Chapter Three

Rise, Take Up Your Bed And Walk

The Setting

Our next story takes place in Jerusalem (read John 5:1-15, 6:1), but has several different settings that are as conflicting as the distinctive cultural backgrounds entangled in the event. We’ll return to the streets and synagogues of Galilee at the end of the story, but here we find Jesus by a pool in a place called Bethesda, a mere half-mile away from the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem.

For nearly a century the kings in Jerusalem, particularly Herod the Great and his sons who ruled in Israel in Jesus’ time had a strong regard for Roman power and for Greek culture. The Fortress of Antonio, in the northeast corner of the city, adjoined the Temple itself and was originally built for the Temple Guard. Occupied at this time by the Roman army, it was a constant reminder of Israel’s domination. Greek culture was the pop culture in Jesus’ time; it was everywhere pervasive and promoted by all the social and political agencies of the day; even in the Holy City of Israel. And although the Jewish culture stood out in extreme disapproval of this fashion, Jesus was himself in intense disagreement with them both!

There had been a set of pools outside the northeast gate of the city for centuries. Beside the waters of this reservoir, Greek people had erected shrines and votive booths for their gods. When Herod the Great expanded the city with a great building project, the city wall was extended around the northern suburbs of the city and a grand colonnade was built around the pools.

Being now within the gates of the city, the Pool of Bethesda rose opposite the Fortress in defilement of the Holy City. Some more Hellenistic Jews might go there, devout Jews would not go there, but what was Jesus doing there? For no other reason than as He himself said, “I have come to seek and to save the lost.”

The Background

The name ‘Bethesda’ may have origins in the Hebrew words ‘Beth hesda’, meaning House of Mercy. There were five covered porches and colonnades surrounding two pools; resembling a squared-off number eight. The pools had a depth of up to 30 feet. At first, natural caves nearby were incorporated into Greek healing practices, and this place became a Greek temple of healing or Asklepion. Dedicated to Asclepius, the god of healing, these elaborate buildings of columned porches served as dormitories for the ill and infirmed. Being inside the ‘New City’, the building was tolerated by Jews who otherwise objected to the non-Jewish religious practices performed there.

The treatments typically administered at an Asklepion emphasized therapy through the natural environment. It was a holistic approach to care that would try to activate the patient’s innate healing mechanisms and promote recovery. The course of treatment generally began with a purification phase where the patient would follow a clean diet and undergo a series of baths or other methods of purging the body of impurity.

The patient would make an offering to Asclepius in the form of money or a prayer to the temple and a temple priest would then give the patient a prayer to create a more positive frame of mind. Following this, the next stage of treatment would involve a form of sleep therapy. Patients staying in the temple dormitories would be lulled into a hypnotic state induced by hallucinogens and begin their dream journey. Hoping to be visited by Asclepius or his daughters Hygeia and Panacea as they slept, these dream visitations would reveal the projected course and ultimate outcome of the disease. Once awakened, the patient would recount their dream to a temple priest who would prescribe a treatment based on their interpretation.

The Event

Whether or not the man in St. John’s story had come to the pool for treatment is uncertain because he had lain there for such a long time. The word used by John to describe the man is most often translated as ‘paralyzed’, but it can more simply be translated as ‘withered’. After thirty-eight years everything about this man had withered; his body, his mind, his faith, and his hope! A certain superstition is mentioned, though often missing from the earliest manuscripts of St. John’s gospel, that says those lying beside the pool were waiting for an angel to stir the waters. The original word for ‘angel’ in the text literally means ‘messenger’, and the expectation in this Greek healing temple was that Asclepius would send a messenger to stir the waters to begin the race to the waters for a chance healing. In context, the inclusion of the statement makes sense, or perhaps it is given as a point of clarification to help us understand why this man answered Jesus’ question with such a destitute response.

The Sign

Now we really want to ask again, “what was Jesus doing in a place like this?” Certainly, those at the pool seeking treatment were looking for healing in the wrong place. There’s no power in the idols of men or in Greek religious practices. We usually dismiss and diminish them as mere mythology,  but Asclepius was their god of medicine. Asclepius, whose name means ‘to cut open’, was so named because he had to be born by what we now call a cesarean. He was trained in healing by a centaur and became so adept at surgery that Hades, the god of the underworld, out of jealousy for the souls being saved, asked Zeus to have him killed. Asclepius was well-admired for serving people regardless of class and social status. Doctors, who claimed to be the direct descendants of Asclepius, referred to themselves as “Asclepiads.”

It is interesting that these temples would often have dogs and venomous snakes present, possibly as aids to treatment, but also as symbolic manifestations, for Asclepius was noted to appear in a patient’s dreams as a dog or snake. Contrary to popular interpretations, the snake on a staff as a medical symbol does not come from the Old Testament episode when Moses lifted a bronze snake on his staff for the healing of the people. While this was a foreshadowing of Jesus’ crucifixion in the New Testament and its power to heal the nations, today’s emblem for the medical practice is actually reminiscent of statues of Asclepius holding a staff wrapped by a snake. Both the snake on the staff of Moses, and the lifting up of Jesus on the cross brought about true deliverance and healing, but the religious practices of worship for Asclepius were in all aspects nothing but a counterfeit.

When Jesus came to Bethesda, he brought no premonitions, no superstitious practices, and no protocols. He just asked a simple question; “Do you want to be made well?” But the man was stuck! He was pining away for so long, waiting on one thing, that his hope was gone.

That thing he thought he must do, he could absolutely not do, yet all of his focus remained on it. Nevertheless, the Word of God spoke, and the power to change was released, received, and in faith acted on. The bed he had made and had lain in for thirty-eight years could no longer identify or incapacitate him; he picked it up and moved on! No matter where we are, when Jesus finds us stuck in a mess of our own making, He speaks His word, and strength comes. That’s when we find the ability to overcome and move on past our difficulties.

The Conclusion

When the next chapter begins, St. John again tells us that people followed Jesus “because they saw His signs which He performed on those who were diseased.” The news of Jesus’ extraordinary miracles in Jerusalem spread far and wide. People began to talk, and no matter what their opinion was, those joining the conversations began to speculate; “what is happening? Is Jesus the Messiah? What does it all mean?” They were beginning to read the signs! By retelling the stories of His remarkable healings, St. John was connecting the actual events to their true and ultimate meaning and giving evidence that Jesus is the authentic Son of God. But many of the religious leaders of the Jews would not believe, becoming intent on killing Jesus because He had broken their Sabbath laws, for the withered man was made whole on the most important Sabbath day of the year. Surely, the Messiah would never break the Sabbath laws or step foot in a heathen temple.

But referring directly to the signs He was performing, Jesus said to them, “For surely, I tell you, the Son can do nothing by Himself. He does what He sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son does also. The Father loves the Son and shows the Son everything He does. The Father will show Him greater works than these. They will surprise you.” Jesus himself is declaring that these wonderous workings of healing and miracles are signs that demonstrate He is truly the only Son sent by God the Father.