Are You Ready to Be Healed? Jesus’ Call to Healing

Featured Image:

A.I. concept of Jesus waiting to greet the tired pilgrim on a mountain side.

Key Life Questions

Do we desire to be whole and complete in Life. Do we trust our wounds leaning on Jesus to make us whole? Are we willing to release the grasp of our wounds and invite Him to mend our souls? Are we willing to entrust our brokenness to Jesus?

Why did Jesus heal? It was part of His identity and purpose as God’s Son and Messiah

He seemed deeply intentional about how and when people would understand who he really was. The miracles were never meant to be the headline. They were signs pointing somewhere else, and if people fixated on the signs alone, they would miss the meaning.

Source: Dan Foster “The Weirdest Thing Jesus Ever Said” referring to Jesus commanding those He heals to not tell others.

Do you want to be made whole?

John 5: 1-5 Berean Standard Bible (BSB)

The Pool of Bethesda

1Some time later there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

2Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool with five covered colonnades, which in Hebrew is called Bethesda. 3On these walkways lay a great number of the sick, the blind, the lame, and the paralyzed.

5One man there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6When Jesus saw him lying there and realized that he had spent a long time in this condition, He asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

Notes and Commentary

For an image of this site, history, and possible purpose check out the link below:

Biblical Archaeology Society’s Article

The Bethesda Pool, Site of One of Jesus’ Miracles

Enduring Word Commentary, David Guzik emphasis mine

“Do you want to be made well? 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.

i. “It certainly is possible that the man’s long and apparently hopeless infirmity may have given him a look of lethargy and despondency, and the question may have arisen from this.” (Alford)”

i. Source Alford, Henry The New Testament for English Readers, Volume 1, Part 2 (Rivingtons: London, 1872)

Source: https://enduringword.com/bible-commentary/john-5/

Pastor David shares an important truth about a lengthy season of suffering and disability: discouragement leads to a “withered heart.” When we daily face difficulties and situations in our lives, discouragement can creep in and cause us to miss God.

“This man suffered from a paralytic condition for a long time, and apparently was frequently at the Pool of Bethesda in hope of healing. It was a hope that had been long disappointed (thirty-eight years). David Guzik”

Do you have disappointments in your life? Situations or issues that cause you to feel broken or isolated from others? What is the source of your hope and relief?

Jesus near the cleansing pool. Is He your source?

A Different Perspective

The man at the pool has a different idea on healing! He believes that an angel comes and stirs the water and whoever is the first in will be healed. There are numerous others present waiting for the water to be stirred.

7“Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am on my way, someone else goes in before me.”

Jesus Acts Verses 8-9

8Then Jesus told him, “Get up, pick up your mat, and walk.”

9Immediately the man was made well, and he picked up his mat and began to walk.

“Jesus told the man to do what he could not do. Being paralyzed, it was impossible for him to rise or to take up his bed-mat or to walk. At this moment, Jesus challenged the man to believe Him for the impossible. . . Immediately the man was made well: This happened as the man responded in faith and did exactly what Jesus told him to do, though a moment before this it was impossible to do it. The fact of his healing was confirmed in that he had the strength to carry his own bed-mat and walk with it.”

Source: https://enduringword.com/bible-commentary/john-5/

Jesus challenges the wrong belief. The focus from the pool and it’s supposed power to His power. The healing is immediate! The man hadn’t been able to walk for 38 years but instantly stands up, walks, and is able to carry his mat. Jesus didn’t teach him to walk again or provide physical therapy. He instantly restores him!

Jesus with a lost sheep. He is the Good Shepherd.

John 5:9b-18 BSB

Now this happened on the Sabbath day, 10so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “This is the Sabbath! It is unlawful for you to carry your mat.”

11But he answered, “The man who made me well told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’”

12“Who is this man who told you to pick it up and walk?” they asked.

13But the man who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away while the crowd was there.

14Afterward, Jesus found the man at the temple and said to him, “See, you have been made well. Stop sinning, or something worse may happen to you.”

For a good explanation for verse 14

“Afterward, Jesus found the man and told him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you” (verse 14). It is clear that Jesus knew what had caused the man’s condition. We are not told the specifics of the man’s physical impairment, but the context implies that it was caused by sinful choices. Jesus warned the man that he had been given a second chance and that he should make better choices. If the man returned to his sinful behavior, he would have wasted the opportunity Jesus gave him to live whole and forgiven.”

Source: https://www.gotquestions.org/go-and-sin-no-more.html

15And the man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.

Verse 15 reveals the pressure the religious leaders are placing on the healed man. They continue to demand an answer for why he broke their sabbath rules. The man gives testimony for his experience. The leaders are more concerned about Sabbath healing and him walking that the fact that Jesus heals him.

Verses 10 & 18 explain the anger of the religious leaders. First, Jesus healed a lame man who then broke their Sabbath rules. Second, Jesus points to His identity through healing. This is fulfillment of numerous prophecies concerning messiah. Comprehensive list of prophecies:

https://www.messianic.org/prophecy/a-comprehensive-list-of-messianic-prophecies

Why the religious authorities were so angry

For an in depth commentary on why the religious leaders respond with persecution:

The American Journal of Biblical Theology Volume 19(34) August 26, 2018

https://www.biblicaltheology.com/Research/RazafiarivonyD04.pdf

Working God & His Son

Jesus and His Heavenly Father are Active!

John 5:16-18 BSB The Father and the Son

16Now because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews began to persecute Him. 17But Jesus answered them, “To this very day My Father is at His work, and I too am working.”

18Because of this, the Jews tried all the harder to kill Him. Not only was He breaking the Sabbath, but He was even calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.

“My Father has been working until now, and I have been working: Jesus did not try and explain that He had not truly worked on the Sabbath. Instead, He boldly explained to the religious leaders that His Father worked on the Sabbath, and therefore Jesus the Son also worked on the Sabbath.” David Guzik

Morrison, George H. Morrison on John Volume 1and Morrison on John Volume 2 (AMG Publishers, 1977) explains: emphasis mine

“In some ways, it is strange that the God of the Bible is a working God. “In the old world, it was hardly an honourable thing to work. It was a thing for slaves and serfs and strangers, not for freeborn men. Hence work and greatness rarely went together; and nothing could be more alien to the genius of paganism than a toiling God. It was a revolution when Jesus taught ‘God loves.’ But it was hardly less revolutionary when He taught ‘God works.’” (Morrison)”

God works! He is Active, Present, and moving according to His Will and Redemptive Plan for humanity and creation.

Clarke, Adam The New Testament of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Volume II (New York: Eaton & Mains, 1832) comments:

“Though he rested from creating, he never ceased from preserving and governing that which he had formed: in this respect he can keep no sabbaths; for nothing can continue to exist, or answer the end proposed by the Divine wisdom and goodness, without the continual energy of God.”

Application

If God is active, working through His Son and Holy Spirit to redeem and restore how does this impact our lives? Jesus’ miracles are signs! John explains these signs to teach us Jesus’ Identity, Purpose, and nature.

God works through natural means to restore us: doctors, medicine, technology, counselors, and medical science. He works to bring healing and truth into the painful situations and difficulties of our lives. Knowing this doesn’t minimize our difficulties, it sustains our hope knowing that He is active! While we and creation groan (Romans 8), we can cry out to our Heavenly Father knowing that He sees our situations and will bring all things to Himself.

The rest of John chapter 5 addresses Jesus’ nature and relationship with God, His Heavenly Father. Will explore this in a later post!