The healing at the pool of Bethesda. Back in 1999, my son, Paul, and I stood there at that pool. In Luke’s reporting, there “lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 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?’” (5:3-6).
These thoughts: 1) All these folks suffered from grievous maladies. 2) All were helpless to help themselves. 3) Jesus singled out one man, took the initiative, and asked if he wanted to be healed. 4) The sick man must answer, “Yes,” and in fact, he did. 5) Jesus healed him. Jesus would have known the man wished to be healed. I mean, who not have wished to be healed! But the man must receive the healing, must believe, must say, “Yes.”
Of course, this is a straightforward story about the healing of a physical sickness. But the components of the story are the very same as in the spiritual healing of a sinner. 1) He suffers from a terrible condition: sin. In fact, it’s even worse than that. In his sin, the sinner is actually dead, and thus, 2) unable to help himself or to make himself alive. 3) Jesus seeks out and comes to the sinner, and 4) the sinner is not merely passive, but must repent and believe. 5) The sinner is saved from his sin.
Savior, you came to give
Those who in darkness live
Healing and sight,
Health to the troubled mind,
Sight to the inward blind:
Now to all humankind
Let there be light! --John Marriott (1813)
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