April 21, 2021 John 5: 1-7
54Now this was the second sign that Jesus did
after coming from Judea to Galilee.
After this
there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in
Hebrew Beth-zatha, which has five porticoes. 3In these lay many invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. 5One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. 6When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been
there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be made well?” 7The 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 making my way, someone
else steps down ahead of me.” 8Jesus said to him, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.” 9At once the man was made well, and he took up his
mat and began to walk. Now that day was a sabbath. 10So the Jews said to the man who had been cured, “It is the
sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.” 11But he answered them, “The man who made me well said to me,
‘Take up your mat and walk.’” 12They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take it up
and walk’?” 13Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for
Jesus had disappeared in the crowd that was there. 14Later Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See,
you have been made well! Do not sin any more, so that nothing worse happens to
you.” 15The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had
made him well. 16Therefore the Jews started persecuting Jesus, because he was
doing such things on the sabbath.
So, there is no precise time stamp given here. “After this”, after Jesus was in Galilee, he
returned to Jerusalem for a festival.
This festival is not named. Jesus
went ‘up’ to Jerusalem. This is how
Jerusalem is referred to throughout the Bible, one goes ‘up’ to it. Geographically, this is true because it is
built on a hill. David captured it from
the Jebusites, long after the occupation of the Promised Land by the Israelites,
so it was a well-defended fortress, built on a rocky spur.
Theologically, one climbs ‘up’ to Jerusalem because it is
the City of God. The Temple is located
here, this is where the worship of God is centered.
The pools of Beth-zatha (from the Hebrew), usually transliterated
as Bethesda, are north of the City of Jerusalem. They are located north of the temple, outside
the City Walls. The Sheep Gate, as
referred to here, appears to be the gate through which the livestock were
brought in that were used in the animal sacrifices in the Temple.
What are these pools?
Honestly, I think they are a place where the handicapped-the blind, the lame
and the paralyzed-were parked to keep them out of mind and out of sight. It seems to me to be the nearest thing to a 'long term care’ facility that they had in those days.
Does not strike me that it is in the ‘good part’ of town, being located
over where the animals were herded into the Temple. We do not know exactly what the porticos were,
we assume they were areas under roofs for the people to have some shelter from
the elements.
From the entire assemblage under these five porticoes,
Jesus singles out a single resident. It
says the man has been ill for 38 years.
How many years he has spent at the Pool is not specified, except that
Jesus knew he’d been there a ‘long time’.
Why is that even important? It probably
isn’t, but I wonder if this man’s illness began 38 years ago but he was moved
out to the pools once he was no longer manageable at home.
The question Jesus asks looks like an obvious one. “Do you want to be healed?” The man-and I should acknowledge here that he
too is unnamed-interprets Jesus’ question in light of the current medical avenues
open to him, the miraculous healing associated with the pool. Seems that when the water stirs up, first one
there gets a miracle. I can hear the
bitterness in his voice as he describes how he tries to get down there, but
there is always another who cuts him off and gets to the healing first. That is why, in my mind, when I am telling
this story, I think he may not always have been here. His response is one of bitterness. Makes me think there might once have been people
to help him.
As I read this, I need to rethink something about
naming. This man is not named, neither
was the woman at Sychar named. I stand
by my statement of misogyny in the bible, but I need to temper that statement
too. The gospel story is the story of
Jesus. Leaving those with whom he interacts
nameless keeps them out of the center of the story. It is about the healer, not the healed, about
the ‘converter’, not the converted. This
does NOT mean I am walking back what I feel about misogyny. But the line to walk to one of recognizing
the truths of how the Scripture was written with the recognition of the time in
which it was written.
More later.
Peace, Pastor Peter
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