay about, waiting to enter as soon as the waters  were  stirred. Some  translations of the story include  an angel  who stirs the waters of the pool so that   “whoever stepped in  first after the stirring of the water was made well of whatever diseases he had.” (John 4 NKJ) More than likely the waters were stirred when the upper pool was opened to fill he lower pool.

There is evidence that the Greeks and Romans associated the pool areas  with healing  and the god Asclepius even before Jesus’ time.   Unlike the Pool of Siloam which was a ritual cleansing mikvah for the Jews, Bethesda was  a historically pagan site within Jerusalem which makes the story of Jesus’ visit to it more complex than meets the eye. In the second century  the Romans turned the pools and near by caves into asclepions, shrines to the Greco-Roman Asclepius, their healing god identified with snakes.  His symbol known as the “staff  of Asclepius” depicts  a serpent  coiled  around a rod  in the god’s hands. Those who came to the cave asclepions for healing were treated by snakes crawling about and over them! Today many medical individuals and organizations  have incorporated the ancient symbol  into their logos; a variation with two snakes beneath opened wings called the “caduceus”  is also used at times. Should one not question why  modern medicine identifies itself with  this symbol of an ancient pagan god?

Knowing the  historical background  of the pools I reconsider how well I’ve understood  the story which John recorded.  On one level this  is  one of many  healing incidents where   Jesus  encounters and heals  a sick, helpless person.  Jesus  sees  the man lying on his ragged pallet in one of the porches and  directs a question to the man. Do you want to be healed?  Instead of answering the Lord’s question, the invalid had a lot of excuses.

            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. V.7

Jesus cut right through 38 years of excuses with the command: Get up, take up your  bed and walk. The man was healed at once and did as Jesus told him. Of course since the healing  was on the Sabbath,  Jesus got  into it with the Pharisees once again.

Jesus’ walking through the Bethesda pools on the Sabbath to find that particular invalid was very deliberate.  Entering the pool area He saw  Satan’s handiwork, a multitude of the blind, the paralytics and  the lame  chained to their misery,  waiting day after day  “for an angel” to appear in the waters. He knew the demonic  association with Asclepius. He saw their misplaced hope in false miracles. The stirred up waters of Bethesda had no power to heal their sickness. Only the Son of God could do so. Jesus saw their desperation and ruthless scrabbling to get into the pool first. Surely  His compassion as well as His righteous anger was aroused as He approached the man. Jesus, the Light, illuminated the darkness around the man and within the man. Jesus already knew the man’s soul sickness infected by decades of physical and spiritual languishing  near the pools.

He gave the man  three commands: arise, pick up the bed of sickness you’ve become attached to, and walk out of this place. The man was healed immediately. The authority of the Word spoken by Jesus healed the man, not demi gods or religion or stirred waters mythological angels. Certainly not serpents! Later Jesus addressed the man again. “Sin no more”. I paraphrase  the Lord’s warning:  “Repent and don’t go back to your  poolside bed of rags and your false miracles   or it will be much worse for you.”

I see definite  personal applications from this story for  myself, especially these last months as Dan convalesces here at home with me. There are new challenges but  I’ve felt stuck,  lacking focus,  motivation and  energy. I too have  been waiting for something to stir up my spirit again  and get back into times of  intimacy with the Father, prayer, writing and service. It’s  easier to  find excuses like the invalid  did than dive head first into Christ’s living  waters. My soul’s health is endangered by prolonged languishing. The Lord who knows me also  addresses all my lame, self defeating excuses. Just recently I heard His  admonition ever so clearly: “ Do you want to be healed? Pick up your pen and write.”

Yes,  I do and so I have.