By: Tim Keller
John had chosen miracles for the leap of faith. He chose the miracles for they taught things about who Jesus was, and how we connect to Him. This, the healing in the pool of Bethesda, is the third miraculous signs that John wrote. There are 3 symbolism that we can learn from this Scripture, the pool, the man, and the Sabbath.
The Pool
The account of the pool (vs. 1-5) says that there is a pool near the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem, called Bethesda, and is surrounded by five covered colonnades, a roof without wall, supported by colons. There is a superstition attached to this particular place. The belief was that sometimes that the angel of the Lord would come down and stir up the waters, and if you get in there, you can get healed. The way that it's written doesn't show that this is what was happening, but this is what people believed. That's why this particular pool attracted the blinds, the lame, the paralyzed, hoping that they would get healed.
In the 18th or 19th century, that this was not written by John the apostle, nor written by a contemporary witness, it must be a later legend. Why? About one hundred fifty years ago, when historians were looking at this, there was no record of the pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem. Secondly, it said there were 5 porches, which means that there were 5 sides, and no one had ever heard of a pool with 5 sides. So, the historians concluded that this must be written many many years later. A little book by F.F. Bruce, a world renounce historian, says that when they dug the pool, it wasn't a pool that is like pentagon, but it was a pool with 4 basins on the sides, and with 1 on the ridge. So, there were 5 porches. And since the pool was destroyed after Jesus' life, it proved that this was written by an eyewitness history.
If Christianity was like other religions, which say God saves the worthy, who live virtuous lives; and if you look at this account of Jesus, doesn't matter if it really happened, or it was a legend, the point is that Jesus is the "blue print". If you want God's blessing, you need to live like Jesus. Jesus prayed for His enemy, saved others, etc. So how do you get saved? by living like Jesus. So it does not matter whether this story was real or not, because it is HIS life that saves you.
Apostle Paul said that God justifies the ungodly, that is apart from our performance that we're saved by sheer grace, free grace. Jesus said, "I do not come to call those who are righteous, but those who are sinners. It means, we are not saved by our own lives, but HIS. If you want grace, salvation, this had to happened, and it did happen. This story is real.
The Man
This man who was healed, had 3 things that are similar to us. Let's look at who he is, and how he looked at Jesus.
First of all, one who was lying there had been invalid for 38 years. We don't know the reason he was invalid/disabled. We don't know if it was an injury, sickness, or some disability since he was born; we don't know whether he was 60 years old, and if the injury happened when he was in his twenties, we don't know. It says, when Jesus saw he was lying there, HE asked him, "Do you want to get well?" First thing we have to notice is this guy does not come to Jesus, but Jesus's come to him. This invalid man didn't ask Jesus for anything, but Jesus who came and asked the man. HE takes the initiative. This pictures how God deals with people. It is a picture of a principle.
Paul, in Romans 3, says, no one is good; no one seeks for God. When first 10 times reading it, it doesn't seem right, for surely there was someone looking for God, searching spiritually. But what Paul was saying is not that no one searches for God in general, or that no one is reaching out for some kind of spiritual reality. That is not what he is saying. What Paul is saying that the true God in the Bible, the Sovereign God of Mount Sinai, who says "Don't touch the mountain, because I am holy, and you will die", His perfect holiness, His utter glory, and His inscrutable sovereignty. THAT GOD! And nobody likes HIM! And no one seeks that God. And because, accd. to the Bible, the lies of Satan is in our hearts.
Let's go back to Genesis 3, serpent says to Adam and Eve, if you do what God says, you wouldn't be happy; He's going to hold you back; He is going to hold you down; You can do this; You can do that. In another word, here is what Satan was saying, God is a killer; Don't trust God; He's going to kill your happiness. That is the lie of Satan that goes deep inside of our hearts, all of us. If you don't know that that's down there, you don't know your own heart. Deep down in our hearts, is a belief, if I give myself to the God of the Bible, I will not be happy. And therefore, no one seeks for this God. We, either try to remake Him into something else, or revolt or run away from HIM, but no one seeks for HIM, unless HE first comes and seeks us, and opens our eyes, and softens our hearts, and deal with all of our denials, and break through all the sort of illusions, and blindness, and mistakes, and false understanding. And that is why John 6:44 "No one can come to me unless the Father draws him." 1John 4, we love HIM, because He first loves us.
None of us would already have gone to HIM, unless HE's already coming and trying to help us find HIM.
If you want to pray, and thinking if God actually hears me; you wouldn't have that desire to pray unless HE was the one who was actually prompting you. That is the principle. So you have wonderful hopes of being heard. You wouldn't want to turn to HIM for anything, unless HE is already working on your heart. Because that is the way our hearts are. This is the first thing we learned from the man, that we love Him only because HE first loves us.
Secondly, when Jesus came to the man, the man said, "Sir, I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get it, someone else goes down ahead of me." This implies, "OK Jesus, whoever you are, you can help me. Help me when the water is stirred, get me into the pool." What the man was saying is, "My salvation is in the pool. And I'll be happy to partner with you to find my salvation." Let's submit that we start with Jesus in this way. And actually we are almost always falling back into this approach. For example, the reason we come to church, or come to Christ, is something is going wrong in our lives. Something that we have our hopes in is letting us down; such as, Mr. Right or Miss Right that would make everything right, but didn't go right; or problem with our career; and things that we thought would make our lives significant, and secure, but not happening. So we go to Jesus, get religious, and ask Jesus "help me into the pool". So we would be happy to work with Jesus if He would help us to get to our salvation. Plenty of people go to the ministry, why? to serve Jesus, yea..! but also to feel important. So it's just like to use Jesus to get us into the water, than to serve HIM, which are 2 utterly different things.
In Psalm 43:4, David calls God, "My Joy". Try that in a week, when you pray to God, not just "Father,... Lord Almighty...." but "My Joy... " It doesn't feel right at first, because we basically pray, "Oh Father, please get me my joy.. I need this and this and this..."and then I have a joyful life - instead of You are my Joy. It is in You. I don't need to get into the water. You are my salvation, my joy, my life.
But Jesus says in this situation says, "No, I'm not taking you into the water. I am the water." "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk." The man is immediately cured. But let's see how he response. This is not what we expect. When he lifted up his mat, he immediately ran to the authorities, and he scared for the Jewish leaders saying "the law of the Sabbath forbids you to carry your mat." He scared that they may do bad things to him. So he immediately says, "some guy told me to do it." This is like Adam and Eve. God comes to Adam, "Did you eat the fruit Adam?" Adam says, "She made me do it." then Eve says, "The serpent, that YOU made, made me do it." That is what that man was doing. What is intriguing and little disappointing, Jesus is not seeking physical healing, but He wants your soul healed. It is not like in John 9, when the blind man was healed, and then the man says "I believe!" and he defends Jesus to the authorities. But this man was not like that, after blaming Jesus, and saw Jesus in the temple again, Jesus called the man to convert spiritually, not just be physically healed. We are not sure what caused the man to be crippled, but it does not matter. All that matters, Jesus called the man spiritually, but he does not answer. All we know that the man ran away and informs the authorities that he won't be in trouble by the Jewish leaders.
In the Bible, there aren't any good people, like Abraham's sin, Sarah's, Rebecca's, Jacob and Esau, David, Jonah,... etc. There is no good guys. The Bible should be a series of moral stories in which people are lifting up to living the way they should. It should be a series of moral exemplars here, so that we can be inspired to live the way we have to live. Then, you completely misunderstood the theme of the Bible. The theme of the Bible is not that God saves the worthy, and here is how to be worthy. The reason you have all these flowed people, all of moral midgets, terrible stories, is because people is basically not doing what God says, and when they got helped, they are not responding, and those people seeking the grace of God they don't appreciate it once they get it. Because salvation is by grace! No body seeks the grace of God. No body appreciates the grace of God.
The Sabbath
The controversy, because the man was carrying on the Sabbath, and he's fingering Jesus. One thing that Jesus could say was that there is not one thing in the actual Hebrews scripture that forbids you carrying the mat. So we are not violating the Sabbath. We are only violating your ecumenical rules to the level of Scriptures. But HE doesn't do that.
The Rabbi says that there is only one that can work on the Sabbath, which is God. So Jesus says, "Right! and I am". And vs. 18, that He was making Himself equal with God. And in other situations, He said that HE is the LORD of the Sabbath. That The Sabbath is pointing into something which is REST. When God rested in the 6th day, it doesn't mean that He was tired. He was satisfied, and He was at peace with what He's done. He was enjoying what He has done. When we take a day off on Sabbath, and we got physically restored, which is good, but that's only a symbol of real REST. Real rest is the rest of the soul. It is possible to take a day off to rest for your body, but deep down inside you are resting from the work under the work. Cultures know this, even though you are doing physical work, but actually what you are doing is to please your family. You're trying to lift up your family expectation. You are trying to make your family proud of you. In western culture, even though we are working, what we are actually trying to do is to create self esteem, to feel good about ourselves, money, smart, well-off, thin. We are trying to justify ourselves. That is the work under the work. Just like the guy in the movie Chariots of Fire, when the guy who's a runner, honestly says, "when the gun goes off , I have 10 seconds to justify my existence." So if you can't rest the work under the work, you will always feel exhausted, no matter how many days you take off.
And when Jesus died on the cross, Jesus says that "it is finished." What is finished? The work. He fulfill all the requirements of God that all who believe in Him can know that in Jesus Christ, God loves you, and accepts you, and delights in you, and therefore Jesus Christ completed the work that you and I are going to do unless we rest in HIM. (Hebrews 4). When you stop trying to earn and be worthy, and rest in what God has done in Jesus Christ, rest in His love for you in Jesus.
Why Jesus says "Come to me all who are laboring and heavy leaden, and I will give you rest." Grace and rest, that was the signs speak to us.
