John 5:1-23

5:1-3 | Bethesda means “house of mercy,” a fitting name for such a pool because those who gathered there needed healing. John calls the gathered ones astheneia which is translated “without strength or power.” Spiritually and physically, the people had no strength and were in need of God’s mercy.

5:2 | While the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem is walled in today, in Jesus’ time it was an open passage, perhaps named due to its function of allowing shepherds to move their herds in and out of the city. Archaeologists have discovered a pool near the Sheep Gate, presumably the pool in this passage, that is fed by underground springs. The springs periodically would erupt and disperse a sediment that apparently had a medicinal effect on those who were bathing.

5:5-7 | That the man had no one to help him into the pool probably meant that his family had abandoned him. Perhaps his all-but-hopeless condition prompted Jesus to set His sights on him while choosing not to heal anyone else there. God makes forsaken individuals His highest priority.

5:6 | Although Jesus knew the answer to His own question, He wanted the man to verbalize his need. The paralytic did not need just any man: he needed Jesus.

5:8-9 | Jesus’ command to Rise, take up your bed and walk must have sounded preposterous to bystanders - except that, when Jesus healed the man, he did, in fact, do as instructed. In some sense, precisely because carrying a mat on the Sabbath was forbidden by His contemporaries, Jesus was provoking a reaction. Wisdom knows when to avoid a controversy; wisdom also knows when to cause one.