After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. 3 In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. 5 One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 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?” 7 The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” 8 Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” 9 And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.
John seeks to lay out for Theophilis the setting for this event, where this one invalid, among many hopeless people sticks out to Jesus. Day in and day out people came into the city with their sacrifices through the sheep gate, oblivious to these people. They all needed to be healed, but they all had a need for spiritual healing as well. This man, like the others, was putting his hope in the story he had been told about the waters being stirred up by angels at times, giving them healing powers. Jesus challenges the place of the man's trust. "If you really want to be healed, your faith needs to be in something, Someone else than these waters." If you really want your life to be changed, you need to trust and obey Him. What are you waiting for? The lottery? Prince Charming? The aligning of the planets? Wait no more. Trust and obey Christ.
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