Reflection on John 5:1-16 for Tuesday March 12

John 5: 1 - 16
1	There was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
2	Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Hebrew called Beth-za'tha, which has five porticoes.
3	In these lay a multitude of invalids, blind, lame, paralyzed.
5	One man was there, who had been ill for thirty-eight years.
6	When Jesus saw him and knew that he had been lying there a long time, he said to him, "Do you want to be healed?"
7	The sick man answered him, "Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is troubled, and while I am going another steps down before me."
8	Jesus said to him, "Rise, take up your pallet and walk."
9	And at once the man was healed, and he took up his pallet and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath.
10	So the Jews said to the man who was cured, "It is the Sabbath, it is not lawful for you to carry your pallet."
11	But he answered them, "The man who healed me said to me, `Take up your pallet, and walk.'"
12	They asked him, "Who is the man who said to you, `Take up your pallet, and walk'?"
13	Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place.
14	Afterward, Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, "See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse befall you."
15	The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him.
16	And this was why the Jews persecuted Jesus, because he did this on the Sabbath.

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 STIRRING THE WATERS  - Retelling of John 5: 1-16

The Lord and His disciples were in Jerusalem to join in one of the Jewish feasts. The Jews had many holy days during the year. The people went to Jerusalem to celebrate them.

In Jerusalem there was a pool called the Pool of Bethesda. According to the Jewish superstitions once a year, an angel made the water of this pool start to move. When the water was moving, the first sick person who got into the pool was supposedly made better.

Many sick people from miles around came and waited by the pool for the angel to move the water. One of these people was a man who had been sick a very long time, thirty-eight years. They man was lying on a bed which was like a thin mattress with handles on the side for carrying him. He thought he needed someone to carry him on this bed to the pool.

When Jesus saw him he asked if he wanted to be healed. He told the Lord he had no one to help him. The Lord told him to stand up, pick up his small bed, and walk. As soon as the man tried to help himself, he found he could do what the Lord told him to do. He was not sick any more. He picked up his bed and walked. The Lord had made him better on the Sabbath day, the Jews’ day of worship.

In those days the Jews didn’t do any work at all on the Sabbath day. They didn’t even cook their food. They made all they would need to eat the day before. It was against their laws to do anything but pray and eat on the Sabbath.

When the Jews saw the man carrying his bed, they told him he was breaking the law. He said that the person who cured him had told him to carry his bed. The Jews asked the man who the person was who told him to do this. The man said he did not know who this person was.

Later, the Lord found the man in the temple. The Lord told the man he was better now and he should not do any more bad things or something worse might happen to him. Then the man went and told the Jews that it was the Lord who had made him better. The Jews were angry because they thought the Lord had broken their laws and worked on the Sabbath. They tried from then on to have the Lord killed for working on the Sabbath.

What is the message for you? Maybe God will heal you in a way you don’t expect if you just have the optimism and hope of this man.