Posted on by

038 Jesus the healer in the gospel of John 1 of 2 – The healing at the pool


Lessons about healing from John

None of the Gospel writers tell us of all the miracles of healing Jesus performed.

John has chosen to record only three (4:46-54, 5:1-15, 9:1-25) although he makes it very clear that Jesus did many more (John 20:30).

His purpose in recording them, along with the other miracles he tells us about, is that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you might have life through his name (John 20:31).

So John’s aim is not so much to tell us how we may be healed as to enable us to be saved by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ (cf. John 3:16).

This is why John always refers to Jesus’ miracles as signs. They point to who he is.

We are going to consider two of the healings recorded by John

  • The invalid at the Pool of Bethesda(John 5:1-15)
  • The man born blind(John 9: 1-25),

Although there is much to be learned about healing from both these accounts, the important thing is that they should lead us to be saved through faith in Jesus

The invalid at the Pool of  Bethesda (John 5:1-15)

The Pool of Bethesda (which means House of Mercy) was in Jerusalem.

A great number of disabled people used to lie there hoping to be healed by an angel who would come every so often and stir up the waters.

John tells us that one who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.

When Jesus saw him, he said to him, Do you want to get well?

The man replied that he had no-one to help him into the pool when the water was stirred.

Then Jesus said to him, Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.

The man was immediately healed, picked up his mat, and walked!

This was on the Sabbath day.

Jesus slipped away into the crowd but the Jews rebuked the man who had been healed for carrying his mat on the Sabbath.

The man replied that it was the man who had made him well who had told him to.

So they asked him who the man was, but the man did not know.

Later, Jesus found him and said, See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you (v.14).

Then the man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.

Lessons from story

  1. A great number of sick people gathered at the pool (v.3), but Jesus healed only one of them on this occasion.
  2. This is strikingly different from some of the other accounts, particularly in Matthew (4:23-24, 8:16, 9:35) where we are told that Jesus healed all.
  3. Of course, this is not a contradiction with the accounts in Matthew, as Matthew does not record this particular miracle.
  4. Although there were occasions when Jesus healed all (as Matthew tells us)
  5. there were other occasions when he did not (as John makes clear here).

We notice that it was Jesus who took the initiative on this occasion.

  1. The man does not call out to Jesus
  2. He does not even know who Jesus is (v.13)
  3. So he can hardly exercise faith in Jesus!
  4. In fact, he does nothing towards his healing. He can do nothing! He is helpless and hopeless.
  5. He does not even have anyone to bring him to Jesus.
  6. It is Jesus alone who is responsible for the miracle.
  7. The only part the man plays, if we may call it that, is to want to get well (v.6).

In many respects, therefore, this miracle is a wonderful picture of the salvation

  1. Humanity as a whole suffers from an incurable condition, the disease of sin.
  2. We are helpless and hopeless without Jesus.
  3. But, thank God, he has taken the initiative.
  4. He has died for our sins and our condition can be cured if we want to get well.
  5. Of course, unlike the man in the story, we now know who Jesus is.
  6. We can call out to him in faith. And it is through believing in him that we receive eternal life!

It is significant that this man’s illness seems to have been caused by his sin.

  1. We are not told what that sin was, but the fact that Jesus says in verse 14, Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you, clearly implies that sin was the cause of the sickness.
  2. This does not mean that all sickness is the result of personal sin, but here, the most natural way to interpret the passage is to understand that the man’s sickness was caused by his sin (so Carson).
  3. Note the similarity to the account of the healing of the man who was let down through the roof in front of Jesus (Luke 5:17-26).

In both cases:

  1. the men are healed with almost the same command, Get up! Pick up your mat and walk!
  2. the sickness appears to be connected with personal sin
  3. there is opposition from the Jews
  4. there is a clear indication of the deityof Jesus.

With regard to this last point, in the passage in Luke it is Jesus’ claim to have authority to forgive sins that his opponents rightly see as a claim to deity.

Here in John 5, however, it is his insistence that he is doing his Father’s work in healing on the Sabbath that is seen as making himself equal with God (vv. 17-18).