(called Bethzatha in Hebrew) surrounded by five galleries. In these galleries lay a multitude
of sick people: blind, lame and paralyzed. (All were waiting for the water to move, for at
times an angel of the Lord would descend into the pool and stir up the water; and the first
person to enter the pool, after this movement of the water, would be healed of whatever
disease that he had.) There was a man who had been sick for thirty-eight years.
Jesus saw him, and because he knew how long this man had been lying there, he said
to him, “Do you want to be healed?” And the sick man answered, “Sir, I have no one to
put me into the pool when the water is disturbed; so while I am still on my way, another
steps down before me.” Jesus then said to him, “Stand up, take your mat and walk!”
And at once the man was healed and he took his mat and walked. Now that day
happened to be the Sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had just been healed,
“It is the Sabbath and the law doesn’t allow you to carry your mat.” He answered them,
“The one who healed me said to me, `Take up your mat and walk!’” They asked him,
“Who is the one who said to you: Take up your mat and walk?” But the sick man had no
idea who it was who had cured him, for Jesus had slipped away among the crowd that
filled the place. Afterward Jesus met him in the temple court and told him, “Now you are
well; don’t sin again, lest something worse happen to you.” And the man went back and
told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. So the Jews persecuted Jesus
because he performed healings like that on the Sabbath.

Reflect

“God heals.” Today’s Gospel narrates the third sign or miracle performed by Jesus in the
Gospel of John, which is the healing of the lame man by the pool of Bethzatha. When
Jesus asked the sick man about his desire to be healed, the reply of the latter revealed
his sentiment that nobody would care to help him. His words betray the general condition
of the people around the miraculous pool. The water of the pool, when stirred by an angel,
was believed to be a source of healing for the first person to descend into the water after
the angelic stirring. We may wonder that if only the people at Bethzatha then would rather
help each other to descend into the stirred water instead of being too concerned about
one’s own wellbeing, could the story have taken a different course? The healing that God
offers is, after all, for everyone and not only for the first in the race. God can always provide
healing for everybody all at once but why would this particular story narrate otherwise?
Could it be God’s way of teaching us the value of reaching out to each other and of caring
for one another?

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