into the question of the seeming silence of God. This time John is the narrator.
After these things there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool,which is called in Hebrew Bethesda,having five porticoes.In these lay a multi- tude of those who were sick,blind,lame,and withered,[waiting for the moving of the waters; for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water; whoever then first,after the stirring up of the water, stepped in was made well from whatever disease with which he was afflicted.] A man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years.When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had already been a long time in that condition,He said to him, “Do you wish to get well?”The sick man answered Him,“Sir,I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I am coming,another steps down before me.”Jesus said to him,“Get up, pick up your pallet and walk.”Immediately the man became well,and picked up his pallet and began to walk. Now it was the Sabbath on that day.159
Jesus identifies with us and answers the “why” question. At times, though, we also face the “when” question, as God seems silent. From John’s account we know that the crippled man who met Jesus at the pool of Bethesda was healed miraculously that day. But what about the 38 years that preceded it? Where was God then? Let’s try to put ourselves in the place of this crippled man, not out of pity but out of reality and understanding.
John says that the crippled man had been in this condition for 38 years. We have to remember that in those days medicine was still in a very primitive state. Little or no provision was made for health care or the needs of invalids. There were no wheelchairs or handicap ramps. Unless family members took care of them, lame persons such as he usu- ally were reduced to begging in order to survive. Every day for 38 years he had lain by the pool of Bethesda, waiting for the stirring of the waters. Perhaps the man had no family. I wonder how many days and times he lay there in his own urine just wanting help. He probably reached the place many times of just wanting to give up.At any rate, he had no one to help him into the pool when the water was stirred and he was unable to get in by himself, so someone else always got in ahead of him and he would miss his chance. It was a pretty hopeless situation.
Why did he persist? Why did he stay there day after day? Perhaps he had nowhere else to go. This man apparently possessed at least a measure
of faith. He believed in the stirring of the waters. He believed that an angel from God occasionally stirred the water so that the first person to enter the pool would be healed. Perhaps he stayed there day after day because he always held out a glimmer of hope that one day it would be his day.
How did this man get to the pool? Perhaps he lived there. Maybe he had staked out his own little corner under one of the porticoes so he would be safe from the sun and the rain. More likely, however, is that someone brought him. Many miracles require two elements: a man or a woman and a supernatural God. God then uses that man or woman as a conduit for His wonder-working power. You may be the man or woman whom God wants to use in just such a manner.
One day Jesus came to the pool. With all the multitudes of sick and desperate people who undoubtedly were at the pool, why did Jesus single out this man? The Bible does not say. Imagine the scene: scores, perhaps hundreds, of sick people with all sorts of ailments crowded together as close to the water as possible. Some are moaning, some are screaming from pain, some are weeping, some are cursing, and some are praying. Many others simply sit or lie in silence with hopelessness in their eyes. On everyone’s mind are the questions:“When will the angel come? How will I get in? Will I get in first? Will today be my healing day?”
Jesus asks the crippled man,“Do you want to get well?” The man’s response comes, in part, from out of his fatigue factor after years of dis- appointment:“I have no man to put me into the pool.” Jesus shows up in the middle of the why, the how, and the when and asks the man a rather bizarre question. He is saying, in effect,“Hey you, lying there on that pal- let, why are you here anyway? What is it you really want?”