The Place of Mercy
John chapter 5 describes Jesus making His way through the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem and passing by a pool of water called Bethesda, a word that means house of mercy. Legend has it that an angel came down at certain times to stir the water and that the first person to enter the pool after the water had been troubled would be cured of any disease they had (John 5:4). As you might expect, many crumpled and decrepit bodies lay around the pool, groaning and clinging to life. The sick, blind, lame, and paralyzed waited there for a chance to receive a miracle.
Amazingly, Jesus sought one man who had been suffering for thirty-eight years within this crowd of bodies. This was not a chance encounter because Jesus searched for this victim. When He found him, Jesus stopped and bent low to converse with him, asking “Do you wish to be made well?” (John 5:6). This seems an absurd question. It is the equivalent of walking into a hospital and asking a chronic patient if they are willing to be well. It may seem an unusual question, but it reaches much deeper than its surface meaning. The man sees compassion and spoke to Jesus, sharing his plight: ““Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me” (John 5:7).
It is clear that this man had believed in the legend for decades, lying there beside the pool and hoping that next time, he would win the healing lottery. Would the one who had instilled hope help him into the water? No, Jesus did not seek this man in the crowd to help him into the pool. Touching the water was not important to Jesus. He did not invalidate the lame man’s beliefs, but neither did He give any credence to the legendary healing properties of the water. Consider what this legendary healing would suggest about God, as it deprived those who most needed healing. Favoring the most privileged, the fastest, and the most able-bodied does not seem consistent with the God revealed by Jesus, who is moved by compassion for the downtrodden, disadvantaged, and outcast.
The angel believed to trouble the waters did not care about the many who were obviously in need. Does God sanction such behavior by angels? That an angel stirred the waters is information not found in the older manuscripts. According to the commentaries I have read, this detail was an explanatory note inserted later to explain why so many sick people gathered there and frantically raced to get into the pool. The idea that an angel stirred the water is based on people’s beliefs about God rather than what Jesus reveals about Him.
I wonder what other inaccurate legends and religious traditions we believe about God. God is not always represented well in traditions and dogmas, which sometimes only reflect people’s inaccurate understandings of God. Jesus visited Bethesda that day to set the record straight about who God is and what He is like. Jesus came and stooped by the lame man, saying, “Stand up, take your mat and walk” (John 5:8).
Everything would have been fine, except that this encounter occurred on the Sabbath, and it was expressly forbidden to carry a bedroll on the Sabbath (John 5:9–10). The man was ready to do whatever it took to be well. He stood up as new life flowed into his limbs and he picked up his mat and walked. The healed man was so excited and full of life that he forgot all about the religious regulation that prohibited him from carrying his mat. In response, however, Jesus not only denied the legend of the angel stirring the pool but publicly attacked this graceless rule, which misrepresented God’s character. He ignored both the merciless water-stirring scam and the rigid prohibition that forbade the lame man to carry his mat on the Sabbath (John 5:9–10). Jesus took the focus off religious tradition and commandment and placed it squarely on a revelation of what God is like.
Middle Eastern scholar Kenneth Bailey describes how Jesus’ love was often costly even prior to the cross. Many of Jesus’ encounters with people cost Him something, and this incident of healing on the Sabbath is no exception. When Jesus told the lame man to take up his mat and walk, Jesus not only took on his infirmity but also absorbed the condemnation and hatred of the religious leaders (Matthew 8:17). Jesus began to be persecuted because of this healing, which led Him to the cross, the ultimate expression of His self-giving love (John 5:16).
In the beginning, God rested on the seventh day as a sign of His presence and rule—not a rule like a commandment but rule, as in the way God runs things (Genesis 2:2–3). Jesus did not recognize arbitrary traditions and rules that misrepresented God’s character. Jesus upheld God’s loving commitment to His creation, which the Sabbath embodies. That day at Bethesda, Jesus sought a broken man who had the will to know God and was thus healed. The recovery of his limbs was the result of his communion with a merciful God who gives life, despite his being in a place that lacked mercy. This man’s intimate encounter with Jesus, who cared for and healed him, changed everything about his life, but most importantly, it informed and healed his picture of God.
The Searcher of hearts asks us, “Do you wish to be made well?”
Craig Ashton Jr.
Theological InTents 
One Response to “The Place of Mercy”
Dear Ambassador of God, Craig, Greetings from India in Jesus our Lord.
I am a Servant of God.
Could you please pray for the salvation of the perishing souls in India?
Thinking you, Respected Craig
Your Servant for Jesus our Lord
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