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THE GOSPEL OF JOHN (pt 5)
HEALING ON THE SABBATH
Healing on the Sabbath
Jesus leaves the region of Galilee and travels up to Jerusalem. There was a pool there known as Bethesda. Here, many sick people, blind, lame, and paralyzed gathered at this pool hoping to be healed.
Although this healing, or sign, is an important sign, the account becomes much more about Jesus’ healing on the Sabbath than a man who has been healed.
This man, somewhat like the woman at the well is looking for relief through the water. Jesus asks the man, what may first appear a curious question, “Do you wish to get well?” It seems like the obvious answer would be yes! Notice his response, “…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.” (Jn. 5:7).
Music for the SimplyRevised Podcast provided by Eric Gwin.
READ THE BIBLE
John 5: 1-6 (NASB)
After these things there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
Now in Jerusalem, by the Sheep Gate, there is a pool which in Hebrew is called Bethesda, having five porticoes. In these porticoes lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, limping, or paralyzed. Now a man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. Jesus, upon seeing this man lying there and knowing that he had already been in that condition for a long time, *said to him, “Do you want to get well?”