EXPLORE IT! - John 5:1-15

Jesus goes to Jerusalem for a feast, and at the Pool of Bethesda he sees a paralyzed man sitting by the side of the pool. The ruins of the Pool of Bethesda are still standing in Jerusalem today.

Now some later editions of John’s Gospel state that an angel of God would come and stir up the water of the pool on occasion, and that the bubbling water had the power to heal people. This is why the paralyzed man was there in the first place.

Jesus asks the man, “Do you want to get well?” but the man changes the subject slightly, and he tells Jesus that he doesn’t have anyone to help him into the pool when the water is “moved.”

And Jesus tells the man to pick up his mat and walk… and the man stands up and is healed.

Now this takes place on the Sabbath, and the Jewish religious leaders see the man carrying his mat and tell him this is against the law. And so he tells them the man who healed him told him to do so, and they ask who that was. He tries to point out Jesus, who apparently means nothing to him even he had just healed him, but Jesus has already slipped away into the crowd.

Jesus comes to him later and tells him, "Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you."

But then the man rats Jesus out and he goes and tells the Jewish religious leaders it was Jesus who healed him.

According to John, this is Jesus' third miracle (after the Marriage in Cana and the healing of the official’s son). It is also the third of seven miracles that John documents for us in his Gospel.

As we have seen before, John’s Gospel was most likely custom written for one of the main headquarters of the church at the time in the city of Pergamum in Asia Minor. And Jesus’ story is laid out in such a way as to show Jesus’ superiority over the various local pagan gods.

Like his previous miracle, when Jesus heals the crippled man at the pool we see that Jesus has the power and authority to heal people and to make them whole again. The Greeks of Asia Minor to whom John was writing his Gospel also had a god who healed – the god Asclepius.

Asclepius, who was supposedly born of a virgin, had the power to heal… and he healed with moving water. According to legend, he got so good at miracles that one time he actually raised a man from the dead. But Zeus got mad at him and killed him. But then he felt bad, so on the third day he raised Asclepius from the dead, and ascended Asclepius to heaven to sit at his right hand.

All of these things sound very similar to the story of Jesus. But Jesus is the truth – and Asclepius is a fraud. John is showing his Greek audience – and us as well – that Jesus is not inferior to gods like Asclepius. Jesus can heal people too, and he does a much better job of it! John is proving to us that Jesus is superior to all other gods.

In fact, the entire story of Jesus is so much better than the story of Asclepius. It’s filled with so much more hope and healing and joy and salvation. Even if someone like Asclepius ever existed and did all those miracles, he doesn’t really even compare to Jesus. He could only make a bad attempt to copy what Jesus would do.

And while many may have believed in this counterfeit god, those who get to know Jesus can’t help but see how much better Jesus is than any other supposed god.

There are many false gods and false messiahs in history; some came before Jesus, some appeared during the time of his earthly ministry, many came after his ascension, and there are still more yet to come. But those who know Jesus know the truth.

If you don’t know Jesus, how can you distinguish one god and one messiah from another? They all start sounding the same. But if you do know Jesus, you tend to recognize him when you see him. And he helps you to distinguish between what is the real thing and what is just a cheap copy.