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John 5:1-9
Sixth Sunday of Easter C (Gospel, alternate) May 17, 1998
John 5:1-9
Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. [2] Now there is in
Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is
surrounded by five covered colonnades. [3] Here a great number of disabled people used to
lie--the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. [4] [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,
(NIV)
John 5:1-9 (The cure at the pool of Bethesda)
We are all by nature impotent folk in spiritual things, blind, halt, and withered; but full provision is made for our cure, if we attend to it. An angel went down, and troubled the water; and what disease soever it was, this water cured it, but only he that first stepped in had benefit. This teaches us to be careful, that we let not a season slip which may never return. The man had lost the use of his limbs thirty-eight years. Shall we, who perhaps for many years have scarcely known what it has been to be a day sick, complain of one wearisome night, when many others, better than we, have scarcely known what it has been to be a day well? Christ singled this one out from the rest. Those long in affliction, may comfort themselves that God keeps account how long. Observe, this man speaks of the unkindness of those about him, without any peevish reflections. As we should be thankful, so we should be patient. Our Lord Jesus cures him, though he neither asked nor thought of it. Arise, and walk. God’s command, Turn and live; Make ye a new heart; no more supposes power in us without the grace of God, his distinguishing grace, than this command supposed such power in the impotent man: it was by the power of Christ, and he must have all the glory. What a joyful surprise to the poor cripple, to find himself of a sudden so easy, so strong, so able to help himself! The proof of spiritual cure, is our rising and walking. Has Christ healed our spiritual diseases, let us go wherever he sends us, and take up whatever he lays upon us; and walk before him.
(Matthew Henry Concise Commentary)