FOCUSED ON THE POOL

John 5:1-13

I have often wondered why the lame man at the pool of Bethesda is usually portrayed as whiny (nobody to help me) and full of excuses (someone always gets there ahead of me).  I never saw him that way.  Why? Let’s look at the facts.

1. It was the time of the year an angel stirred the waters of the pool.  The 1^st person in, got healed.
2.  Bethesda had 5 porches full of blind, lame, paralyzed, etc. people waiting for the stirring of the water.  5 porches.
3.  The man had been crippled for 38 years.  38 years.
4.  The man was there alone.
5. Other people had folks to help them.

There was not a set day, hour, minute and second that the angel stirred the pool.  It might be 10 a.m. or 11 p.m.  No one knew.  They only knew there was a time of the year.  During that time, these sick people stayed at the pool.  (Picture Black Friday.)  They slept there.  They ate there. So, you know they were also sick there. There were oozing open sores, rotting flesh, barf and all sorts of trash.  Plus, when there are people who can’t move—where they are, is the toilet. (Lovely writer’s imagination.)

Into this walks the Healer.  He notices 1 man—1 man out of 5 porches full of people—and asked ‘do you want to be healed’.  I am going to put the man’s answer in today’s slang.

“Uh, duh.  I’m here aren’t I?  Yeah, I’d like to be healed but someone always gets there first.”

Now, there are some things we don’t know about the man. 

1.  Was he born lame or did something happen to make him lame? 
2.  Did someone help him get to the pool or did he have to get there on his own? 

But, there are some things about him that are revealed in his answer.

1. This wasn’t his first time at the pool.  The word always says that he had tried to get into the pool more than once.
2.  Even though he knew someone else would probably get there before him, he kept trying.
3. He was willing to take his eyes off the water and talk to Jesus.

Why is #3 so significant?  Because, he had to watch the pool to see when the water stirred.  Since Jesus zeroed in on him, he could have been being polite by looking at Jesus.  Maybe Jesus stepped between him and the pool and he had to look.  For whatever reason, the man took his eyes off of the pool and answered.  That was his act of faith.  Jesus told him to take up his bed and walk and he did.  Amazing, especially since verse 13 says the man didn’t know who Jesus was.

The Bible records several instances where Jesus healed everyone present.  This is not one of them.  5 porches full of sick people and only 1 man walked away healed.  If anyone else had said ‘I want to be healed’ would Jesus have refused?  Why then did only 1 man walk away?  My theory?  Everyone else was so-o-o focused on the pool. 

God’s simple question to me:  am I so focused on the pool (what or how I expect God to do something) that I miss the miracle giver right in front of me?