After
these things, there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now in Jerusalem by the sheep gate, there is a pool, which is called in Hebrew, “Bethesda”, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, or paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water; for an angel went down at certain times into the pool, and stirred up the water. Whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was healed of whatever disease he had. A certain man was there, who had been sick for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had been sick for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to be made well?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I’m coming, another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Arise, take up your mat, and walk.” Immediately, the man was made well, and took up his mat and walked.
John 5:1-9
John 4 [49.] The nobleman said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” Jesus said to him, “Go your way. Your son lives.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way. As he was now going down, his servants met him and reported, saying “Your child lives!” So he inquired of them the hour when he began to get better. They said therefore to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour, the fever left him.” So the father knew that it was at that hour in which Jesus said to him, “Your son lives.” He believed, as did his whole house. This is again the second sign that Jesus did, having come out of Judea into Galilee.
John 5 [1.] After these things, there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now in Jerusalem by the sheep gate, there is a pool, which is called in Hebrew, “Bethesda”, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, or paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water; for an angel went down at certain times into the pool, and stirred up the water. Whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was healed of whatever disease he had. A certain man was there, who had been sick for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had been sick for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to be made well?”
John 5 [7.] The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I’m coming, another steps down before me.”
John 5 [8.] Jesus said to him, “Arise, take up your mat, and walk.”
John 5 [9.] Immediately, the man was made well, and took up his mat and walked.
Now it was the Sabbath on that day. So the Jews said to him who was cured, “It is the Sabbath. It is not lawful for you to carry the mat.”
John 5 [11.] He answered them, “He who made me well, the same said to me, ‘Take up your mat, and walk.’”
Meaning:
John 5 moves the scene from Galilee back to Jerusalem. At a pool crowded with the sick, Jesus singles out one man who had been ill for thirty-eight years and heals him with a word. This third sign in John’s Gospel leads directly into a conflict over the Sabbath (John 5:10-15) and to Jesus’ great teaching about his relationship with the Father (John 5:18-23).
- “There was a feast of the Jews”
John does not name the feast; suggestions include Passover, Pentecost, Tabernacles or Purim. What matters is that Jesus is again in the holy city, and that the healing happens on a Sabbath.
- “By the sheep gate, there is a pool”
The sheep gate was just north of the temple. Archaeologists have uncovered a large double pool near the Church of St. Anne in Jerusalem, with colonnades on four sides and one across the middle, matching John’s “five porches.” The name Bethesda is often explained as meaning house of mercy. It was a scene of great human need, and Jesus walked into it.
- “For an angel went down at certain times into the pool”
The people believed that when the water was stirred, the first to step in would be healed. Some ancient manuscripts do not include this explanation, and Christians differ on whether it was part of John’s original text or a later note explaining the man’s words in verse 7. Either way, it describes what the people at the pool believed, and it shows the man’s hopeless situation: healing went only to the quickest, and he could not move.
- “Sick for thirty-eight years”
The man had been ill for longer than many people then lived. Jesus “knew that he had been sick for a long time,” just as he knew the Samaritan woman’s life (John 4:18). Out of a multitude, he chose one man, apparently without being asked.
- “Do you want to be made well?”
The question may seem strange, but it is searching. After so many years, a person can lose hope or settle into a way of life. Jesus asked a blind man a similar question, “What do you want me to do for you?” (Mark 10:51). The man does not say yes. He explains why he has never been healed: “I have no one.” His answer is a cry of loneliness. He looks for someone to carry him to the water, not knowing that the one who stands before him needs no pool.
- “Arise, take up your mat, and walk”
Jesus gives three commands that the man could not obey on his own. Yet with the command came the power, and “Immediately, the man was made well.” Jesus spoke almost the same words to the paralytic lowered through a roof in Capernaum: “arise, take up your mat, and go to your house” (Mark 2:11). Isaiah had foretold that in the days of God’s salvation “the lame man will leap like a deer” (Isaiah 35:6).
The Significance of John 5:1-9
- Jesus sees the forgotten
The man had “no one,” but Jesus came to him. Those whom others pass by are seen and sought by Christ.
- Grace that does not wait for us
Jesus healed a man who neither asked nor showed great faith. God’s grace often goes before us and reaches us when we are helpless.
Cross-References:
Mark 2:11: “Arise, take up your mat, and go to your house.” A paralyzed man healed in Capernaum.
Isaiah 35:6: “Then the lame man will leap like a deer.” The promise of God’s salvation.
Acts 3:6: “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk!” A lame man healed in Jesus’ name.
Matthew 11:28: “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest.” Jesus’ invitation to the weary.
Conclusion: In John 5:1-9 Jesus goes to Jerusalem for a feast and visits the pool of Bethesda, where many sick people wait for the stirring of the water. He asks a man who has been ill for thirty-eight years whether he wants to be made well, and when the man says he has no one to help him, Jesus commands him to rise, take up his mat and walk, and he is healed at once. The sign shows Jesus’ compassion for the helpless and the power of his word to do what no pool or human help could do.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible