What was Jesus Doing Here?
Who is Jesus? part 54 – John 5:1-18
The third sign of Jesus healing a man at the pool of Bethesda shows his power over illness and time.
John clearly states that Jesus did other miracles as well as the ones called signs. These signs are important acts meant to reveal Jesus’ identity as the divine Son of God, encouraging belief and guiding people to eternal life.
A: 5 After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. 3 In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralysed.
B: 5 One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?”
C: 7 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 going another steps down before me.”
D: 8 Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.”
E: 9 And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.
X: Now that day was the Sabbath. 10 So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.”
E’:11 But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’”
D’: 12 They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?”
C’: 13 Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place.
B’: 14 Afterwards Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.”
A’: 15 The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. 16 And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. 17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working. 18 This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
John 5:1-18 ESVUK Paragraphs have been altered to show the poetic structure and bold italics show the theme of each part.
The Gospel according to John, chapter 5, has similarities to chapter 1 in that it is made up of three passages in the form of chiasms or chiasmus. Chiasm, meaning crossing over, is a form used in nearly all Psalms and is a repetition of similar ideas in the reverse sequence. For this reason, I am referring to these sections as songs, as I did with chapter 1.
This post is only about the healing at the pool. The centre of the poetic structure and how it affecte the other parts will be in next week’s post.
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Why did Jesus visit the pool of Bethesda? It was not a holy place, far from it.
The pool was once dedicated to the Greek healing god Asclepius. You may have noticed there is no verse 4 in John chapter 5. This verse is missing from the oldest biblical texts and likely added in the 4th or 5th centuries.
The removed last half of verse 3 and verse 4 in the Authorised Version says: ” …waiting for the moving of the water. 4 For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.”
It is a superstition. The idea of a healing lottery from an angel is not found elsewhere in the Bible, but the people described, like the blind, lame, and paralyzed, suggest they were not superstitious, but rather desperate, as they may have tried or couldn’t afford other ways to be healed.
What would bring Jesus to this godforsaken place of pagan superstition?
“Do you want to be healed?” asks Jesus. The order of events in the Gospel according to John is unclear, but John’s purpose is to show who Jesus is. Jesus honors the man at the Pagan shrine, asking if he wants to be well, as he may have got used to living off others’ donations. Jesus respects us too: Do we truly want to be healed? Do we want to change and become more like Jesus, or are we simply okay with our lives, no matter how uncomfortable they might be?
In my last post, I talked about the connections between John 5 and the book of Deuteronomy. The man’s 38 years of disability relates to the Israelites’ 38 years in the desert. By the end of this time in Deuteronomy, the Israelites were ready to cross the River Jordan and take the promised land. In Jesus, God becomes man, signaling the time to claim God’s promises.
In Deuteronmy God tells the people of Israel through Moses to “Rise up, set out on your journey and go.” “Take up your bed and walk.” says Jesus to this man. Mark 2:1–12 tells the story of another man, a paralytic man let down through the roof of a house. “Rise, pick up your bed, and go home,” Says Jesus. It’s up to us, Jesus does not infringe on our freedom, but we, you and I, can play our part in showing the values of God’s Kingdom here on Earth. Rise up from your bed and go out. Live the life Jesus wants to give you: Your best life.
There are no truly forsaken places. Jesus entered a place with pagan beliefs, where people hoped for miraculous healing, though it seemed unlikely. Jesus, the Son of God, did what the pool was meant to do but failed to provide. He came as a Jew to fulfill Jewish laws and prophecies, addressing the confused beliefs of Jews who had adopted pagan ideas.
Paganism views creation as a source of power to be used for its goals. The healing Jesus provides is what the world has been longing for, signifying the start of a new creation[2].
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Wright, Tom. John for Everyone Part 1 (New Testament for Everyone Book 5) [1](p. 55). [2] (p. 57). SPCK. Kindle Edition.
Making an ass of myself 