Healing beside the Bethesda

John 5:1-9

Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” 

“Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”

Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath.

The healing of a chronically sick man at the Pool of Bethesda is John's third sign. Jesus clashed with the religious authorities a number of times overhealing on the sabbath.

Why?

Jesus knows the needed people and loves them to heal them. 

Jesus did this healing on Sabbath, breaking the law of religion, which means to break the religious ceremony careless the needy people.

Thirty-eight years laid there and keep waiting, it is almost hopeless waiting. Jesus shows his mercy and cured him.

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畢士大是憐憫的含義，但是這裏完全沒有憐憫的地方，是殘酷的競爭地方。

這裏最需要幫助的人反而得不到憐憫！瞎眼的永遠跑不到前面。池水會動可能是地下水的流動。

在這裏就是行為主義，為什麼不是下水的都得醫治。要強在前面的得醫治，完全是行為主義。如廟裏要強頭香，或是誰是苦行最苦得獎賞，最努力的孩子才得到父母的關愛嗎？。其實父母一定是多花心思來照顧軟弱的子女。

這個病38年的人，相信這個傳說。只有強快跳水，這是靠自己的本事。不要再相信靠自己能力。耶穌告訴他，拿起你的褥子起來。他必須相信耶穌，立刻站起來。我們不是不要做，是要努且要努力做。耶穌沒有拉他起來，似乎很殘忍的叫他站起來。他首先要放下第一個下水的觀念。他要自己努力的站起來，先有神的應許在前面，他相信這話，以前靠的是褥子，現在靠的是耶穌的話。根據神的吩咐、照神的命令努力去做，神的恩典就臨到。

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How?

Jesus knows what we need, and Jesus loves us, supports the best gift to us. Not in our way but in His way.