Church of the Great God

Today's Verse and Comment

John 5:1-16

(1) After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. (2) Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches. (3) In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water. (4) For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had. (5) Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years. (6) When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?” (7) The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.” (8) Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” (9) And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked. And that day was the Sabbath. (10) The Jews therefore said to him who was cured, “It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your bed.” (11) He answered them, “He who made me well said to me, ‘Take up your bed and walk.’ ” (12) Then they asked him, “Who is the Man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” (13) But the one who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, a multitude being in that place. (14) Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, “See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you.” (15) The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. (16) For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath.

Jesus' healing of the crippled man beside the pool called Bethesda is one of nine healing miracles involving water and one of seven performed on the Sabbath. Only the apostle John records it (John 5:1-16). It is impossible to be sure …