John's
introduction to this event is reminiscent of moving making.
As the music plays, the camera focuses first on a aerial
view of the city of Jerusalem.
Next, the camera zooms in on the great mass of sick people
lying in the five porches that were near the pool of outpourings.
The music softens and is overcome by the moans and misery
of those lying by the sheep gate.
The camera tightens its focus on one man.
He is a paralytic.
His clothes are tattered and his countenance declares his
nearly exhausted hope. The
scene tells the viewer that this man is resting near his own excrement
and that he is very poor.
Without warning the volume level explodes with sounds of
the crowd of sick, blind, lame and terminally ill people rushing
toward the pool. The
flurry of activity dies as fast as it started and discouraged people
inherit the ground where they are.
During this activity the camera helps us stay focused on
the paralytic man. He
has managed to drag himself closer to the pool, but once again his
efforts have only brought him disappointment.
His attempt to win this angelic lottery has failed.
1.
He, along with others, were waiting for something to happen
that only brought limited effects.
No one knew when the angel would trouble the water, yet they
waited. Know one knew if
they would make it into the pool, yet they waited.
2.
His companions were in the same or worse shape than he was in.
They were not there
to help each other, but to help themselves.
Each one was competing to be the first to enter the pool.
3.
This man had been paralyzed for 38 years.
We don't know how long he had been lying near the pool, but we
know that it had done him no good.
4.
It is safe to assume that the person who needed it least got in
first. The
healthiest person would have been most capable of making into the pool
before the others. While
the neediest person was struggling to get into the pool, some guy with
a hangnail jumped in ahead of everyone else.
His shouts of joy and relief only served to remind the
paralytic man of his plight.
5.
In this setting, Jesus' question seems a bit ridiculous. Jesus asked this
man, "Do you want to get well?"
The man might have responded, "No, I just come down here
and hang out with the guys
6.
The man's response reveals the content of his faith. The
man didn't even know who Jesus was much less have faith in Him.
His faith was focused on the troubling of the water and his
hope that he would be the first to step into the pool.
(See 5:13.)
7.
This man was not healed because of his great faith, but as a
result of Jesus' great authority.
Jesus commanded the
man, "Get up, pick up your pallet and walk" (v.8).
In verse 9 we are told, "Immediately the man became
well." As a result
of his healing we are told that he "picked up his pallet and
began to walk" (9).
8.
Everyone on in those five porches wanted to be healed, so why
did Jesus single this one man out for healing?
Why didn't He, as some suggest, heal them all?
Was this man more deserving than the others?
The miracle doesn't seem to be as important as the message
Jesus declared in healing the paralytic and having him walk through
town carrying his bed on the Sabbath.
The miracle declared three things.
a.
An expression of God's Sovereignty. The
miracle of healing performed near the pool of Bethesda was an
expression of God's sovereignty.
God can do whatever He wants to do, whenever He wants to do it,
however He wants to do it, wherever He wants to do it, to whomever He
wants to do it and He owes no one an explanation.
He is Lord!
b.
An explanation of the Sabbath. The
term Sabbath means "rest," and was meant to point men to the
rest provided by God. This
miracle was meant to be a message to the Jews.
Jesus told this man to "Pick up your pallet and
walk." Jesus fully
understood the repercussions that this man's actions would bring.
Instead of rejoicing that this man had found rest, they rebuked
him for violating their concept of the Sabbath.
c.
An example of God's grace.
According to Jesus'
comment in verse fourteen, this man's sickness was the result of some
personal sin—"Behold, you have become well; do not sin anymore,
so that nothing worse happens to you" (v.14).
This man wasn't healed because he deserved it more than anyone
else. To the contrary, he
was an example of a man who deserved his paralysis.
Thus, this miracle is an expression of God's grace.
9.
The Jews did not deny the miracle.
What they did deny was Jesus' deity and Lordship.
They responded to
Jesus' miracle message by seeking to put Him to death.
10.
How will we respond?
a.
To His sovereignty?
b.
To His offer to deliver us from legalism and bring
us into His rest?
c.
To His grace?