When Our Eyes Believe
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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, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. 3 In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. 5 One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 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?” 7 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.” 8 Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.”
Get on The Bus
1 After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
We don’t know what feast Jesus was going up to Jerusalem for. It really didn’t matter, and is not necessary for the understanding of this story.
Realistically, Jesus went to Jerusalem at the time of the feast because he had business there. His business, guised in a feast of the Jews, actually had much to do with a man who was laid at the edge of a pool for 38 years.
You see, scripture (John 2:23-24) says that Jesus knew all things.
23 Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. 24 But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people
This man did not take Jesus by surprise. No, he actually had an appointment with Jesus that HE did not know about.
2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades.
This pool was near the “sheep gate” that is mentioned in old testament scriptures, particularly in Nehemiah. It was the entry point for livestock and feeding/watering. This would be the proper place for Jesus to come, particularly as we’ve been told earlier in this gospel by John, in john 1.29 that this Jesus is the “Lamb of God”.
29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
3 In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed.
Sick, lame, paralyzed. Laid here daily and with reason, reason we don’t necessarily fully see, until we get to a later verse…verse 7 mentions that when the water is stirred something happens. If you are the first in, you get to be healed.
Blind. Lame. Paralyzed. What havoc sin has wrought in this world. The healing of these infirmities was one of the ministries of the messiah in Isaiah 35.3-6
3 Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. 4 Say to those who have an anxious heart, “Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.” 5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; 6 then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. For waters break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert;
I’d like you to see something important. In most bibles, verse 4 is missing. There’s a reason it is missing. But first, let’s go back to the KJV to see what’s missing.:
4 For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.
Why did this verse get edited out in later versions of the bible? There’s a reason.
Like with a great mystery, archaeologists and biblical scholars sometimes have to piece together the bible a piece at a time. And like biblical sleuths, they must get their evidence a piece at a time. Sometimes they have all of their information, sometimes they do not.
The New Testament has been preserved in more manuscripts than any other ancient work of literature, with over 5,800 complete or fragmented Greek manuscripts catalogued, 10,000 Latin manuscripts and 9,300 manuscripts in various other ancient languages including Syriac, Slavic, Gothic, Ethiopic, Coptic and Armenian. The dates of these manuscripts range from c. 125 (the {\displaystyle {\mathfrak {P}}}📷52 papyrus, oldest copy of John fragments) to the introduction of printing in Germany in the 15th century.[citation needed]
The earliest New Testament manuscripts were written on papyrus, made from a reed that grew abundantly in the Nile Delta. This tradition continued as late as the 8th century.[7] Papyrus eventually becomes brittle and deteriorates with age. The dry climate of Egypt allowed some papyrus manuscripts to be partially preserved, but, with the exception of {\displaystyle {\mathfrak {P}}}📷77, no New Testament papyrus manuscript is complete;
Papyrus 37-
Matthew 26:19-37, 26:37-52
You probably didn’t need to know that, but I thought you needed to know it. so there.
It helps us to understand John 5:7 that is coming up here.
7 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.”
You see, this uniquely is not a Christian pool of water. This is not a yahweh event in the pool of Bethsaida. This is a pagan event. It is something extra yahweh, extra Jesus, extra christian essentially. It is a pagan event that this man is waiting to have happen.
Note, Jesus is fulfilling in his life the hopes and dreams of the Jewish world.. Here, Jesus is perhaps revealing that he can fulfill the hopws and dreams of the pagan and gentile world as well. If “salvation is of the Jews”, then as Jesus brings that salvation it must spread out to the wider world as well and maybe this story points to that fact.
5 One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.
38 years. Important note. He would have been so weak he would have not been able to walk or stand. His muscles would have been atrophied beyond usefulness. He was up in years, we don’t know when this paralysis began… but he was a hopeless case. He was certainly the most needy.
I don’t want to get caught up in numbers, and typically do not. But interestingly, 38 years is the number of years that Israel had wandered in the wilderness.
14 And the time from our leaving Kadesh-barnea until we crossed the brook Zered was thirty-eight years, until the entire generation, that is, the men of war, had perished from the camp, as the Lord had sworn to them.
Spiritually, Israel was a hopeless and powerless nation wandering and waiting for something to happen. Perhaps Jesus saw this image in this man who laid daily at the pool, waiting for something to happen- but never actually having the will for something to happen.
6 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?”
Do you wish to be healed? What a question. What a naive or uncaring question. But Jesus is calling to the man’s will… his years of discouragement may have worked on him.
Do you WANT to be healed? (the will to be changed).
We know from the story that Jesus heals the man. We know that he walks away upright and his legs strengthened. But Jesus had a lesson in this healing. We have to read all the way to verse 40 to find it, but please see that Jesus had a spiritual lesson he wanted to be taught. This man did parallel the state of the nation of Israel.
39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.
The Jews who had challenged the man after he was healed are addressed by Jesus. He is saying to them that they are no different than the man who was laying at the pool. They have the very means of salvation, of healing for them, laid out before them… but they don’t take it. They don’t reach out and grab it. It is Jesus.
7 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.”
This man had lost his own determination. He had been unsuccessful for so long that he had given up… He didn’t have the personal gumption, the wherewithal to make it to the pool.
8 Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.”
Now, this verse tells us something that we should really pay close attention to. Jesus said, “Get Up” to a man who didn’t even have the will to do so. So, while you are looking at the miraculous healing of Jesus, please also see a sub-miracle if you will. Jesus was able to not only heal the physical condition of this man, he was able to give the will to get up as well.
This man never requested of Jesus to be healed. Please see that. Jesus didn’t grant a request, he didn’t respond to a request…this man was healed without ever knowing that Jesus could do this in the first place. This appears to be the third of Jesus’ miracles, but whose counting. It is doubtful that he heard of the water turned to wine or the conversation with the Samaritan woman… Jesus just came along and healed him.
This healing also did not reflect an act of faith on the part of the lame man. There is no indication that he placed his faith in Jesus at all. Jesus simply did what Jesus can do. Jesus did the impossible.
And he asked this man to do the impossible. That will which was broken from 38 years of laying at that pool, that will was renewed. And in verse 9 we see that this man not only got up- he walked away.
What does John want us to see in this story? I think that if we look a little further along in the story we get a glimpse of what John is pointing to. Look at John 5:25-29:
25 “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. 26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. 27 And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. 28 Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice 29 and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.
You see, in our story here at the pool of Bethsaida, Jesus uses “resurrection” language. Look closely at his command, “Get up!” This is a word that is used in the gospels to describe the resurrection. Here is the secret of Jesus’ work. He wants us to see what the new creation will look like. He wants us to see what His kingdom really looks like, what he came to do and be and why he created us and what our intended purpose is as well.
9 And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath.
He walked. He left the pool. He walked away from the pool. He got on about his life, he did what he was both created for and longing to do. Say that again, Joel. He got about doing what he was created for and longing to do.
And this brings us to our bottom line:
Our Worst Circumstance is His Best Opportunity
Our Worst Circumstance is His Best Opportunity
When I was a kid, we had a telephone pole across the street from our house. It was right up against the edge of our paved road. No curb, paved road and a small path of dirt on either side. At some point in my childhood, my brothers and I erected a basketball hoop on that telephone pole. I remember my grandfather telling us it was illegal, my mother being less than happy, but we put it up and we played basketball. Endless games of 21, pony, donkey, and one on one or 3 on 3… it was well used.
But there were problems. We were playing on a street. A busy street. At one end of that street was a company that dealt in iron ore. And for many years, because of the trucks that ran that road, you’d have to stop in the middle of the game and let traffic go through. Before you could play, because of the rocks, iron ore, and gravel that would fall from those trucks, you’d have to sweep the court with a push broom or you may dribble and the ball would go flying off of a rock in any possible direction.
And we played on that court my entire childhood. We’d play all summer. We’d play after school until snow flew. And we’d wait for winter to end so we could get back to playing basketball in front of 2207 Michigan Avenue with the gravel, the dust, the potholes, and the trucks.
But it wasn’t right. It wasn’t the way it was supposed to be.
When I got to 5th grade in East Elementary School in the East End of East Liverpool, I tried out for the elementary basketball team. We played on a 4 year old tile floored gymnasium that doubled as our lunchroom, the auditorium for concerts, and our basketball court.
But it wasn’t right. It wasn’t the way it was supposed to be.
When got to Junior high, a pretty similar situation. We had a gym that doubled as an auditorium, and we walked across the football field to the elementary school for lunch hour.
But it wasn’t right. It wasn’t the way it was supposed to be.
When I finally made it to high school, we had a dedicated gymnasium. Hardwood floors, nice padded seats, and it doubled only for pep rallys, volleyball, and wrestling. We were close to what a gymnasium was meant to be for.
But it still wasn’t quite right. It wasn’t the way it was supposed to be.
A few years ago I went to Quicken Loans Arena and watched Lebron play ball. But guess what… I’ve also been there for concerts, ice skating, and the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus.
It was close.
But it wasn’t quite right. It wasn’t the way it was supposed to be.
And that sort of illustrates this story today. 38 years of living, but never quite right. Not fulfilling God’s best for his life. Not being what we he was created for. Until Jesus came along.
And Jesus set things right. He made the man whole. With simply His word, “Get up”. Be risen, be resurrected, be whole.
This man had spent most of his life living in an old paradigm. A hopeless life lived at the side of a hope never realized- a pool of water that from time to time would move- and offer more of the same… seemingly for eternity.
But Jesus had another idea. A better idea.
Instead of using one force within the existing circumstance, why not bring something new… new life… new creation. Instead of dipping one’s old circumstances and self into the same pool of water that we’ve hoped in for decades… why not ask for new life and new creation from outside of the present world.... so we find new possibilities.
Like the real reason we are made for , the real purpose we are here for. What living really looks like?