Jesus the Great Physician

John 5:2-17

GOLDEN TEXT: “Wilt thou be made whole?”—John 5:6

THE word Bethesda signifies “house of mercy.” This was the name given to a large structure with porches connected with a pool of water, situated near the walls of Jerusalem. The pool appears to have been fed by a spring whose underground reservoir served as a trap for certain gases. When the gas accumulated in this reservoir it would force out the water, much after the same manner that oil wells sometimes flow out their contents. These flows of water impregnated with the gases occurred at irregular intervals, and at such times the water in the pool would be disturbed or made to boil by the inflow and by the gases it contained.

The explanation has been offered that this phenomenon not being understood, many considered that the agitation of the pool was miraculous, attributing it to an angel from heaven. Partly, perhaps, by the energizing influence of faith, and partly by some medicinal quality imparted to the water by the gases, cures were effected which caused the pool to have considerable fame throughout that district. Benefit from the gases is suggested by the fact that it was only those who entered the water immediately after the agitation who profited by it. A number of such springs are known today in various parts of the world, and many of them have a medicinal quality without any claim of a miracle.

The House of Mercy with its five porches was built for a public sanatorium for the benefit and convenience of those who desired to use the agitated pool, and this explains why a great multitude of the sick, blind, halt, withered, lay in these porches waiting for an opportunity to benefit by the agitation of the waters.

In this connection it should be noted that old Greek manuscripts omit the last seven words of verse 3, and all of verse 4.

We may be sure that He who loved the whole world so much that He left the glory with the Father, and assumed human nature that He might die and redeem and ultimately deliver us from the power of sin and its penalty, sickness and death, must have sympathized with the multitude of sufferers before Him, crowding one upon another for the opportunity to receive benefit from the agitated waters.

Nevertheless, despite all this sympathy, the record shows that our Lord healed but one of them. Indeed, so far as we may judge, this was in line with His usual custom, as illustrated also in His discourses in which He pointed out that while in God’s providence there were widows in Israel during the famine time, Elijah was only sent to the widow of Sarepta, and while there were many lepers in Israel, Elisha healed only Naaman, the Syrian. (Luke 4:25-27) Similarly, there were great multitudes of sick at this house of mercy, but Jesus healed only one.

The reason for this is not, difficult to find. Our Lord at His first advent was in the world not to deliver it from the power of sin and death and Satan, but to redeem it, and any deliverances which He granted at that time were only partial and illustrative—demonstrations of His power, intended to awaken faith in Him and His redemptive work on the part of those who had the ear of faith to hear and the eye of faith to see.

Our Lord’s words to His followers, “Greater works than these shall ye do, because I go unto My Father,” will have their real fulfillment in the Kingdom, when the church will share with Jesus in healing all the sick, and raising all the dead. There is a sense, however, in which the church even now engages in a work of healing; namely, that of assisting others along spiritual lines—healing spiritual diseases.

Our Lord’s salutation to the healed man later in the Temple must have been very significant, showing the latter that He was not only able to heal, but that He had knowledge of the sins which had led up to the diseased condition thirty-eight years previously. He said to him, “Behold thou art made whole; sin no more lest a worse thing befall thee.” There is a valuable lesson in our Redeemer’s counsel, still more valuable and helpful to those who have by the Lord’s grace been healed of sin-sickness, justified, and accepted into God’s family as sons of God. When thus liberated a fresh responsibility is upon us. As the apostle declares, If we sin willfully after we have received a knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin, but we may surely look for judgment and fiery indignation which would devour us as adversaries of God.—Heb. 10:26-31; 6:4-9

QUESTIONS:

What is the suggested explanation of the phenomenon of the troubled waters in the Pool of Bethesda.

Why did Jesus heal only one of the suffering ones at the pool?

In what sense does, or will, the church perform greater miracles than those wrought by Jesus?

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