The Bethesda Pool

 #biblestudy  The Bethesda Pool 

Read John 5:1-15

This was a pagan (Godless) ‘healing center’ or ‘askelepion’ erected by a Grecian cult in honor of their god Asclepius - the god of healing.

The fact that this man had been sitting in this God-forsaken place for 38 years, waiting on a mythical angel to stir up the water - waiting on pagan superstitions instead of on the One true God (Ex.15:26; Is.40:3031) - gives us some insight in to why, in vs. 14 Jesus tells the man to “stop sinning“.

***Note: The pool was in fact, stirred by an underwater spring; one of a few beneath Jerusalem.***

And yet, into this dark and God-forsaken place walks God Himself (ch.20:28) - Jesus the Messiah, the Light of the world (ch.8:12)…And, with an incredible combination of pure power and total undeserved mercy, demonstrates before everyone there, exactly who is the real and Living God! (in a subtle replay of 1Kings 18:20-40). 

In this, He also sends a clear message:  There is no place too dark…too far fallen that the Lord cannot, and will not reach.

He will send a very similar message in Matthew 16:13-19 at Cesarea Philippi - literally the central hub for pagan worship and the location of what was known as “the gates of Hades”

We are told very little information as to this man’s background. He may have been struck down in this bedridden condition while actually sitting in that exact spot in this deep darkness, 38 years earlier. Whatever the case, we know that if Jesus had not physically healed him, he could not physically have walked out of there and away from the darkness…he could not have “taken up his mat and walked.” When the Lord sets us free, He does so COMPLETELY - if necessary, providing us with a Way we can physically walk out, from whatever demonic situation we find ourselves in. 

And so, at this pagan place, just a stone’s throw from the Temple itself, in the heart of Jerusalem, Jesus Christ truly demonstrates Luke 15 vs. 4-6 and Luke 19 vs.10: There is no soul that falls beyond His Saving Grace: He is the Lord our God - even in this “God-forsaken” place.

I am aware of this with every person I encounter off the street; every Muslim I reach out to with the love of Messiah, the broken mother; the person battling a drug addiction, the hard-working commuter, traveling home with only his beer cans for company. All these people and multitudes more: Some will step over the line and come to Christ…but for others, as with the man at the Bethesda Pool, Christ (in us) will step over the line into their world and come to them.

#FollowingJesus