March 8^th, 2018

John 5: 1-8

“Afterward Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holy days. ² Inside the city, near the Sheep Gate, was the pool of Bethesda, with five covered porches. ³ Crowds of sick people—blind, lame, or paralyzed—lay on the porches. ⁵ One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years. ⁶ When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, he asked him, “Would you like to get well?”  ⁷“I can’t, sir,” the sick man said, “for I have no one to put me into the pool when the water bubbles up. Someone else always gets there ahead of me.” ⁸ Jesus told him, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!”

(Some manuscripts add an expanded conclusion to verse 3 and all of verse 4: waiting for a certain movement of the water, 4 for an angel of the Lord came from time to time and stirred up the water. And the first person to step in after the water was stirred was healed of whatever disease he had.)

In verse 2 and 3 of this section it really sets the scene for the reader. There is a crowd surrounding this pool of water that is said to have an angel come down to stir the waters so that they may be healed on at a time.  The thing is, this pool was near the sheep Gate. Now the sheep gate was the place that lead to the markets in which you could buy sacrificial lambs. With that in mind you can only imagine the smell. Not only was with gate where the sheep would enter but it is said that this pool of Bethsaida was used for washing for the lamb as well. This water that these diseased people were crowded around was not some crystal clear shimmery blue water, it was dirty, probably had dead bugs floating around in it, maybe even had blood and feces from when the sheep were scared.  So over all, just disgusting conditions.

But there was this man, and the man had been there for thirty-eight years. He undoubtedly had come to the end of himself, he was pessimistic about his future, had no hope. Yet, he still believed, he was after all still at the pool. But why? That is the question I kept asking.  Why is he still there after so many years and why didn’t he just except it as his life and give up?

The next question I had was, why was Jesus there?  Obviously, he didn’t have anything wrong with him, and this place was now a popular crowd pleasing “hang out spot”. So why was Jesus there? Was it because he knew that is where the desperate people would be? Was it because he often chose to be with the outcast and rejects?

This point got me to think, when am I called to love the outcasts, when am I called to be with people who would be see as unclean? How can God use me to help other become clean and healed in Him?