The Pool At Bathesda

Day 19 Wednesday, March 27, 2019
Healing a man who was crippled for 38 years
John 5:1-17

After this there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool,
called in Hebrew Beth-zatha, which has five porticoes.
In these lay many invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed.
(for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool,
and troubled the water: whosoever then first
after the troubling of the waters stepped in was made whole,
with whatsoever disease he was holden.)
One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years.
When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time,
he said to him, “Do you want to be made well?”
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 making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.”
Jesus said to him, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.”
At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk.
Now that day was a Sabbath.
So the Jews said to the man who had been cured,
“It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.”
But he answered them, “The man who made me well said to me,
“Take up your mat and walk.’ ”
They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, “Take it up and walk’?”
Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was,
for Jesus had disappeared in the crowd that was there.
Later Jesus found him in the temple and said to him,
“See, you have been made well!
Do not sin any more, so that nothing worse happens to you.”
The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.
Therefore the Jews started persecuting Jesus,
because he was doing such things on the Sabbath.
But Jesus answered them, “My Father is still working, and I also am working.”

There are lessons for all in this passage, including us, the readers.
To the sick man, “sin no more.”
To the Pharisees, “there is no bad day to do God’s good works.”
To those who endeavor to do God’s work,
“you may draw the persecution of others for your efforts. Persevere!”
Finally, to the readers, all of these, and one more;
“Your heavenly Father is still working, and you also should be working.”