If the man at the pool of Bethesda learned anything (John 5), it was certainly the lesson of his utter helplessness. For others at that pool there had been healing on the principle so popular with men, that God helps those who help themselves. For in mercy an angel stirred the water, and man had to do the rest–get into the pool, and get there first.1 However, nothing had availed for this paralytic. He could never reach the pool. In the same way, every human being is helpless when it comes to the question of saving himself, a fact which this story forcefully illustrates.
This man had been afflicted for thirty-eight years, the very length of time that the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness to learn the lesson of their sin and unbelief (Deut. 2:14). That pool around which the multitude of impotent folks lay is a symbol of the law given to Israel. The purpose of the law was to prove not only man’s sin, but–what is even more important–his helplessness.
The law of God reflects man’s helplessness, even as did the waters of the pool the condition of those lying around it. All of them knew they were afflicted, for it was their very condition that had drawn them to the pool, but it probably took years for this man to fully learn his absolute inability to help himself. Anyone you meet knows underneath that he or she is a sinner, but to acknowledge that he is unable to do one thing about his sinful condition is something else. Man will not admit that he is “without strength” (Rom. 5:6). Every sinner talks, or thinks, of doing something for his own salvation, doing the best he can. This man at the pool of Bethesda learned by bitter experience that he could do nothing. Neither can the sinner do one thing to save himself. Salvation is “by grace, …through faith…not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph. 2:8-9).
When Jesus came on the scene, there was no longer any need of waiting. The pool that had for so many years reflected this man’s helplessness was now about to reflect the mighty power of the Son of God. When asked if he wanted to be made whole, the man talked about his own efforts or the lack of help from others. He speaks of having “no man.” He needs no man when the Lord Jesus appears on the scene. He is instantly healed at Christ’s word. So sinners are saved through faith in the Word of God.
It seems to me that this paralytic might also preach a message to Christians who are waiting for the moving of the water. There is much impotence among us; there should not be, for the Lord Jesus Christ has come, to furnish the power we need for Christian life and service. There is no need of waiting. The disciples were once told to wait at Jerusalem until they were endued with power from on high. That power, the Holy Spirit, has come, and there is no excuse for any Christian to be without it. The New Testament speaks often of power available to the believer. “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (2 Tim. 1:7). We are urged to be strong in the Lord.
When Jesus asked the man if he wanted to be made whole, the man spoke of having no man to carry him into the pool. Christians, too, are often looking to man to help them. We do not need man; we have God. It is amazing how much we wait upon man, whether in our private Christian life or in our church life.
Let me ask each Christian, “Wilt thou be made whole?” Then, “Rise.” God never commands without enabling. The believer is bidden to rise from among the dead (Eph. 5:14). A sleeping Christian looks very much like a dead sinner. He is called on to rise from among sinners and to stand up for the Lord.
“Take up thy bed.” Once we were a burden; now we not only carry our own burdens, but should carry those of others, too. When this man carried his bed, he drew the attention of the Pharisees. “Pharisees” are still excited when they see a Christian live to the glory of Christ, manifesting power over his former sins and failures.
Jesus also told him to walk. All was done instantly. Likewise, a Christian should be diligent, active, earnest. The believer’s walk is evidence of the reality of our being “made whole.”
What caused this paralytic’s condition? Verse 14 tells us it was sin. “Sin no more”–that is the exhortation to the Christian. If we are to live Christlike lives, it is necessary to walk in the light of God’s Word. Let us show men that we are truly made whole, even as the apostle prayed for the Thessalonians that they might be sanctified wholly, and that their whole spirit, soul, and body might be preserved blameless until the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
1The latter clause of the verse, “waiting for the moving of the water,” and the whole of verse 4, is omitted by many mss., including the Sinaitic and the Vatican. It is found in the Alexandrian ms. and in the Latin and early Syrian versions. Tertullian refers to it. This points to a wide acceptance from the second century downwards.