“1 After these things 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, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porticoes. 3 In these lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered, waiting for the moving of the waters; 4 for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water; whoever then first, after the stirring up of the water, stepped in was made well from whatever disease with which he was afflicted. 5 A man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had already been a long time in that condition, He said to him, ‘Do you wish to get well?’ 7 The sick man answered Him, ‘Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I am coming, another steps down before me.’ 8 Jesus said to him, ‘Get up, pick up your pallet and walk.’ 9 Immediately the man became well, and picked up his pallet and began to walk’”John 5:1-9.
Jesus never disregarded the obligations of Jewish worship which would have included the Feast of Pentecost, the most likely reason Jesus was in Jerusalem for our story today. The term Pentecost comes from the Greek word meaning “fiftieth,” in reference to the fiftieth day after the start of the Passover festival in early spring. In 1st century Jerusalem Pentecost is known as Shavuot, or the Festival of Weeks. Shavuot was an obligatory festival for Jews living within 15 miles of Jerusalem marking the conclusion of the springtime grain harvest. For this reason, it is also referred to as the Festival of the Harvest and the Day of the First Fruits. In the first century, Shavuot, was primarily an agricultural festival, culminating in a pilgrimage to the Jerusalem temple. Loaves of bread would be made from the harvested wheat and offered at the temple.
The sheep gate was at one of the entrances into the temple, a place where sheep were sacrificed. There was also a pool there, with twin basins, named Bethesda, where there was a tradition that when new water bubbled up inside the pool an angel was stirring up the water for healing. In the healing there was no requirement for faith, only the tradition that the first one in the waters would be healed. The man in our story was too disabled to get into the pool in time so he lay there for 38 years unable to walk. Certainly this most pitiable man garnered the attention of Jesus who was always the friend of the helpless and friendless and outcasts of society.
Jesus’ questions the man asking if he wanted to be cured. This was Jesus’ way of seeing the level of the man’s desire to receive the healing power of Jesus. This is a question for us all as well: Do you desire to be changed by Jesus? Or are you content to continue to muddle along in life relying on your own understanding of your capabilities?
I love Jesus’ command to get up. But notice that He demands that the man also pick up the pallet on which he lay for 38 years— and walk. Taking the pallet with him is Jesus’ way of saying: You must make an effort too, you must cooperate with Me! I think it was Jesus’ way of making sure this man remembered who it was that healed him and that it was time to change his life. And carrying his pallet was also a way for the man to show others who Jesus was! Jesus healed and now He wanted the man to make the effort too — along with Christ.
Pray that you may not take 38 years of your life to respond to the presence of Christ in your life. Pray that you pick up whatever you’re stuck on in your life — and let Christ heal you — let Christ change you.
Oh dear Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner. may I not remain stuck on my “pallet” but stand up and follow You in my life. Forgive me and help me to do just that. Through Christ, our Lord, Amen.
From the Bible:
“If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, your healer” Exodus 15:26.
“Who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases” Psalm 103:3?
“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed”1 Peter 2:24.
“But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed”
Isaiah 53:5.
“That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: “He took our illnesses and bore our diseases” Matthew 8:16-17.
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