Swimming is an excellent form of exercise, if you can find the right venue to employ it.
When Jeff, a navy lieutenant was assigned to sea duty for the first time, his father-in-law asked him if he thought there was a way to continue his daily fitness program. Jeff said there is an exercise room on board, then added, "There's a large swimming pool too...if you can keep up with the ship!"
Swimming is an excellent form of exercise, if you can find the right venue to employ it. Jerusalem during the first century had several pools, but they were not for exercise. Many pools were for ritual cleansing, but one in particular, The Pool of Bethesda, was a therapy pool, not for people recovering from a malady but for people who wanted to be cured from a malady, like the paralytic who needed assistance getting into the pool but lamented: There is "No One to Help Me."
On a trip to Jerusalem (probably) during the Passover celebration, Jesus went to a local pool that supposedly had curative properties (perhaps because of "mineral elements;" and attracted people with various infirmities. There he met a man who had been a regular attendee at the facility for several years, always hoping that he would benefit from the pool's medicinal reputation.
I. Jesus meets the paralytic (John5:1-7).
On a trip to Jerusalem (probably) during the Passover celebration, Jesus went to a local pool that supposedly had curative properties (perhaps because of "mineral elements;" and attracted people with various infirmities. There he met a man who had been a regular attendee at the facility for several years, always hoping that he would benefit from the pool's medicinal reputation.
I. Jesus meets the paralytic (John5:1-7).
John 5:1 Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed., 5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, "Do you want to get well?" 7 "Sir," the invalid replied, "I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me."
A tradition grew up around the healing properties of this pool, such that people would go there or be brought there in the hope that they might experience its miraculous powers. Evidently, the rule is "Only those who come first (daily?) are served." Jesus chooses this man, who is there but not mobile enough to get in the water, to receive his ministration. There were probably others at the pool that day, but Jesus chose to direct his attention and curative ability to this man.
A. The man desperately needs the rabbi's healing.
Before Jesus heals the man, though, he checks the paralytic's sincerity: "Do you want to get well?" (v. 6).
B. The rabbi questions his desire for healing.
It is strange to ask someone who "had been an invalid for thirty-eight years" (v. 5). Why would he not want to walk again? Has the paralytic grown accustomed to his plight, perhaps enjoying the sympathy it generates in others? Whatever the reason, Jesus wants the paralytic's request to be direct and unambiguous.
Application: Although God always knows what His people need, it is important they communicate their needs directly and unambiguously, not for His sake but for their own, to ensure that their reasons for asking are right. James writes, "You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures." (Jms 4:2c-3) It is important to be forthright in prayer—"present your requests to God" (Phil 4:6)—but the Lord also wants you to be honest with yourself, to know (recognize) and make known (register) your motivation. You cannot fool God, so do not fool yourself.
II. Jesus heals the paralytic (John 5:8-13).
II. Jesus heals the paralytic (John 5:8-13).
John 5:8 Then Jesus said to him, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk." 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 10 and so the [Jewish authorities], said to the man who had been healed, "It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat." 11 But he replied, "The man who made me well said to me, 'Pick up your mat and walk." 12 So they asked him, "Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?" 13 The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.
Most of Jesus' healings are immediate, and this one is no exception: "At once the man was cured" (v. 9), and without any need of the water. In case there is any doubt in people's mind as they see him walk by, he has evidence that he is the same person who spent so much of his life by the pool.
A. The man carries proof of his cure.
What makes this healing especially noteworthy is the day on which Jesus chooses to perform it—the Sabbath—not that healing is more difficult (complicated) on that day, but that it is more daring (controversial) then because of a prevailing opinion among some that healing is an inappropriate activity on the seventh day, that healing constitutes work, which God forbade on the Sabbath. Jesus could have avoided the issue entirely by healing the next day. After thirty-nine years, one more day would hardly matter. Apparently, that is not the point—and it is about more than this one man—he wants to make.
B. The rabbi does not conceal his identity.
Still, the initial objection these individuals raise is not to Jesus' healing on the Sabbath—that comes later—but to the former paralytic's carrying his mat on the Sabbath. They are not referring to a special prohibition against 'mat-carrying' but to the general prohibition against work, which Jewish tradition later expands to include thirty-nine specific activities, such as carrying any kind of load, like a mat. The man attempts to justify his action by shifting responsibility away from himself: "The man who made me well said to me, 'Pick up your mat and walk" (v. 11). ("I was only following orders.") It works, because the authorities ask him to identify the 'real' transgressor, the one who broke a greater command, and it is about to get worse.
Application: It is important to recognize the distinctions in God's commands, not that some have more authority than others but that some have greater priority than others. While all His precepts are important, not all precepts are equally relevant to every situation, and some precepts are relevant to many situations. The challenge is to emphasize what He emphasizes. That requires you to become familiar with the entirety of what God has commanded— which is more than the Decalogue— so that you can focus on the applicability of what God commanded. Heed Joshua's exhortation to the Israelites about to enter the Promised Land:
Application: It is important to recognize the distinctions in God's commands, not that some have more authority than others but that some have greater priority than others. While all His precepts are important, not all precepts are equally relevant to every situation, and some precepts are relevant to many situations. The challenge is to emphasize what He emphasizes. That requires you to become familiar with the entirety of what God has commanded— which is more than the Decalogue— so that you can focus on the applicability of what God commanded. Heed Joshua's exhortation to the Israelites about to enter the Promised Land:
Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. (Josh 1:8)
III. Jesus instructs the paralytic (John 5:14-18).
John 5:14 Later Jesus found him at the temple 17 and said to him, "See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you." 15 The man went away and told the [Jewish authorities] that it was Jesus who had made him well. 16 So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted him. 17 Jesus said to them, "My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working." 18 For this reason the [Jewish authorities] tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
When next Jesus appears to the former paralytic, he either identifies himself or the man recognizes the rabbi. Jesus' words, however, are not particularly uplifting: "Stop sinning" (v. 14).
A. The man has a dubious record.
Evidently, despite his malady, the paralytic still managed to sin, which proves that one does not need to be active to disobey God. Jesus says that the man must be careful now lest sinful behavior cause a physical relapse or worse.
The man goes to the religious authorities with the identity of his benefactor, and they confront Jesus, criticizing him for breaking the Sabbath, but his response exposes an even greater sin.
The man goes to the religious authorities with the identity of his benefactor, and they confront Jesus, criticizing him for breaking the Sabbath, but his response exposes an even greater sin.
B. The rabbi makes an inflammatory claim.
He assumes parity with God. This is even worse than questioning (even altering) the law. His critics understand the implication of this claim, and it intensifies their opposition to him. "For this reason the [Jewish authorities] tried all the harder to kill him" (v. 18).
Application: Even a sedentary life style can be contrary to God's will, because sin is not only what you do, it is also what you think. "Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander" (Matt 15:19). This does not refer to random and disparate thoughts but to allowing one's mind to dwell on subject matter that God considers inappropriate.
In one of Jesus' early miracles, he confronts two issues that will gain greater attention later in his ministry—his messianic authority and his God-like identity both of which receive supernatural confirmation in the healing of a paralytic, a man most people ignored for years. From having "No One to Help Me" the paralytic went to having someone of great importance to help him. Was it worth the wait? Most definitely, because it meant a cure that was not only guaranteed to work (and last), it served to identify both the savior of Israel and the Son of God.
Application: Even a sedentary life style can be contrary to God's will, because sin is not only what you do, it is also what you think. "Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander" (Matt 15:19). This does not refer to random and disparate thoughts but to allowing one's mind to dwell on subject matter that God considers inappropriate.
In one of Jesus' early miracles, he confronts two issues that will gain greater attention later in his ministry—his messianic authority and his God-like identity both of which receive supernatural confirmation in the healing of a paralytic, a man most people ignored for years. From having "No One to Help Me" the paralytic went to having someone of great importance to help him. Was it worth the wait? Most definitely, because it meant a cure that was not only guaranteed to work (and last), it served to identify both the savior of Israel and the Son of God.
For the Bibliography and Endnotes see the pdf here.
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Jim Skaggs