How Did Jesus Treat People With Disabilities In The Bible?

How Did Jesus Treat People with Disabilities in the Bible?

John 5:1-15

The story is about Jesus healing the lame man at the pool. During this timeframe of this event, there were three feasts that required all Jewish males to come to Jerusalem: (1) the Feast of Passover and Unleavened Bread, (2) the Feasts of Weeks (additionally called Pentecost), and (3) the Feasts of Tabernacles. So undoubtedly there was a great multitude of people coming and going near this pool.

A great number of impotent (sick), blind, halted (lame), and withered (paralyzed) people lay either in or near the waters, waiting for them to move. It is muddled whether a heavenly messenger, an angel, really upset or disturbed the water, or if this was exactly what the people accepted and believed. Regardless, Jesus healed a man who had been laying there for 38 years, waiting for an opportunity to receive healing. Following 38 years, this current man's concern had become a lifestyle. Nobody had at any point helped him. He had no expectation of truly being healed and allegedly had no desire to help himself. His circumstance looked sad. Yet, regardless of how confined we may feel in our ailments, God can tend to our most profound necessities. Try not to let an issue or difficulty cause us to lose trust. God may have exceptional work for us to do regardless of our condition, or even because of it. Many have served successfully to those individuals who are in distress since they themselves have prevailed over their own damages.

What a question to ask someone, wilt thou be made whole. I would wonder what was going through that man’s mind at that time. Of course, I want to be made whole, that is why I am here. But let us look at it in another way. The man has been lame for 38 years. He is laying there watching and waiting for the pool to stir up. That has been what all the sick and injured people have been doing, watching the pool. Maybe, just maybe the Lord wanted to get the man to take his eyes from the pool and focus on him. I would think that the man may have looked up toward Christ.

But what did the man say in verse seven? “Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me.” The first thing we notice in the lame man’s reply is that he Looked at Man. He was not looking for Jesus for he did not know who he was. The second thing we notice is that the man Looked at Time. He was waiting for the waters to become troubled. How long would that take? Could he potentially miss his opportunity if he had fallen asleep? The third thing we notice is that the man Looked at Others. The lame man was too concerned looking at someone else stepping down before, going ahead of him into the pool.

Psalm 72:13, He shall spare the poor and needy, and shall save the souls of the needy.

Matthew 9:6, But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house.

Mark 2:11, I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house.

The problem with many people today, like this lame man at the pool, is that they are busy waiting and watching for something to happen. People are not turning to Christ. They are too busy with their own carnal lives that they do not realize what lies ahead. Unfortunately, too many Christians are also waiting and watching. Now do not get me wrong, we should be watching for the Lord’s return and waiting for that Blessed Hope. But what are we doing in the meantime? There are still so many out there that do not know Christ.

Luke 10:2, Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.

As per the Pharisees, carrying a mat on the Sabbath was work and was consequently unlawful. It did not overstep an Old Testament Law, however the Pharisees' translation of God's order to "remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy" (Exodus 20:8) This was only one of the many principles they had added to the Old Testament Law.

A man who had not walked for over thirty years was suddenly healed, yet the Pharisees were more worried about their insignificant guidelines than the life and wellbeing of another individual. It is not difficult to get so intertwined in our man-made designs and guidelines that we fail to remember the individuals that may be involved. Are our rules for living God-made or man-made? Is it accurate to say that they are helping individuals, or have they become unnecessary hindrances?