John 5:6, commentary and pictures

Jesus saw a man lying helpless who had suffered a long time, alone and unable to reach healing for thirty-eight years. With pity and compassion He asked whether he wanted to be made whole, to turn him from his lost hope, awaken desire for healing, and call him to respond. The man answered only from his helplessness, that he had no one to help him and others went before him. Without requiring faith beforehand or assurance of healing, Jesus commanded him to rise and walk, and as he believed Christ's word and willed to obey, power was given and he was made whole. That question and healing also speak to souls made spiritually helpless by sin, who cannot live a holy life or free themselves, yet whom Christ is able and longs to deliver, forgive, cleanse, and restore to wholeness and rest when they yield their will, believe His word, and act upon it.

Bethesda's Desperate Crowd

At Bethesda a great crowd of sick people lay waiting for the moving of the water, because they believed whoever first stepped in afterward would be healed, and in the press and rivalry the weaker sufferers could not reach the pool in time, while some died close beside it. Among them lay the man Jesus addressed, helpless for thirty-eight years, alone and friendless and repeatedly beaten to the water by stronger people. His cries for help went unheeded while others crowded to secure healing for their own loved ones, yet he kept his desire alive in prayer through many weary years until he was nearly hopeless and nearly spent in strength.

He took Christ's question as an offer of help toward the pool and answered out of that helplessness, that he had no one to carry him in, that others went down before him, and that his chance seemed past, so that hope quickly faded again. His long-standing suffering and discouragement were what Jesus noticed and met when He asked whether he wished to be made whole.

His affliction was largely the fruit of his own sin and harmful habits, it was regarded by others as God's judgment upon him, and it left him feeling solitary and shut out from God's mercy. Jesus longed to heal every sufferer gathered there, and this man's extreme misery especially drew Him.

The question belongs to the healing of the paralytic, the impotent man at the Pool of Bethesda. It stands within the larger account of Bethesda and the Sanhedrin, which goes on to Christ's discourse after the Jews accused Him of Sabbath-breaking.

Jesus Sees and Asks

Jesus saw the man lying there and knew he had been in that condition a long time, marking his prolonged helplessness and suffering. He knew the affliction had lasted thirty-eight years, leaving the sufferer worn down by repeated failure and anxiety and nearly out of remaining strength. With pity, tender sympathy and compassion He asked whether the man wanted to become well. The question met him in despair, arrested his discouraged attention, turned him away from his lost chance at the pool toward the help Jesus Himself could give, and awakened hope that relief was still possible.

That hope was awakened even though the man did not know Jesus could heal him. He was alone and friendless, unable to reach the water before stronger people, and his deepest desire for healing had been carried in prayer through many weary years until he was helpless and nearly hopeless. His appeals for help had been ignored while others sought healing for their loved ones. In that state the compassionate inquiry touched his long disappointment and called him to respond in faith.

He understood the inquiry as an offer of help getting into the water and answered out of his helplessness. He said he had no one to carry him in, that others reached the pool before him, and that he believed his chance had passed. As he recalled this, his newly awakened hope quickly faded. Jesus had asked in order to draw out his desire for wholeness and to call him to respond, yet He healed him without requiring him first to express faith in Him, but by commanding him to rise, take up his bed and walk.

Sabbath Mercy Contested

Jesus singled out the most helpless sufferer at the pool, a man infirm for thirty-eight years, and healed him on the Sabbath even though He knew the act would stir prejudice and hinder His work. He told the man to take up his bed and carry it through the city so the cure and its circumstances would become public. The command was deliberate, to draw attention to the healing and raise the question of what the Sabbath law permits.

The healing and the command to carry the bed confronted human restrictions that had turned the Sabbath from a blessing into a burden. They freed God's statutes from senseless restrictions and restored the day's character as a blessing. Relieving suffering and doing works of mercy on that day are in harmony with God's law and its purpose, not a desecration of the Sabbath.

To make a man every whit whole on the Sabbath is certainly right and lawful, as lawful as circumcising a man on the Sabbath. Such an act reveals the spirit of the law and must be judged not according to appearance but by righteous judgment. Jesus drew that teaching from the work of God and the unceasing round of nature, which the rulers could answer only by custom and tradition.

The miracle should have convinced the Jews that He was the Son of God and the promised Messiah. It proclaimed His divine Sonship, which He afterward declared before the Sanhedrin. But attachment to tradition blinded them, so they seized on the carrying of the mat as a pretext for unbelief and condemnation.

The common people recognized Him as a friend who healed disease and comforted sorrow, and they justified and defended His healing as sacred work honoring the Sabbath. The rulers were strict for outward exactions yet failed its principles, and the act exposed them. Furious at His claim to be the Son equal with God, they persecuted Him with determined purpose to kill Him, had to be restrained for the time, and eagerly watched for opportunity.

That Sabbath healing so kindled the malice of the leading Jews that they plotted against His life. It was no longer safe for Him to remain in Jerusalem. After Bethesda He avoided the national gatherings, restricted His work to Galilee, left for Galilee, and made Capernaum the scene of His labors.

Healed by His Word

The healing did not come from getting to the water first but rested entirely on Christ's word and power. No assurance was given beforehand that healing would follow, so doubt could have cost the man his opportunity. He believed Christ's word, set his will to obey, and at once tried to walk without arguing or pausing to explain why he could not. As he acted on that word, God gave him power and he was made whole.

He trusted and acted before he could see or feel that he was healed, and Christ supplied the power for the act commanded. This is the faith needed to obey Christ instead of waiting until every point is explained. Such faith reaches farther than sight, as the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things unseen.

Forgiveness and cleansing are received in the same way, by believing God's promise, giving oneself to Him, and acting on His word.

Christ the Mighty Physician

Christ still comes to the sick and suffering with the offer of wholeness, coming as Physician, Healer and Redeemer who knows what they need. His help is sufficient for the greatest sorrow and deepest grief, for He supplies necessities and bears sorrows. He does no half work and brings no partial relief, but saves to the uttermost all who come to Him, and workers can co-operate with Him in a great work of healing. As Author and Finisher of faith He still speaks to those afflicted with physical and spiritual sickness, offering wholeness and rest even amid the fiercest conflicts of life. Faith in Him must reach farther than sight, as the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things unseen, trusting and depending on Him who is ready and willing to do great things for all who place dependence on Him.

He is the great, all-successful and all-powerful Physician who has come to save sinners, not to destroy them, to do His soul-saving work for the soul. He has borne their sins and iniquities, and healing comes through the stripes laid upon Him, while His death shows the worth He places on them. His question calls for an answer from the sin-sick soul that needs His aid and cannot heal itself. That answer is to come to Him with imperfections believing He alone can remove defects, blot out past mistakes and transgressions, remove stains of sin and give His own righteousness. It is to renounce self, to come out and be separate from uncleanness, to hear His voice knocking at the door of the heart, to open the door and welcome Him in, to look to Him for salvation and receive Him as a personal Saviour. Those who recognize their hopeless need, take His help, let Him do His work for them and yield themselves to Him are led into truth and a holy life of loving, trusting obedience rather than self-righteousness.

The healing of the long-time helpless man belongs within His announced work to preach the gospel to the poor, heal the brokenhearted, preach deliverance to the captives, give sight to the blind, set at liberty the bruised, and preach the acceptable year of the Lord. It is part of that labor of caring for the friendless, the suffering and the hopeless and healing the brokenhearted. As the great Physician He brings infinite wisdom for diseases of body and soul to that work. With that wisdom He meets every evil practice and master passion that through long indulgence binds soul and body. He is able and longs to deliver, doing His utmost to set free the captive held by weakness.

Wholeness for Sin-Sick Souls

The healing at Bethesda illustrates Christ's power for the healing of the soul, and His question to the long-helpless man also speaks to all made spiritually helpless by sin. Sin separates people from God and leaves them unable to live a holy life, while long practice in harmful habits, weakness, misfortune and sin binds both soul and body until they are spiritually dead. Yet Christ tenderly appeals to them, and He is able and willing to deliver them, to free them from sin's power and hold, to restore life and to set them free.

To be made whole is to yield the will to Christ and to come to Him with imperfections, believing He alone can remove defects, blot out past mistakes and transgressions, remove stains of sin and give His own righteousness. It means renouncing self, coming out and being separate from uncleanness, hearing His voice knocking at the door of the heart, opening the door and welcoming Him in. Healing is offered to those who need His aid and cannot heal themselves, who recognize their hopeless need, and they must let Him do His work for them. They are to look to Him for salvation, to receive Him as a personal Saviour, to believe His word and choose to serve Him rather than wait to feel whole, and acting on His word they receive strength and life.

Those who take His help and yield themselves to Him are led into truth and a holy life of loving, trusting obedience rather than self-righteousness. He is ready and willing to do great things for all who place dependence on Him, giving them wholeness and rest even amid life's fiercest conflicts, and they are blessed and saved in the day of opportunity. The question presses for decision those who refuse to yield their will, who turn from Him while cherishing unbelief, falsehood and opinions with no foundation in truth. Specifically it was addressed to those in responsible places who had done a strange work of planning to resist the Spirit of God while the deceitfulness of sin marked them, after greater evidence already given in demonstration of the Spirit and in power at the last General Conference, calling them to surrender at the coming Conference. To refuse brings perishing not because of God's dealings but because of determined resistance to light and evidence.