Healing in the House of Mercy, John 5:1-18

Healing in the House of Mercy

John 5:1-18

After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had. Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?”

The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked. And that day was the Sabbath. The Jews therefore said to him who was cured, “It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your bed.” He answered them, “He who made me well said to me, ‘Take up your bed and walk.’ ” Then they asked him, “Who is the Man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” But the one who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, a multitude being in that place. 

Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, “See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you.” The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus, [d]and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.” Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God. 

The pool in Bethesda

John 5:1-2

After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches.

Bet-hesda in Hebrew stands for House (Beit) of Mercy or Grace. 

• בֵּית  (Beit) = "house"

• חֶסֶד (Hesed) = "mercy," "kindness," or "grace"

The Pool of Bethesda was a gathering place for many who were sick, blind, lame, and paralyzed, all seeking healing. Located near Jerusalem's Sheep Gate, this gate was historically significant as the entry point for sheep destined for sacrifice in the nearby Temple. Situated along the northeastern wall of Jerusalem close to the Temple precinct, Bethesda became a symbolic site of compassion and mercy.

It was here that Jesus, the Lamb of God, demonstrated His divine compassion by healing an unnamed man who had suffered illness for thirty-eight years.

For centuries, the only evidence for Bethesda’s existence was the account found in John chapter 5, which described a pool near the Sheep Gate with five porches. With no archaeological remains known, many skeptics questioned its historical existence.

However, late in the 19th century, Conrad Schick, a German-born surveyor and architect working in Jerusalem, uncovered a large rock-cut cistern approximately 30 meters northwest of St. Anne’s Church, just northeast of the Temple Mount. Schick proposed this discovery as the Pool of Bethesda. Subsequent excavations revealed two adjoining basins separated by a central dividing wall, precisely creating five portico-lined sides—exactly matching John's description.

The excavated area is expansive, covering more than three times the surface area of an Olympic-sized swimming pool. Moreover, archaeological evidence indicates the complex likely extended even further beneath modern-day structures in Jerusalem’s Muslim Quarter, where excavation is not currently feasible.

Eventually, a Byzantine church was erected above these ruins, in the 5th century commemorating the site where Jesus performed one of His most remarkable miracles—turning Bethesda from merely a place of hopeful waiting into a place of fulfilled mercy. It was destroyed in 640 AD by the Persians.

The missing verse

John 5:3-4

In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had.

You may notice verse 4 appears in some Bible translations and not in others. This verse explains the tradition that people believed an angel stirred the waters, bringing healing. Though scholars debate whether this verse was in John's original text or added later to clarify the context, it nevertheless helps us understand the atmosphere of expectation and hope at Bethesda. 

Verse 4 does not appear in the earliest manuscripts (such as Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus), nor in some important early papyri. Because of this, many scholars conclude it was likely an explanatory note—perhaps originally added in the margin—that was later incorporated directly into the text to help readers understand why people waited by the pool.

Modern textual scholarship tends to view verse 4 as an explanatory gloss or addition from later scribes, rather than as part of John’s original Gospel.

Jesus Chooses One Man to Heal

John 5:5-9

Jesus approaches a man who had been sick for thirty-eight years. His first words to him are striking: “Do you want to be made well?” It seems like an odd question at first. Wouldn’t anyone who had suffered so long naturally want healing?

But Jesus often asked questions instead of giving easy answers. His questions were meant to prompt honest self-examination. He wanted people to look inward, confront their deepest needs, and voice them clearly. Perhaps He wanted this man to acknowledge his desire for healing out loud.

This question challenges us too. Do we truly want to be healed? Sickness is not always physical—it can be emotional, spiritual, or behavioral. Sometimes people become comfortable in their anger, their grudges, or their sin. They resist real change because it demands letting go of old patterns. True healing means being willing to embrace a new way of life—even when it’s uncomfortable or hard.

Jesus makes this clear in John 5:14 when He later tells the man, “See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you.” His healing wasn’t just about restoring physical health but calling for transformation of life.

Interestingly, Jesus did not heal everyone at the Pool of Bethesda that day. He chose one man among many. This can be hard to understand. How would you feel if you watched someone else get healed while you were left waiting? I’ve wrestled with this myself. Why did I struggle for years with endometriosis and fibroids, eventually needing major surgery? Couldn’t God have healed me the way He healed the woman who touched the hem of His robe? Did I not have enough faith?

We don’t have easy answers for why God acts as He does. But Scripture reminds us that His wisdom surpasses ours, and His ways are higher than our ways. We’re called to trust His heart even when we don’t understand His plans.

Isaiah 55:8–9 

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.”

Romans 11:33

“Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!”

Proverbs 3:5–6 

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.”

Job 11:7–8 (NKJV)

“Can you search out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limits of the Almighty? They are higher than heaven—what can you do? Deeper than Sheol—what can you know?”

We need to accept that God’s purposes are often beyond our understanding, and this side of heaven we may never know why certain things happen as they do.

When Jesus spoke to the man, the man first tried to explain why he couldn’t get well: he had no one to help him into the water. He missed the point that healing was standing right in front of him. Jesus simply replied, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.”

What’s amazing is that the man didn’t argue or protest about his long illness. He obeyed. He stood up, picked up his bed, and walked. Just like that.

In the same way, our faith in Jesus can bring healing to our deepest wounds, illnesses, and brokenness. When He calls us to rise and walk, we’re invited to trust Him and obey—without doubt, without delay.

Pastor Gary Hamrick once observed something valuable about this scene: from a ministry perspective, we cannot be driven solely by human need. Instead, we must be directed by the Holy Spirit. If we try to meet every need ourselves, we will become overwhelmed and risk neglecting our own families and spiritual health. Like Jesus, we need to listen for the Father’s direction in all we do.

John 5:30 

“I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.”

Also, it happened with Paul Acts 16:6–7  when the Spirit forbid them to preach in Asia although there was a need.

“Now when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia.”

Verse 9 ends with a note that “that day was the Sabbath,” setting the stage for the next section.

Jesus challenges legalism and the religious leaders.

John 5:10-19

Probably when John says the Jews in John 5:10 he referred to the religious leaders. When they say the crippled man walking all they thought about was who told him to do that. Instead of being amazed by the miracle, a man crippled for 38 years is now walking on his own two feet, they are questioning him for carrying his bed on a Sabath “Who is the Man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?”. 

Instead of honoring God through rest and worship, they were obsessing over rigid rules and missing the heart of the command. The Sabbath was meant to serve people—a gift of restoration and time with God—not to be a burden or a measuring stick of spiritual superiority. By elevating their traditions above compassion, they lost sight of the God who gave the Sabbath in the first place.

Mark 2:27–28

And He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.”

Isaiah 58:13–14 

If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight... Then you shall delight yourself in the LORD.

The Law of Moses taught that the Sabbath must be different from the other days. On it, neither people nor animal should work. The prophet Jeremiah had prohibited carrying burdens or working on the Sabbath Jeremiah 17:21-22

“Thus says the Lord: “Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem; nor carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day, nor do any work, but hallow the Sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers.”

Nehemiah made it clear that trading is prohibited on the Sabbath Nehemiah 13:15-19

“So it was, at the gates of Jerusalem, as it began to be dark before the Sabbath, that I commanded the gates to be shut, and charged that they must not be opened till after the Sabbath. Then I posted some of my servants at the gates, so that no burdens would be brought in on the Sabbath day.”

By Jesus’s day, they had 39 different classifications of work, among them carrying furniture and providing medical treatment were forbidden on Sabbath.

Jesus did not break the law but violated the traditions of the Pharisees which had grown around the Law.

The healed man did not even know who Jesus was. He did not have faith in Jesus, but he took him by his work. And Jesus withdrew from the crowd directly. He wasn’t running after popularity or wanting to be known. But afterwards he caught up with the man again in the temple, to remind the man to change, and stay away from sin. “See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you.” 

I do not believe here that Jesus meant that his previous illness was because of a specific sin he was living in. Because Jesus in John 9:1-3 explain that it is not. 

John 9:1-3

“Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. 2 And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.”

The man then goes back to the religious leaders and tells them that it was Jesus. And this made them want to get rid of Jesus, why? Because he wasn’t keeping the Sabbath? Not really, it wasn’t about the Sabbath but about  legalism and the power they had over people through it.

And Jesus knew their thoughts and He rebuked them, declaring that “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.” 

And this just made them more determined to persecute him and kill Him. He is not just rebelling against their rules but also is “God was His Father, making Himself equal with God”. They understood that He was declaring His divinity and His equality to God.

We will stop here today and continue next week. Let’s reflect on this miracle at Bethesda and consider how it speaks to our own lives:

• God’s Ways May Be Beyond Our Understanding

Jesus chose to heal one man out of many. We may not understand why God answers some prayers and not others. We are called to trust His wisdom, sovereignty, and timing.

• Legalism Can Blind Us to God’s Work

The religious leaders focused on Sabbath rules rather than rejoicing over a miracle of mercy. We must be careful not to value tradition or rule-keeping above compassion and God’s grace.

• Our Obedience Matters

The healed man didn’t argue or explain why he couldn’t walk. When Jesus told him to “Rise, take up your bed and walk,” he simply obeyed. Faith responds in trust, even when it’s hard.

• Jesus Has Authority Over the Sabbath

By healing on the Sabbath, Jesus reveals Himself as Lord of the Sabbath. He is greater than religious rituals and rules. Our rest is found in Him.

• Jesus Claimed over and over to be God and His equality with God

By calling God His Father and working as God works, Jesus clearly reveals His divine identity. This truth demands a response: Will we acknowledge Him as Lord?