The Response

Already stated, is that our focus will be on the well-known and frequently used encounter and healing, with Jesus and a needy man at the pool in Bethesda. However, our specific focus, as also indicated, is on the response of this needy man to Jesus. Here is our text.

The sick man answered Him, Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me. John 5: 7

Here is a man who has been suffering from a persistent, malignant problem for decades. It was one that blocked, restricted and totally curtailed any kind of advancement he would desire for his life and in his life. Indeed, here was a man who was not living the enriched life, life in all its fullness, and for whom there was no inner peace. He would make valiant attempts, doing all in his power to realize his desires, but alas, he was not in any way more advanced than he had hoped to be. After, perhaps years of failed efforts, the reality was that he was at square one.

Jesus has come to Jerusalem for a Jewish feast and observes this infirm man, struggling and trying to do that which will give him hope of a better life, more abundant life, a more productive, freer and richer life. Jesus stops, goes up to the lame man and asks a direct question of the man. Do you want to be made well? John 5: 6b. Please listen astutely and acutely to this infirm man’s answer, as already quoted in the verse above. Nevertheless, I have brought it before you again. Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.

Just before we continue and receive feedback, in deeper detail on the beggar’s response, it would be good to let those who do not know the history of what the man is telling Jesus, have some insight into it.

We are told that there was a healing pool in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda. Many infirm people – blind, deaf, lame, dumb and paralyzed - and more people with all kinds of ailments and diseases, would wait for the moving of the waters. The history tells us that at a certain time, an angel would come down from heaven and stir the water in the pool. 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. John 5: 4. Whoever stepped in first, after the water was stirred, was healed completely. This was great news for many, but not for this infirm man. This is what the needy man is referring to, as he responds to Jesus.

Listening and looking at the infirm man, his response to Jesus shows the mental infirmity of the man, more than his physical infirmity. Three blockages, and huge ones at that, have been diagnosed in this one response of the man. Can you be identified in these? Does any of this apply to you? You may not be in the same physical condition as the man, but are you in like mental position? Remember this is a response to an offer by Jesus, the Giver of new, abundant, rich life, for not just life, but infirm-free life. Jesus asked him, Do you want to be made well?

Has Jesus ever asked you if you want to be made well? Perhaps you are already a well person who, at this present time is not in need of Jesus’ offer. But for all like me, has not Jesus offered us new life in Him? At every stage of our spiritual journey, is Jesus not here offering us His unsearchable riches?  

Ponder your life with Jesus, listen deep within your spirit, heart and soul, and see whether or not Jesus is asking you, even now, Do you want to be made well?