03.14. In Jerusalem again

In Jerusalem again When Jesus made a brief trip to Jerusalem for a religious festival, one place he visited was the Pool of Bethesda, where many blind and crippled people hoped for miraculous healing. One man wanted Jesus to help him, not for healing (for he did not know who Jesus was), but for assistance into the pool.¹

Jesus must have known that this man’s troubles were in some way connected with his own wrongdoing, so he not only healed the man but also urged him to repent of his sin. The man, however, showed neither gratitude nor repentance. On the contrary, he reported Jesus to hostile Jewish leaders who were looking for him.²

These Jewish leaders argued that Jesus, in healing people on the Sabbath, was doing work and therefore breaking the Jewish law. Jesus replied that his Father also worked on the Sabbath – for example, in providing constant care for all his creatures – but this angered the Jews even more.³ This incident and the teaching that flowed from it remind us of important issues relating to life and death. Jesus showed his followers that they should always have loving care for those who suffer. But they might also have opportunity to speak of those deeper issues of life that people fail to see when personal circumstances cloud their vision.

Yet even in the face of death, people can have certainty. Those who receive Jesus as the God-sent Saviour find that they have passed from death to life. Consequently, the prospect of physical death holds no terror, because it cannot extinguish the eternal life God has put within them. Although they will stand before Christ in the final judgment, there will be no condemnation for those who have received the eternal life he made available.⁴ 1. John 5:1-7; John 5:13

2. John 5:8-15

3. John 5:16-18

4. John 5:19-24

Pool of Bethesda