Jesus healing the sick has always fascinated me. But when I started diving into Jesus healing the paralyzed man near Bethesda, the pools of healing, in John 5:1-17. There were many sick and disabled people by these pools. Something interesting to note is that Bethesda actually means “house of mercy” which makes a lot of sense considering the amount of people wanting healing.
That in and of itself is a whole word.
These people wanted PHYSICAL healing when really they needed spiritual healing, the type healing that came from the mercy of God Himself. If they would have fully understood all that Jesus was and what He had come to do, they could have gotten so much more than just physical healing.
But anyway, let’s get back to Scripture.
The man that this section focuses on is a man that had been disabled for 38 years. Most people at this time that had been ill or disabled passed away before they reached this age. So this is both incredible that he had lived that long at all and also saddening to think of how long he had been laying by these pools unable to move. Scripture doesn’t specify what his disability was, but scholars assume that he was paralyzed.
John 5:6 says that Jesus saw him lying on the ground and approached him.
This man didn’t seek out Jesus, instead, Jesus sought HIM out.
Hold on – do you see how freaking cool this is? Do you see how great of a God we serve?
By following Christ, we follow a man that doesn’t just welcome us when we come home. But instead He seeks us out, chases after us, to give us the gift of healing.
This reminds me so much of my own life and testimony. I ran from God for a long time, thinking that if I ran long enough or far enough, that God would just leave me alone, that He would give my calling to someone else.
But instead, God chased ME.
Day after day, time after time, no matter how many times I cursed His name and spoke angrily at Him. No matter how many times I sinned and filled the void with someone else instead of Him, He found me. He had a calling on my life and refused to let me go.
I don’t know about you, but that amazes me. Jesus healed this man through grace alone, wanting to help him even when he showed no sign of being willing to do anything to get there on his own. Even though He knew, as we see later in this verse, that the man wouldn’t even show gratitude.
After seeking the man out, Jesus asked if the man wanted to be healed.
As someone who stayed in victim mode for a long time, this hits home for me. Growing up I had issues on top of issues. A lot of unfair things had happened to me, yes. But the problem is that I wore them like a badge of honor, like it was a pass from any sort of accountability. I was angry, hurt, traumatized. To be honest, there was a good chunk of time that I didn’t want to be healed. I wanted to stay where I was because I wanted the attention and the pity.
There are many times that, when I look back, Jesus asked me if I wanted to be healed and I said “nope.” Not with words, but with my actions. I would beg God to heal me but continue to do things that kept me sick, stuck, angry and traumatized.
This blew my mind
This especially hits me when I look at the response from this man. He didn’t say “yes absolutely!” Instead gave reasons, excuses, as to why he couldn’t be healed. I can’t tell from the Scripture, but I imagine that this man was defensive like I was. When being asked if I wanted to be healed, I’d immediately put walls up and defend myself, giving excuse after excuse as to why I tried but couldn’t find healing.
Now I don’t want to minimize what this man was going through.
I have no idea how bad the paralysis was. He did state that when he tried to get into the pools of water someone would step in front of him. I’m assuming this means that even though it was slow, he could move. I’m not stating that what he was going through was easy – not at all. As someone with chronic illness and subsequent chronic pain, I get that things can get bad. And my struggles aren’t nearly as bad as others. So again, I’m not minimizing.
But he never said “of course, yes, I want to be healed.” Instead he went into all of the reasons why he couldn’t be healed and why it wouldn’t be possible for him.
Jesus told him to move
Jesus didn’t tell him that he should be more optimistic or that he was making excuses. Instead He said, “take up your bed and walk” and the man did.
I felt so called out by this when I first read it. The man didn’t argue or say “but I can’t.” Instead he just got up and walked. Jesus said it, so he did it. It’s crazy to me that this man who didn’t even believe in or know who Jesus was was more obedient than I am. It’s embarrassing when I think about the number of times that I’ve argued, questioned, avoided. I KNOW who Jesus is, I even have the gift of having the Holy Spirit because of what He did on the cross. So why is this man more obedient than I am?!
But this is where things start to get a little heated.
This guy, who couldn’t walk for 38 years who suddenly is fully and completely healed, didn’t even say thank you. He wasn’t grateful or even showed any signs of gratitude. But that’s not the most insane part.
The Jewish leaders, who didn’t care about the fact that this miracle had happened, that a man that had been paralyzed for 38 years could WALK, started interrogating this man because he was taking up his bed on the Sabbath, breaking the law that you weren’t supposed to ‘work’ on the Sabbath.
But let’s pause for a second.
There’s nothing in the Old Testament that even calls for this ridiculous level of scrutiny. The Mishna are the ones who added all of these rules and regulations to the Sabbath making it burdensome and difficult to abide by.
The Sabbath was created, at its core, to remind us of God’s grace, to give us a chance to rest IN Him and what He had done. It’s not that we were supposed to sit and not move and pretend life wasn’t happening around us. It was to take time and acknowledge how amazing God is and of His grace. But of course humans had to step in and turn something that was once a beautiful reminder of the Creator into a burdensome, unnecessary law.
This is proof positive that legalism separates us from God’s love.
That’s exactly what the Jewish leaders did. They completely ignored the miracle that Jesus had done and instead only focused on the man-made law that this man had broken because of Jesus.
Unfortunately this is what we see a lot of in the Church today. We see far too much legalism which has forced out the beauty of grace and love.
Let me backup for a minute: When asked who told him to get up and take his bed, the man answered “that man who healed me.” Jesus had left quickly because a crowd was growing so the man didn’t know who He was. When I first read this, I saw it as excitement. But after rereading it and digging a little deeper, we can begin to see how this man basically threw Jesus under a bus.
But before we get there, Jesus, once again, does something beautiful.
Out in the temple, which is actually a larger complex outside the actual building, Jesus once again sought the man out. This was an even bigger space than He was in before. This shows the relentless love of Christ. Even though He knew this man wasn’t grateful, He sought him out again.
And when He found him, Jesus didn’t rebuke him or call him out. Instead, Jesus said “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.”
There are a few meanings
Pause again for a second – after looking deeper, there are a few different meanings that can be taken from this verse. Upon first glance, it makes it look as if this man had lead a sinful life and that’s why he was paralyzed. But when you look again, it takes an even deeper meaning. The truth is that eternity in hell is far worse than being paralyzed on earth. By telling him to sin no more, Jesus was warning him that continuing a life of sin could mean an even worse eternity.
Resuming the scripture, what happens next is what made me realize that this dude wasn’t as excited as I once thought. After Jesus spoke with him, the man went to the Jewish leaders to point out who it was that healed him. Knowing full well that these guys were NOT happy with Jesus and were actually condemning Him for healing him, he sold Him out.
His Sovereignty
But in His sovereignty, Jesus knew that this is exactly what He would do. He knew that this guy wouldn’t be kind or grateful and in fact feared the leaders more than he was grateful to Jesus. And yet He STILL healed him and I’m so dang glad. The amount of times I turned my back on God after He did something for me hurts my soul. But He knew that I would and did it for me anyway because He loves and cares about me.
In the ESV Study Bible, the commentary on John 5:16 says
“Jesus’ Jewish opponents were putting their merely human religious tradition above genuine love and compassion for others, which the Old Testament commanded and Jesus exemplified. It was Jesus, not these Jews [Jewish leaders], who was truly obeying the Scriptures.”
As humans living in a broken world, we have to remember that love and compassion must come before legalism and religion. If we bring love back into it, we’ll be more honest, accepting and win so many more souls to Christ.
In verse 16, we see that the Jewish leaders were persecuting Jesus because He was working miracles on the Sabbath day. But in verse 17, Jesus responds with “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”
This is where we get to geek out for a second.
In Genesis we see that God rested on the seventh day of creation. However, Jewish rabbis agree that God continually upholds the universe all without breaking the Sabbath. So yes, even in His rest God is still working. When digging deeper, I found this to be true. God didn’t rest and let go of everything. No, He holds us all in His hand. That’s absolutely more work than picking up your bedroll. God rested in His completed work, knowing that this project, for lack of a better word, was complete.
He provided everything necessary for creation and that is His grace.
How freaking epic is that?
I don’t know about you, but this was such an eye-opening passage for me. As someone who dealt with a LOT of church-hurt, this showed me where I’ve still been holding onto some of it and putting it on God. But the truth is, like the Mishna adding ridiculous religious rules to the Sabbath, it was humans, not God, who let me down. It was humans, not God, who hurt me.
It’s so beautiful that one small part of Scripture can reveal just Jesus’ love, God’s grace and the misuse of Scripture causing harm.
This is why the Word is so amazing and why I love diving into it so much. If you haven’t yet started, I encourage you to do so.
If you’re ready to trade legalism for love and performance for presence—you’re not alone.
I host a live Bible study every Saturday where we get honest about the Word, dig into grace, and walk it out together.
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