The only miracle Jesus performed in Jerusalem

 

Chapter 5            Return to Jerusalem

 

5v1-16      Miracle of healing   the third sign

5v17-47    Message of the third sign

 

Jesus came to deal with the root problem of sin, but He also dealt with the severe consequences of sin as seen in the ailments of the people.  This prefigures the great Millennial kingdom when the effects of the fall on earth will be largely negated.  Many of these individual cases reflected the condition of the nation as a whole, and the sign pointed to the Master Healer who came for both corporate Israel and individuals within it.

 

John chapter 5v1-16.  In this portion we shall see:

 

a)    The hollowness of religion

b)   The helplessness of the people

c)   The healing by the Great Physician

d)   The hatred of the religious heart

 

The hollowness of religion  v1    “After this there was a feast of the Jews and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.”

 

John calls the occasion of Jesus’ visit to Jerusalem a feast of the Jews, as he does on four occasions-2v13; 5v1; 6v4; 11v55. What was once a sacred Divine institution, had deteriorated to being just a temple ritual run by men.  No longer was it the feast of the Lord.  The leaders were powerless to help those in need, and they continued the ritual without the reality.  Because He had come to fulfil all the law, nevertheless Jesus attended the feasts, but He would eventually disown the whole system.  Perhaps a lesson for those today who find themselves at odds with the practices of their local churches, yet because of the Divine history of association, maintain a presence with them.  The extent of this vain, uncaring religion, will emerge in the story.

 

 

The helplessness of the people        v2-4

 

There is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue, Bethesda, having five porches.  In these lay very a great multitude of impotent folk, blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water.  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.”

 

The location was the sheep gate, where the animals for sacrifice were held for the services at the altar.  This was the gate that was never shut to allow the sheep access to the temple at all times.  The pool was called Bethesda in Hebrew language and means house of mercy, or house of kindness.  There was precious little mercy or kindness for these helpless infirm people were left without help.  There were five porches by the pool, where the infirm lay waiting for the waters to be supernaturally stirred.  The infirm lay in these porches (covered colonnades), waiting for healing whenever the waters were “troubled”-agitated, v4 and v7.   We cannot be sure whether it was a belief of locals that the waters were miraculously transformed into a healing pool, or whether it was just a sudden gush of fresh water at a “certain season”-v4.  Certainly it was the belief that the waters had medicinal properties for healing, whenever they were agitated. 

 

The condition of those who lay there was dire, and is detailed as follows:

v A great multitude-there were many people there

v They lay there-they were so sick they were lying down

v Many were impotent-paralysed, lacking mobility

v Many were blind

v Many were halt-could not walk

v Many were withered-old and infirm

v Dependent on others for help

 

How much this is a picture of humanity in the eyes of God.  Sick, paralysed, helpless.  This is how God sees us spiritually.  He viewed the whole nation of Israel as helpless patients-Isaiah 1v4-6.  Romans 5v6 says “When we were yet without strength” this is the picture here.  Many human beings held in the grip of sin, and unable to extricate themselves. 

 

Focus is turned on one man, whose situation was dire.  He had been in this situation for 38 years!  Quite incredible yet the bible asserts it-a certain man lying by this pool for almost four decades.  Yet there is a parallel in Old Testament history.  After Israel left Egypt they spent a year at Sinai, learning the law of the Lord, then they wandered for 38 years in the deserts, as they chafed against the Lord.  They were headed for the promised land but because of their sins they were unable to enter in.  Here is another parallel with this man.  Jesus revealed he was in this condition because of his sins-v14.  This is not to say that all serious medical conditions are because of individual sin, but Jesus knew in this case it was.  This man’s experience was a replica of the nation.