THE TORTOISE WILL NEVER WIN THE RACE – THE MAN WHO WAS TOO SLOW
CHARACTERS OF JOHN’S GOSPEL – John 5:1-16
John 5:1 After these things there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. John 5:2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porticoes.
John 5:3 In these lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered, [waiting for the moving of the waters, John 5:4 for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool, and stirred up the water. Then after the stirring up of the water, whoever first stepped in was made well from whatever disease with which he was afflicted.]
John 5:5 A certain man was there who had been thirty-eight years in his sickness. John 5:6 When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had already been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you wish to get well?” John 5:7 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 5:8 Jesus said to him, “Arise, take up your pallet and walk,” John 5:9 Immediately the man became well and took up his pallet and began to walk. Now it was the Sabbath on that day.
John 5:10 Therefore the Jews were saying to him who was cured, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not permissible for you to carry your pallet,” John 5:11 but he answered them, “He who made me well was the one who said to me, ‘Take up your pallet and walk.’” John 5:12 They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your pallet, and walk’?” John 5:13 but he who was healed did not know who it was for Jesus had slipped away while there was a crowd in that place.
John 5:14 Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “Behold, you have become well. Do not sin anymore so that nothing worse may befall you.” John 5:15 The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well, John 5:16 and for this reason the Jews were persecuting Jesus because He was doing these things on the Sabbath.
INTRODUCTION
Now we will deal with a problem. As most of you will probably notice, there is a comment in your bibles concerning verses 3 and 4. The last half of verse 3 and all of 4 is not found in the oldest manuscripts. For that reason the passage may be in brackets or in italics, or even omitted. Nearly all the scholars, except the diehard KJV Only people, say this section is an interpolation, in other words, it was inserted into the text to try to give some clarification to the story.
When you read the first four verses which we will do now, again . . . . You gain from that, this is like a competition, where the fittest of the worst, gets healed, and the worst of the worst will always miss out. If this is actually what happened, can you imagine the chaos as maimed and semi-immobile, blind, and withered people jostled to get to the pool first. It would well fit Darwin’s evolution philosophy, “the survival of the fittest”, a disgraceful godless teaching. Verse 3 says there was a multitude of people at that pool all lying around, presumably, desperate people like those today with cancer who try all sorts of means and suggestions and alleged remedies hoping something might work. At that pool, if one got healed, then many missed out. It is a bit like the law of the jungle.
Of all the accounts in the gospels of healing, this is the strangest. It is said that an angel stirred up the waters of the pool of Bethsaida, and whoever was the quickest got healed. What do we make of this? In what light does it put God? Do you think a compassionate God would program things this way? It sits awkwardly with me that this is the way God would heal people. I would like to reject the whole idea. You can understand some scribe wanting to clarify this account, for all we really know of the procedure is found in John 5 v 7 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.” Now we can ask ourselves, “Was the belief that the waters were stirred up by an angel, a continuing story myth among those diseased and crippled people, or was it, in fact, truth?” The man Jesus was speaking to certainly believed it.
How long had the man been at the pool? This is John 5 v 5 A certain man was there who had been thirty-eight years in his sickness. Had he had his illness for 38 years, or had he been waiting at the pool for that length of time?
So much for the introduction. Now we will look into this account.
Verses 1-2. John 5 v 1 After these things there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. John 5:2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porticoes.
Jesus went from Galilee to Jerusalem for the feast and while there, He went to the Pool of Bethsaida. There has been much speculation about this feast but it was either Purim or Passover, but the former one is the only one that properly fits. Purim is a happy feast celebrated by the Jewish people, and held on the 14th day of the Hebrew month of Adar, usually March or April and commemorates the day Esther, Queen of Persia, saved the Jewish people from execution by Haman, the advisor to the Persian king. This sheep gate was where the sheep were led in for the Temple sacrifices. According to Ammonius, the sheep used for sacrifice were washed in the sheep pool, the one featured in this account.
Bethesda in Aramaic means “House of mercy,” or possibly “House of the Portico,” or again “House of the Olive.” The name Bethesda does not occur elsewhere in Scripture. The five porches served as a shelter for the sick, who are specially described as t?f???, etc., and those afflicted with diseases of the nerves and muscles. On ?????, “persons with withered and emaciated limbs.” It is thought this place was a kind of charitable institution.
John says, “and while there He went to the pool of Bethsaida”. Jesus did not randomly wander around and then by chance come to this pool. He went there for a purpose, and that was to have an encounter with this man in the story. Meeting people’s singular needs is what a lot of Jesus’ ministry was about, and we see a similar pattern in the Samaritan woman in John 4; with the man born blind in John 9; with Zaccheus in Luke 19. He sought them out in His omniscience. That is a lovely thing. He sought you out and saved you. He sought me out and saved me when at Sunday School around 1953 or something. Remember those verses in Luke 19 - Luke 19 v 8 Zaccheus stopped and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, half of my possessions I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much,” Luke 19:9 and Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house because he, too, is a son of Abraham. Luke 19:10 The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” This is what Jesus is doing – He is seeking and saving.
Verses 3-4. John 5 v 3 In these lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered, [waiting for the moving of the waters, John 5:4 for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool, and stirred up the water. Then after the stirring up of the water, whoever first stepped in was made well from whatever disease with which he was afflicted.]
Now we come to the problematic verses. As I said it is almost certain 3b and 4 were not in the original. CBSC – “These words and the whole of John 5 v 4 are almost certainly an interpolation, though a very ancient one. They are omitted by the best MSS. Other important MSS. omit John 5 v 4 or mark it as suspicious. Moreover, those MSS. which contain the passage vary very much. The passage is one more likely to be inserted without authority than to be omitted if genuine; and very probably it represents the popular belief with regard to the intermittent bubbling of the healing water, first added as a gloss, and then inserted into the text. The water was probably mineral in its elements, and the people may or may not have been right in supposing that it was most efficacious when the spring was most violent.” Another has concluded – “Why would verse four have not been included in the original New Testament? It is not because of the angel in the story. The Bible has no problem with angels; they’re all over the place, doing all sorts of things. But, like today, there was a great deal of folklore and superstition about them. The idea that an angel stirred the waters at a given time during the year was one such superstition.”
Verses 5-7. John 5 v 5 A certain man was there who had been thirty-eight years in his sickness. John 5:6 When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had already been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you wish to get well?” John 5:7 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.”
Can you believe that? 38 years waiting for a cure, and probably a cure built on a superstition. Your heart must go out to that man. He was unnoticed by everyone, just one sick person among a misery of sick people. It is well described by Bovet speaking about the bath of Ibrahim near Tiberias: “The hall in which the spring is found, is surrounded by several porticoes in which we see a multitude of people crowded one upon another, laid on couches or rolled in blankets, with lamentable expressions of misery and suffering”. That day the infirm man had a destiny with the Worker of miracles. He did not know Jesus, but Jesus knew him. The Lord made His way to Bethesda just to meet this one in need.
Verse 6 is all so important. Look at the verse. The Lord asked the man a question. What if he had answered, “No”, or “Whatever, I don’t care.” No! The man’s answer in verse 7 would indicate he really did want to get well. That is a good reminder of the way the gospel is handled in today’s world. Today is a time of “easy believeism”. Just come to Jesus. He will make you happy and pay your debts, heal every ailment, and all the rest. Just believe in Jesus. That is a disgusting approach to the gospel and it is not the true gospel. This man had a serious problem and he knew he had a great need. They who really get converted know firstly they have a serious problem with sin and then they have a great desire to be spiritually healed/converted. The poor man here claimed he had no one to help him get to the water. Lying there, the unfortunate man was – infirmed, lonely, friendless, helpless, and almost without hope, and it could have been for 38 years. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Surgeon of the lame, The Comforter of the lonely; the Friend of the friendless; the Helper of the helpless and the Expectation of the hopeless. He was everything this man needed.
Verses 8-9. John 5 v 8 Jesus said to him, “Arise, take up your pallet and walk,” John 5:9 Immediately the man became well and took up his pallet and began to walk. Now it was the Sabbath on that day.
We see instant healing. Why? It was not because the Lord said those words to the man about taking up his pallet or rug. The Lord says, “Come unto Me”. We read the Lord has commanded everywhere men to repent. We don’t see that happening in the world because it is not accompanied by faith. This man had faith. He responded immediately because he recognised the authority in the Lord’s command. The offices of the chief priests once were commanded to go and arrest Jesus but returned empty-handed. John 7 v 45 The officers therefore came to the chief priests and Pharisees and they said to them, “Why did you not bring Him?” John 7:46 The officers answered, “Never did a man speak the way this man speaks.” There you have the answer. Jesus had the voice of authority. The sick man responded to that with faith and faith made him whole. He stood up, then gathered up his bed and walked. God’s power was on display.
John the Baptist sent a disciple to Jesus to ask “Are You the Expected One, or shall we look for someone else?” Matt. 11:4 and Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and report to John what you hear and see: Matt. 11:5 the blind receive sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.
Yes, indeed, the lame walk. Jesus heals the lame, the blind, the lepers, but most of all, He raises the spiritually dead from death to everlasting life. If anyone is in Christ Jesus, he and she are new creations, heirs of heaven and joint heirs with Christ. This poor man who had been there for 38 years was now raised to walk in newness of life. The cure which Christ wrought was perfect, for the man could carry his bed, and it was immediate, because the man was not carried home by friends and gradually nursed into vital energy. When God puts His finger on a matter, it is always perfect.
Verses 10-13. John 5 v 10 Therefore the Jews were saying to him who was cured, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not permissible for you to carry your pallet,” John 5:11 but he answered them, “He who made me well was the one who said to me, ‘Take up your pallet and walk.’” John 5:12 They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your pallet, and walk’?” John 5:13 but he who was healed did not know who it was for Jesus had slipped away while there was a crowd in that place.
The vultures were waiting. It says in the text that it was the Jews who were questioning the man, but more than likely, it was the Pharisees and their henchmen, the scribes. In fact it was the Sanhedrin, the great powerful ruling body. This hostile collection of 70, ignored the cure and noticed only what they could attack. They had the letter of the law very strongly on their side. Their questions remained unanswered because the man did not know. Verse 11 ? From CBSC, “The man’s defiance of them in the first flush of his recovered health is very natural. He means, ‘if He could cure me of a sickness of 38 years He had authority to tell me to take up my bed.’ They will not mention the cure; he flings it in their face. There is a higher law than that of the Sabbath, and higher authority than theirs.”
In verse 12, they asked, “Who is the man?” The term they used for man in the context was used contemptuously. They were despising the One about whom they were speaking, this Man who was despised and forsaken as Isaiah wrote. "Who is the man?" - "Men and women lying in moral helplessness, not helped by God's priests and rulers, are now standing and moving in the strength their new Teacher has given. The unbelievers cannot deny it; but can they prevent it? The rabbinic precept which He has crossed shall be applied to stamp out His work and kill him" (Watkins).
Verses 14-16. John 5 v 14 Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “Behold, you have become well. Do not sin anymore so that nothing worse may befall you.” John 5:15 The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well, John 5:16 and for this reason the Jews were persecuting Jesus because He was doing these things on the Sabbath.
It is not so much that Jesus “found” him, but that Jesus went to meet him. Jesus did not need to go looking for him because he could see and knew that Nathaniel was under the fig tree. He knew all things. What do we make of verse 14? This man went to the temple where he may have gone to give God thanks. (Jesus says to him ?de ????? ?????a? … ????ta?. µ???t? ?µ??ta?e). When Jesus spoke to the man he used the present imperative tense, which is “do not continue any longer in sin. Do not keep sinning”.
There is then some worse consequence of sin than thirty-eight years’ misery and uselessness if he continued in sin. Apparently Jesus feared that health of his body might only lead the man into further sin. His physical sickness for 38 years was seemingly the result of some sin - Mark 2 v 5 and Jesus seeing their faith said to the paralytic, “My son, your sins are forgiven,” The former impotent man had to take reign over his body so that he mastered sin. Sin must not have the mastery over any one of us. Do not continue in sin - Do not repeat the vice, and if repeated, it will be worse. Alfred Barnes wrote: “When a man has been restored from the effects of sin, he should learn to avoid the very appearance of evil. He should shun the place of temptation; he should not mingle again with his old companions; he should touch not, taste not, handle not. God visits with heavier judgment those who have been once restored from the ways of sin and who return again to it. The drunkard that has been reformed, and that returns to his habits of drinking, becomes more beastly; the man that professes to have experienced a change of heart, and who then indulges in sin, sinks deeper into pollution, and is seldom restored. The only way of safety in all such cases is to "continue in sin no longer;" not to be in the way of temptation; not to expose ourselves; not to touch or approach that which came near to working our ruin. The man who has been intemperate and is reformed, if he tastes the poison at all, may expect to sink deeper than ever into drunkenness and pollution.”
The man went to the Jews to tell them about Jesus. There are so many suggestions for this action, but perhaps the impression is rather, that he felt that this power came from a prophet sent by God, so he should tell this to those who were God’s representatives to the nation, supposing that they would recognise Him too. They did not. They would not. Pharisees of any type hate the Son of God. They were murderers. By the grace of God, we recognise who the Saviour is and fully accept Him as our own.
God bless you all.
ronaldf@aapt.net.au
