Exploring the Pool of Bethesda: Healing and Mercy

Ruins of pools of Bethesda in Jerusalem, Israel

Near the Sheep Gate, where the sacrificial lambs entered Jerusalem, are the ruins of Bethesda. The name, “Bethesda” means house of mercy. Water from the Gihon Spring filled the Pool of Bethesda, which was surrounded by five covered colonnades (porches). Jesus came to the pool and found a man who had been crippled for thirty-eight years. I like the scene in “The Chosen” movie when Jesus asked the man, “Do you want to get well?” The man replied, “I’m having a bad day,” and Jesus said, “You’ve been having a bad day for a really long time.”

The sick people around the pool believed a superstition that when an angel stirred the water, the first one in the pool would be healed. The crippled man said he had no one to help him into the water, and the others got to the pool faster than he could. The man didn’t need the pool. He needed Jesus, and Jesus said, “Get up, pick up your mat, and walk” (John 5:8).

What is Lawful on the Sabbath?

The day in which Jesus healed the crippled man was the Sabbath, which raised quite a commotion among the Pharisees. The Jewish leaders persecuted Jesus, but He said to them, “My Father is always at work to this very day, and I too am working” (John 5:17).

God intended the fourth commandment for man, to keep the Sabbath Day holy, but God is God. He doesn’t sleep or slumber but is always available for us. On a different Sabbath, Jesus wanted to heal a man with a shriveled hand. He asked the Jewish leaders, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” (Mark 3:4). They didn’t reply, but Jesus healed the man. Jesus did what love compelled Him to do, and that is what we must do too. God desires our mercy, not sacrifice, to love others as He loves us.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, thank you that you never sleep or slumber. Thank you that you are always available to help in our times of need. Help us to show compassion as you show compassion. In Jesus’ mighty and powerful name, Amen.

Jesus Stands in the Gap

When Jesus came on the scene of Jewish history, His message clashed through the legalism of keeping 613 Jewish laws aside from the Ten Commandments. When He taught in the temple or synagogues, He often healed on the Sabbath, and the religious leaders objected. He taught from a Spirit of the law and not the letter of the law, something the priests and elders did not grasp. They honestly did not know what to do with Jesus, and because people were coming to Him, they hated Him and searched for ways to kill Him.

Lonely Vigil in the Garden

Jesus came to seek and save the lost. His mission was huge, and He often spent lonely nights in prayer on the Mount of Olives or in the Garden of Gethsemane. He prayed to the Father about everything and everyone He encountered. He prayed about the most powerful message He would deliver, known as the Sermon on the Mount, which covers Matthew 5, 6 and 7. The message was about how to live for God and serve others, how to show love and shine light in a dark world, how to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. These were as strange then as they are today. Yet, these are God’s ways. Jesus sought the Father in all He said and did. We would benefit if we did too.

Miracles and Healing

Although Jesus’ message was that of Lord and Savior, He also healed people and performed miracles. He turned water to wine at the Wedding in Cana. He healed a man born blind at the Pool of Siloam. He healed a man crippled for 38 years at the pool near the Sheep Gate of the temple in Jerusalem. He healed a woman from 12 years of an issue of bleeding, which isolated her from family or friends, and she spent all the money she had on doctors for a cure. Jesus raised three people from the dead: the widow’s son at Nain, Lazarus in Bethany and Jairus’ daughter in Capernaum. He fed crowds of more than 4,000 and 5,000. He did all these miracles out of compassion but not for fame or fortune.

The Message

Jesus’ life was a message of hope and blessing, salvation and eternal life. He often said, “Do not be afraid,” and “Come to me all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28). That verse has brought me so much comfort and encouragement when the tasks at hand overwhelm me. Jesus said we must be born again in John 3, but not even Nicodemus, a Jewish teacher, understood what He meant. Thanks be to God, the teacher finally got it, and John wrote about it: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son so that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

Jesus interceded for the people He encountered, and He stands in the gap for you and me. He is always available and accessible. You can whisper His name in the dark of night or the light of day. He never sleeps or slumbers – more than our human minds can conceive, but He is God alone. He loves us more than we can imagine, and we can trust Him with all that concerns us.

Prayer

Thank you, Lord Most High, for your great love for us. Teach us how to live for you by standing in the gap for others, that they might experience Your amazing love. In Jesus’ name, Amen.