John 5:2-7 (ESV) 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 paralyzed. 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?” 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.”
This fellow Jesus healed seemed a little unappreciative to say the least. No “thank you,” no sign of appreciation at all. He just took up his bed and walked away. Later in verse 11, the man turns Jesus in to the Jews for healing him on the Sabbath. Leon Morris, in his commentary on John, describes the man this way: “The man was not of the stuff of which heroes are made. He put the whole blame on the shoulders of him who had healed him.” Let’s look at the man for a moment:
There was a multitude of invalids surrounding the pool. This pool area has been excavated and found to be 360 feet by 130 feet and 75 feet deep, not a small wading pool as we see in the movies. It was probably built as a sort of mote to protect the temple from invaders. So there was room for a lot of people waiting to get into the pool. In fact, the Greek word translated multitude is plethos from which we get the English word plethora: an abundance or excess of something.
Among this plethora of people was a man who had been disabled for 38 years. From his response to Jesus’ question, “Do you want to be healed?” the man started in on how he expected to be healed. The tradition was that an angel stirred up the pool, and the first one into the pool after this would be healed. We don’t see this part in most modern translations. If you’ll look at the quote above, part of verse 3 and all of verse 4 have been excluded. It’s included in the NKJV and reads this way:
John 5:3-4 (NKJV) In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water. 4 For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had.
This passage is not included in the ESV or many modern translations because it does not appear in the earliest manuscripts, those before the third century. Because of this, most modern translators don’t believe it appeared in the original. So, they leave it out.
The excluded passage, however, does record the tradition held by the Jerusalem Jews at the time and was no doubt added by a scribe in the second or third century. Think about this for a second, though. Does our God really say something like “First one in the pool will be healed?” God doesn’t make competition a condition for blessings. He walks up, as Jesus did, and heals whom He would.
Why is this important?
The man was a Jew, no doubt, and probably expect God to heal him at first. But as the years wore on, the pool became the center of his attention. He felt if God was going to act and heal him, He would do so through the stirring of the water in the pool
Sometimes, like this man and the pool, we fixate on something, some way we expect God to act when He has a completely different way and time frame to accomplish His will. We keep looking at the “pool” so long it becomes an idol: maybe the only way God may work in our lives. So it becomes the object of our attention rather than God Himself. This man had God in the flesh standing next to him asking if he wanted to be healed, and all he could think of was getting into the pool.
We need to leave ourselves open to God’s working in our lives no matter how He wants to do it. And, we need to listen for Him to ask “Do you want to ….?” He might ask “Do you want to serve Me,” and our answer may be “yes, of course, I serve as an usher, a teacher, a pastor” when God had other plans.
Someone sent me this quote the other day, and I think it fits perfectly here:
“Is your focus on your immediate need blinding you to a greater purpose that God is working out? Would you choose to be patient and simply trust Him? Sometimes God does not answer our immediate prayer because He has something greater in store for us.” Excerpt from “Longing For More of Jesus, My Heart’s Cry” by Anne Graham Lotz
Believers Armed and Dangerous 