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.
