One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 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?" 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." Jesus said to him, "Get up, take up your bed, and walk." And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. – John 5:5-9a (ESV)
The pools, called Bethesda (Aramaic for ‘house of outpouring’), are one of the archeological sites in Jerusalem about which there is little debate. A man had been waiting at a pool, hoping that he would be healed. We see how even the utterly hopeless, those who think their best chance at restoration is a fanciful stab at some capricious or non-existent fairy tale, can find true hope and true healing in Christ. Yes, truly, we all need Jesus.
This is a model of what the pools would have looked like in Roman times, two pools surrounded by red-roofed colonnades. They are set up like Roman baths and may have had some medicinal properties in their springs. There is some indication that the water may have been red, possibly from a chalybeate spring. You can still see the ruins of the pools in Jerusalem today. (Note: photo is from bibleplaces.com)
Now we see the fulfillment of Christ compared to the hopes of this age.
· In John 2, Jesus gives the new wine of the kingdom which the purification pots could never have produced.
· In John 3, Jesus gives insight that exceeded the learning of a Jewish ruler and religious teacher.
· In John 4, Jesus gives living water that the wells of Jacob never brought forth.
· Again in John 4, Jesus gives healing to a child who, for all his father’s power and connections, could not rescue him.
· And now in John 5, Jesus provides healing that no superstitious waters could ever supply.
