There’s one miracle of Jesus that really stands out for its uniqueness, found in John 5:1-14. It’s a bit odd but packed full of lessons for us. Therefore, odd or not, here’s The Healing at the Pool.  

John is selective in his choosing of the miracles he records. His purpose was to provide proof that Jesus is the Son of God.

To begin with, the setting is a pool outside the Sheep Gate of Jerusalem. Jesus was in Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals, seemingly alone, for there is no mention of the disciples. Five covered colonnades surround the pool, sheltering numerous disabled people. (John 5:1-3).

Jesus discovers a man lying there; an invalid for thirty-eight years. Notice that Jesus seeks the man; the man does not seek Jesus. He asks him, “Do you want to become well?” (John 5:6).

Then things get odd. “The man replies, Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up. While I am trying to get into the water, someone else goes down there before me” (John 5:7). Huh?

This verse provides a great example of why we study the Bible from several viewpoints: historical, cultural, and even at times mythological perspectives. An overriding view of God’s character and purpose also threads throughout scripture to help guide us to a right understanding.

Therefore, when we read John 5:7, we discover that it only makes sense when we include verse four, but that verse doesn’t exist. The earliest manuscripts omit these words, which appear as a later insertion to explain why the pool water was “stirred.” This extant verse typically appears in the footnotes of your Bible. People believed that now and then an angel came and stirred the waters. (In reality, a subterranean spring was beneath the pool and periodically bubbled up). According to local tradition, the first one in the water would find healing. In ancient days, superstitions and myths were prevalent and played a significant role in the lives of people.

This is when not only knowledge of ancient myths factors into understanding God’s Word, but the character of God as well. “But many who are first will be last, and the last first” (Mark 10:31). This verse is about humility; in God’s kingdom, things get flipped.

It’s never the healing that goes to the fastest one in the water! Or the one who prays the most. Or the one with the most faith. Or the one with the most good works. Can you visualize the scene? The lame and the sick scurrying as fast as they were able to enter the magical healing water first. Just imagining such a cruel contest should cause us to dismiss it as an act of God.

Though here is a disabled man of thirty-eight years, of what sort we do not know. He has bought into this superstition and presents it to Jesus as the reason for not being healed all these years. Perhaps one reason Jesus asks him, “Do you want to become well?” Did faith in a myth still hold more hope for him? Maybe he had grown comfortable with his affliction? He probably didn’t work while others provided for his basic needs.

Jesus doesn’t judge the man’s response. Plus, we witness no signs of faith in Jesus, as in many other miracles Jesus performed. Instead, Jesus simply shows compassion and tells him, “Stand up! Pick up your mat and walk” (John 5:8).

Immediately the man was healed. (John 5:9). Why ask the man to pick up the old mat, a stretcher, which carried him for thirty-eight years? I wouldn’t want any part of the ugly thing again! But this was the Sabbath, and Jesus knew exactly what was to follow. He always does!

The healed man offers no gratitude, and no confession of new belief. He doesn’t even care enough to know who healed him. Jesus slips out among the busy crowd. (John 5:13). I sense God is trying to tell us something here. When healing becomes our priority, Christ can get pushed aside and slip out of our own lives.

Jesus wants us to realize spiritual growth that results from our suffering always exceeds healing.

The man leaves the pool, carrying his pallet, and encounters Jewish leaders. They confront him with their “revised version” of the Sabbath law. No mat carrying today! (John 5:10). A major offense with the penalty of stoning. That can sure put a damper on your recent healing!

What’s the next thing our healed man does? He gives another excuse. “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk’” (John 5:11).

Can you hear your own accusing voice? It was Jesus who put me in this position. Jesus allowed this horrible thing in my life. I followed him, did what he said, and now look where I am. The truth we must face is two-fold. Jesus does lead us to the hard and sometimes dangerous, but he always has our backs!

We think it’s the things we determine or do for him that bring him glory. In reality, it’s his plans lived out through him, when he receives glory.

The Jews desiring to get to the true Sabbath breaker asked the healed man, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Pick up your mat and walk?’” (John 5:12).

Our little granddaughter loves to hold up her arms and hands in the “I don’t know” position when asked a question. Cute for a one-year-old, not an adult who just received a no-cost miraculous healing. Nevertheless, he responds, I don’t know. (John 5:13).

Jesus knows, of course, the consequences of carrying anything on the Sabbath. Yet again, he seeks the healed man. He finds him at the temple. A place that had forbidden the man entry for thirty-eight years because he was unclean. I think we can at least grant him that excitement. Jesus isn’t angry at the man for attempting to throw him under the bus, intentional or not. Instead, he gives him his name. Then, the healed man, thinking only of himself, rushes off to share it with the Jewish leaders. No hesitation, no remorse, and again no signs of gratefulness for his healing. Now, Jesus becomes the lawbreaker.

Before the healed man hurries off, Jesus tells him, “Look you have become well. Don’t sin anymore, lest anything worse happen to you” (John 5:14). This is not Jesus saying that his sin caused his handicap, though it may have. All illness is directly or indirectly a result of sin. Rather, this is Jesus demonstrating his love and compassion for this man’s spiritual health. For if the man continues to live a life of sin, the worse will happen to him. What might that be? Likely, eternal separation from God.

Where can you show compassion and mercy to someone in physical and spiritual need?

Jesus showed the man mercy repeatedly. It would be easy for him to think that forgiveness is cheap and to go on sinning. We sometimes believe the same, forgetting Romans 6:1-2, “What shall we say then? Are we to remain in sin so that grace may increase? Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it?”

Remember John’s intent to prove the divinity of Christ? This miracle sets us up for one of Jesus’ longest discourses that follows. (John 5:16-47). Where he responds to the Jewish leaders’ focus on killing him. One of the strongest passages in scripture describing Jesus’ unified relationship with the Father and his equality with God.

The lawbreaker, once again, flips things around! As Dr Bailey, one of my seminary professors, would often say, “It’s almost as if God knew what he was doing.” 

Jesus healed countless people because they believed in his healing power. But how many people truly understood him as the promised Messiah?

All of Christ’s miracles show us his undeniable deity and give us a glimpse of his power. A power not just to heal but to transform lives!