John 5:1-15 (New International Version)
The Healing at the Pool
1Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. 2Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. 5One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6When 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."
8Then Jesus said to him, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk." 9At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 10and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, "It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat."
11But he replied, "The man who made me well said to me, 'Pick up your mat and walk.' "
12So they asked him, "Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?"
13The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.
14Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, "See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you." 15The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.
Questions:
1. Why do you think Jesus asked the man, who was sick for thirty-eight years (vs 5-6), if he wanted to get well? Why did Jesus command the invalid to get up, pick up his mat and walk? (vs 8)
2. Why do you think Jesus healed the paralytic on the Sabbath?
3. Why did Jesus warn the man to stop sinning?
1 comment:
1. Oftentimes the Lord wants us to pray in order to partner with Him for things like our healing. Jesus asked the man if he wanted to get well to open up that partnership/communication with him. Although it seemed why the paralytic was there, Jesus asked him his intentions to also demonstrate the truth of His promise, "ask and it will be given, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you." (Matthew 7:7). Jesus commanded him to pick up his mat and walk to demonstrate His healing power. This also shows how the paralytic partnered with Jesus for His healing. It was an act of faith for a man who was paralyzed for 38 years to think he could actually pick up his mat and walk. He must have had faith in Jesus to even make an attempt to do so.
2. Jesus healed on the sabbath to demonstrate the truth of God's heart. God is compassionate, loving and merciful. Jesus demonstrates that we must not be legalistic. We should seek to understand the heart of the law, not just the words of the law.
3. This is an interesting question. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God the consequence was that sin, death and sickness came into this world. Jesus perhaps said this to the man to make a statement along that vein. Now that the paralytic had met the Christ, he should change. Everyone of us that has a personal encounter with Jesus can never be the same. We have to stop sinning and live a life in Christ, a life of holiness.
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