from WL Worcester (H Blackmer, ed.), 
The Sower.  Helps to the Study of the Bible in Home and Sunday School
 
(Boston: Massachusetts New-Church Union, n.d.)

Table of Contents
 

 

Lesson 9

John 5: 1-18  At the Pool of Bethesda

The Story

Primary

The Lord came again to Jerusalem at the time of a feast, and He went among the people at the pool of Bethesda. There were sick people there, for it was a pool to which people came for healing. I must show you a picture of a pool that is still in Jerusalem, called the pool of Hezekiah. We can still see the pools of Siloam. There was at times a moving of the water in the pool of Bethesda, and there was a beautiful belief about it, that "an angel went down at a certain season into the pool and troubled the water. Whosoever then first, after the troubling of the water, stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had." There were by the pool porches with steps going down to the water, where sick people were lying, waiting for the moving of the water, hoping to be healed. The Lord saw among these people a man who had been sick thirty-eight years, lying helpless on his mat. The Lord asked him, "Wilt thou be made whole?" He had no one to help him into the water when it was troubled. "Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed and walk." We feel very glad for the poor man that he was healed. But it was the Sabbath day. What would some of the Jews say, who were so strict that not the least work should be done on the Sabbath? They thought little about the wonderful healing of the poor man, but were angry that the Lord had done this work and also had told the man to carry his mat on the Sabbath day. The Lord on the Sabbath did many works of healing and of kindness.

Junior

There was a feast of the Jews and the Lord came again from Galilee to Jerusalem. The Gospel does not say that it was a Passover, and it may have been a lesser feast kept earlier in the spring. The Lord was among the people at the pool of Bethesda. The name is usually understood to mean "house of mercy." The pools were little reservoirs of water, sometimes right among the buildings of the city. If you can, see pictures of the pool of Hezekiah and of the pools of Siloam. When we read the story of Hezekiah we shall learn of interesting work that he did for the water supply of Jerusalem. The only living spring at Jerusalem, the Virgin's Fountain, is in the Kidron valley, under the temple hill. The spring is intermittent, alternately flowing and resting. Perhaps the pool of Bethesda was supplied by this spring. But read the beautiful belief in regard to the healing power of the water in verse 4 of our chapter. The Crusaders at a later time built a chapel where they believed the pool of Bethesda to have been, and painted on the wall a picture of the angel troubling the water. What can you learn from our chapter about the structure of the, pool, when the Lord came among the sick people there?

The Lord came among these sick people, and He saw one man who had been sick thirty-eight years. Of course the Lord knew all about him, but He said to him, "Wilt thou be made whole?" Then the man told the Lord that he had no friend to help him down to the water when it was "troubled," but someone else who was not so helpless always got down to the pool first, and then it was too late for him. Thirty-eight years this poor man had been helpless; we can hardly imagine his surprise when the Lord said to him, "Rise, take up thy bed, and walk." Think of his joy, as he felt that he was well and obeyed the Lord. Folding up his bed or mat, upon which he lay, he walked out from among all those sick people.

It would seem that this healing of the sick man was done so quietly that the people about did not realize what was going on, and that even the man himself did not know who it was who had healed him.

You remember that this was the Jews' Sabbath, and this man went out into the city carrying his bed (or mat)! This was contrary to their laws, contrary even to the laws that the Lord had given to their fathers. But He had come to give them new laws for His day; to teach men that it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath day. The Jews however did not rejoice with the sick man that he was made well. They did not praise the Lord's power which was able to do so great a miracle. They only found fault with the man for carrying his bed on the Sabbath day, and when they knew that it was Jesus who had healed him and told him to carry his bed, they were so angry that they tried to kill Him for doing these things on the Sabbath day.

The laws given to the Jews respecting the observance of the Sabbath were very strict. (Exodus 23:12; 31:14; 35:2, 3; Numbers 15:32; Nehemiah 13:15; Jeremiah 17:21) But their own laws were far more oppressive. Their Sabbath was from sunset of our Friday to sunset of our Saturday. During that time they might only carry of food something less than a dried fig. There were some kinds of knots that it was lawful to tie on the Sabbath, and by tying others they broke the Sabbath. They must not write two letters of the alphabet that could be read together, and it was a question among the Rabbis whether a man who wrote one letter in the morning, and forgetting wrote another in the evening, had not broken the law. Such laws were not the Lord's laws for keeping His day. (See Geikie, "The Life and Words of Christ," Vol. 2, p. 90.)

The Lord told them that the Divine love that was in Him, "the Father," which was His life, was always working, and that He must do Its will. This made the Jews all the more angry, for they had refused to believe Him to be their Messiah, and it made them doubly angry when He claimed to be of the same Spirit as the Heavenly Father. This note of sadness keeps coming into the story from now until the end; this hatred of the leaders of the Jews towards the Lord; this determination of theirs to destroy Him. He must keep out of their way till His work on earth was done. But we can think how anxious His disciples must have been for His safety.


1. What is the meaning of "Bethesda"? What was it? Where was it?

2. What did the Lord ask the sick man at Bethesda? What did He tell him to do?

3. What warning did He afterwards give him?

4. Why did the Jews object to the man's carrying his bed?

5. What difference was there between the Jews' keeping of the Sabbath and the Lord's?

Spiritual Study

Intermediate

The name "Bethesda" means "house of mercy." Can you mention several other names of places which begin with Beth, house?

This whole chapter teaches very strongly that the Lord was one with the Father. The love and power of His works was the Divine love, and the wisdom of His words the Divine truth. We find the same lesson in the Lord's words, "I and my Father are one" (John 10:30); and in His words to Philip (John 14:8-11). Much help on this subject is given in a long number of the Arcana, 3704.

Washing was at other times a means of cure. Naaman dipped seven times in Jordan. (2 Kings 5) The blind man washed in the pool of Siloam. (John 9) Washing represented the cleansing of the life from evil by the help of the Lord's commandments. By the moving of the water of Bethesda, as by shaking or moving in many places in Scripture, is represented vivifying by spiritual power, here the vivifying of repentance by influx from the Lord and heaven, when it is performed with acknowledgment and faith. There was this meaning in the waving or shaking of certain offerings before the Lord. (Exodus 29:24) Spiritual diseases are evil conditions of the soul, and the washing of repentance is an important means of cure. Here the healing power of the water was attributed to the moving of the pool by an angel. It is the presence of the Lord and the angels in the commandments and in all the letter of the Word, which vivifies the letter and makes it powerful to help us. (E. 239; A. 10083)

Do you remember other cases in which the Lord required persons to say what they desired Him to do, before He gave His help? (Mark 10:51) We must know that we are in need, and must desire the Lord's help, before He can spiritually help us. The more definite our sense of what we need, and the more earnest our desire, the more full can be His help. It is one use of prayer, that it makes the thought definite in regard to what we need, and makes the desire earnest. (R. 376)

Were there other times when those whom the Lord healed were bidden to arise? (Mark 10:49) Was there at least one other time when one was told to arise and take up his bed? (Mark 2:11) What spiritual effort is represented by this arising, which must often be needed before the diseases of evil, with their weakness and suffering, can be removed? It represents the effort to look up to better things, and not only to look up to them, but actually to leave the low, evil ways, and to live a better life. Compare the resolve of the prodigal son: "I will arise, and go to my father." (A. 2401, 4881)

With this consider also the phrase which occurs in the first verse of the chapter, and very often in the Bible: going up to Jerusalem. The city did stand high upon its hills, but the natural going up represents the coming into an elevated state of nearness to the Lord. (A. 3084, 4539)

The curing of physical diseases by the Lord besides being in itself a work of Divine mercy, also showed the Lord's desire and power to heal men's souls. "That ye may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins, then saith He to the sick of the palsy, Arise, take up thy bed and go unto thine house." (Matthew 9:6) In some cases the disease was an effect of the evil state of the one afflicted. The Lord's words to the man healed at Bethesda, Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee," imply that it was so in his case. Perhaps the Lord's first words to the sick man, as in so many cases, touch at once the root of his trouble, "Wilt thou be made whole?" How many diseases of mind and body would be cured if we really desired to be made whole! We partly wish to be healed, but partly prefer the evil way. We do not desire the healing enough to do our part and accept the Lord's help. Are we weak-willed in desiring to be whole? It is a trouble with us all, which the Lord points out by His searching question.

What deeper meaning is there in the charge to the sick man to take up his bed and walk? A bed on which one lies sick when sick or tired represents principles or beliefs upon which the mind falls back and finds support when it is feeble and discouraged. For example, if one is almost paralyzed by sudden grief, he cannot reason, he can only cling to the truths that he surely knows: that there is a God; that His love and providence are over all. Such truths or doctrines are as a bed on which the mind rests and finds support and comfort. But we must not remain inactive. We must go on with the work of life, and in so doing must apply in a more active way the doctrines on which we have leaned in our helpless state. As we do this we take up our bed, and as we go forward with the duties of life we walk. It is in the effort to do this, that the strength to do it is given by the Lord. Compare the healing of a withered hand, as the man stretched it forth. (Matthew 12:13; A. 10360; E. 163)

"On the same day was the Sabbath." It is a Sabbath, a heavenly state, when the effort has been made obediently to put our doctrines into life, and the Lord has blessed our effort. Compare the healing of the nobleman's son "at the seventh hour." (John 4:52) The Jews objected to the carrying of the bed on the Sabbath. Their ideal of religion and of heaven was of technical knowledge and formal piety, and not of carrying doctrine into practical good life. (A. 10360, 8495)

The thirty and eight years of the man's infirmity must be descriptive of the spiritual state which he represents. The thirty seems to mean the fullness of the experience of trial; and the eight, which is a full week and one more, suggests the readiness to make a new beginning and to enter upon a happier state. (A. 2044)

"Sin no more." This charge and warning given to the man who was healed, teach the greater blame and greater harm if we choose evil after we have knowledge and power to do better. See Matthew 12:45, and P. 231, seventh kind of profanation.

The Lord did not reveal Himself to the man before the multitude and at the time of healing his body, but when He met him in the temple and charged him to sin no more. The Lord desired and now desires men to know Him as the healer of their souls, as the one who strengthens them to sin no more. Compare Mark 2:10. Until we know the Lord so, we really do not know Him.

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