The Healing at Bethesda. A Story of a Disciple or Follower of the Way, John 5:1-15 NIV

You dreamt last night, that you were a young boy again, running and playing with your friends, you wake up with a jolt and look beneath the bed sheet, and see the same damaged and twisted legs that have been your constant companions for so many long and agonizing years.

You hear your father call your name,  James,  and your mother comes to you, to bring you, your breakfast and your father helps you get ready,  you look at your parents, and see their  careworn and lined faces, you notice how old they look, and they seem frailer than they were just yesterday,   your brothers and sisters have all married and have families of their own,  yes they all come and visit,  and spend time with you and your parents,  but you feel all alone,   there’s a knock on the door,  and your brother Abraham and his three sons,  Yeshua,  Mordecai and Daniel,  you remember the promise Abraham  made to you and your parents so many years ago,  after the accident,  to look after you and take  you to the pool by the sheep gate near to the temple,  you notice that Abraham is talking to your parents and telling them about the healer and his followers,  and how the entire city is talking about the man Yeshua of Nazareth and his band of mostly Galilean misfits and trouble makers. 

You may be a cripple ,  and your family may only be carpenters but you all live in Jerusalem and are Judeans,  you  may be the lowest of the low in the sight of your fellow citizens in Jerusalem  but you’re not Galilean or even a dirty Samaritan,

Abraham and his boys lift your bed up,  it’s before sunrise but you know you must get to the pool of Bethesda  early,  you heard the story as a boy how once a year,  Yahweh would send one of His angels to stir the water of the sheep pool and whoever was the first into the pool was healed,   you had seem it so many times,  but in the rush to the pool you never made it,  in many ways the waiting there for so many years had crippled you in the inside.

You notice how the dusty, narrow and crowded streets leading the temple seem busier than usual. You see groups of people all talking together; you ask Abraham who are they talking about? he says they’re talking about the healer from Nazareth,   you say can anything of value and importance come from the backwaters of Galilee ?   You see the temple and religious elite, the Scribes, the Sadducees, the Pharisees even the Levites and Priests gathering together talking in hushed whispers, you see some Pharisees talking with some of the hated collaborators of the Romans, the followers of Herod and his family,   you realize that the streets are busy, one of the Pharisees shouts at your brother and tells him off for working on the Sabbath, your brother ignores him and keeps walking although at a faster pace.

The Temple Police are out in force today, and you notice small groups of the hated Roman Soldiers marching around the city,  you all arrive at the gate of the sheep pool,  and with despair you see the good spots near the pool are all gone,  you hear the noise of people shouting,   you notice the one of the colonnades is full of people  and there is a wide gap between that group and the other groups,   you realise the group on their own are the lepers,  you hope that your family don’t leave you near those unclean wretches ,  you notice a few familiar faces and see some people that in another life wouldn’t  be your friends but in the world of the destitute and downtrodden you have formed of a friendship of the broken,   you suddenly feel alone as you are left there for another day,  you talk to your neighbours but keep one eye on the pool,  all the days even the Sabbaths have become a seeming ceaseless and endless day, you long for your days to be different,  you want to run or even walk again,  you feel a pang of emotion.

You look at the dirty pool, and wonder why Yahweh would use such a cesspit to heal someone, the smell of unwashed bodies and clothes fills your nostrils, the human voices are mixed with the bleating of the sacrificial sheep, some kindly women pass drinking water to you and those around you, the day is getting hotter and the flies seem to be busier than usual, 

You look all around you and see countless people of all ages,  some men, some woman and even some children,   you remember the first time , your Father and Abraham bought you here ,  and has the days and years passed you were gradually left here on your own,   you drift off into a daydream ,  suddenly you wake and hear a commotion ,  there is movement the pool is stirring suddenly there is a rush of people all trying at the same time to be the first into the cesspit,  people push, hit and trample on each other,  a father and mother lower their crippled baby into the pool, and the baby is healed, you have seen so many times others healed but you remain unhealed,  and  you feel angry, bitter and rejected.

Suddenly someone asks you, how long have you been here >, you say since I was a boy,  and this man asked ,  what was wrong with you ?,   explaining  to the man with the kindly smile and eyes, how you had  fallen as a boy and your legs are broken and twisted,  the man asked another question  “ Do you want to get well ?”

Yes,  you reply,  hoping the man and his friends will take pity on you,  and lower you into the water,  if they are stirred again,   you feel angry at such an obvious question and give a sharp reply and explain how when the waters stir there is no one to help you.  You hope that this man will help you into the pool, instead he says to you.  “Get up, Pick up your bed and walk” 

Suddenly you feel strength in your feet and ankles ,  and for the first time in so many years, you’re standing ,  you take one small step, then another as you remember how to walk, you bend down to roll up your bed and start walking,  you turn to thank your new friend,  but in the commotion he’s gone  , suddenly several Pharisees and Sadducees  climb over the people around you,  shouting you not allowed to work on the Sabbath,  they ask you who told you to carry your bed ?,   you reply  the man who made me well,  told me to pick up my bed and walk,  they  ask who was this man,   you reply he was a stranger,   finally after several more questions,   threats and warnings including the temple police will arrest you and your family,  they leave you in relative peace, you feel a sensation of joy and peace,  you walk with the crowds to the temple courts.

Has you look up at the wonders of the Yahweh’s temple,  a hand reaches out and touches your shoulder ,  you turn expecting to see a Temple Policeman, instead it’s the man they call the healer,  Yeshua of Nazareth,   He says to you,  “ See you’re well again, stop sinning or something worst may happen to you, “   Sometime later,  a Pharisee from earlier rushes up to you, and demands who was the man you were talking to,  you reply it was Yeshua of  Nazareth .

It has been many years, since you were healed,   you remember the look of amazement on the faces of your family,   and how you followed the family business, your wedding to Miriam, and the birth of your son and daughter. Nathan and Sarah,  how you and your family become followers of  the way of Yeshua of  Nazareth,  the Messiah,  you remember how he died, he arose again , and the days that started with defeat and despair,  and how the Holy Spirit rushed into that room that day,  and you become a messenger  of the way,  you look back at that cripple, and you see an old man now,

  You remember the towns,  the cities the provinces you have been as one messenger  among many messengers,  some of whom have given their lives in the service of the Yeshua the Messiah,  you look across the darkened room, and see that once young eager Pharisee who asked you so many questions,  now like you a messenger of the way,  your friend Paul,  he smiles at you,  and asks you to pray,  you see so many faces,  young, old, male and female ,   you thank Yahweh that your family are safe in Galilee ,   from outside you hear shouting from thousands of voices, suddenly the  guards open the door of the cell that you and so  many people are locked up in,  Paul tries to join you but is stopped by a guard,  you lead your people down one corridor after another ,  then the guards open a gate and you and others are lead out into an arena,  and thousands of people are throwing things at you and the others, and are shouting,  screaming and hurling abuse at you in Latin,   you hear one roar,  then another,  and see some lions  running towards you,   then you see a once familiar face from long ago that you first saw at a smelly pool,  he reaches out and embraces you,  and once more you are with your friend, Yeshua of Nazareth.

John 5 New International Version - UK (NIVUK)

The healing at the pool

5 Sometime later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda[a] and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie – the blind, the lame, the paralysed. [b] 5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, ‘Do you want to get well?’

7 ‘Sir,’ the invalid replied, ‘I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.’

8 Then Jesus said to him, ‘Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.’ 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.

The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 10 and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, ‘It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.’

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

12 So they asked him, ‘Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?’

13 The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.

14 Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, ‘See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.’ 15 The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.