Scripture Reading: John 5:1-15
The pool or spring, called Bethesda, probably was some sort of medicinal spring. Threre are many such springs both in America and Europe, to which people flock from all parts of the world with their ailments, hoping to have them cured. Supernatural properties were attributed to such springs in ancient days. This spring at Bethesda was probably an intermittent spring which possessed healing virtue for certain kinds of ailments. It was well-known, and its porches were always thronged with patients waiting for the moving of the waters. The curative power of the spring seems to have been confined to the times of its periodic flow. We should note that the fourth verse of our King James Version is omitted from the Revised Version, as it is not found in the most ancient manuscripts.
The man whose case is described in our passage for today had been a sufferer for thirty-eight years. It is not easy to be sick year after year. Prolonged invalidism very seriously tests the quality of life. Some people fret and chafe in such experiences. Pain is hard to bear. Then their illness seems a sad interruption to their activities, breaking into their plans for lifework. It is much easier to go to one’s tasks every day, toiling for long hours, than it is to lie quietly in bed, doing nothing, yet keeping sweet. Yet invalidism, when accepted in faith and trust, and endured with patience, often produces very beautiful life. There are shut-ins whose rooms are almost like heaven in their brightness and joy. Some of the most wonderful revelations of divine grace have been made in cases of long and painful illness, when the sufferers have accepted their condition as God’s will for them and have found it a condition of blessing. Richard Baxter, who himself had been an invalid for long years, has a note on this passage which is worth repeating: “How great a mercy was it to live thirty-eight years under God’s wholesome discipline! Oh, my God, I thank Thee for the like discipline of fifty-eight years; how safe a life is this, in comparison with full prosperity and pleasure!” The furnace fires of sickness burn off many a bond of sin and worldliness. Many now in heaven, no doubt, will thank God forever for the invalidism which kept them from sin when on the earth.
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