Jesus
leaves Galilee and goes to Jerusalem for one of the required feasts.
He purposely got to Jerusalem in time for the Sabbath. He will
perform one of seven miracles done on the Sabbath at the pool of
Bethesda. Jesus has a miracle to perform and a lesson to teach. He
has saved the nobleman's son from death. Now He will restore an
invalid (paralyzed)
to
wellness and wholeness. The grace and mercy of God through Jesus
will be at work. Jesus will illustrate that He is Lord over the
Sabbath by doing this act of mercy on the Sabbath.
Keep
in mind that God had been silent and did no miracles for over 400
years. Now Jesus appears speaking the Word of the Lord and
performing miracles.
Law
regarding defects – Leviticus 21:16-23
“The
Lord said to Moses, “Say to Aaron: 'For the generations to come
none of your descendants who has a defect may come near to offer the
food of his God. No man who has any defect may come near: no man
who is blind or lame, disfigured or deformed; no man with a crippled
foot or hand, or who is hunchbacked or dwarfed, or who has any eye
defect or has festering or running sores or damaged testicles.'”
“He may eat the most holy food of his God, as well as the holy food, yet because of his defect, he must not go near the curtain or approach the altar, and so desecrate My sanctuary. I am the Lord who makes them holy.”
“He may eat the most holy food of his God, as well as the holy food, yet because of his defect, he must not go near the curtain or approach the altar, and so desecrate My sanctuary. I am the Lord who makes them holy.”
God
told Moses that no son of the high priest Aaron who had a defect
could come close to presence of God by the veil that separated the
Holy Place from the Most Holy Place. They could eat the bread from
the table of showbread and eat the priestly portion of the
sacrificial animal, but they could not be the one offering it or come near to God in His
sanctuary. Physical defects disqualified them from presenting
offerings to the Lord on behalf of the people. God wanted them to be
whole – free from physical imperfections – in order to serve God
fully. God's qualifications that the priests be perfect in body
prefigured Jesus, our Great High Priest, who is perfect man both
physically and spiritually because He was without sin (imperfection).
Our holy Jesus paved the way for us to come before the throne of
grace at any time. We are the righteousness of God in Him.
Jesus
is the reverse of this Law. Jesus includes what the Law excludes. And
Jesus wants the lame, blind, paralyzed, deaf and sick to be made
whole in Him. Jesus who is God calls the lame, blind, paralyzed,
deaf and sick to healing, restoration and wholeness. Jeremiah, Micah
and Zephaniah prophesied that a day would come when God would call
the blind and lame and make them a remnant who will drive away the enemy.
“Among them will be the blind and the lame.” Jeremiah
31:8 (see also
Micah 4: 6-7; Zephaniah 3:19; Isaiah 29:18) Jesus
is the fulfillment of this. When John the Baptist sent a messenger
while he was in prison asking Jesus if He was the one that the Jews
had been waiting for – the Messiah – Jesus responded with, “Go
back and report to John what you have seen and heard. The blind see,
the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the
dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed
is the man who does not fall away on account of me.” Luke 9:22-23
John the Baptist had obviously fallen into some doubt about Jesus
being the One for whom the Jews had been awaiting. Jesus told the
messenger of John to go back and tell him these things because John
the Baptist was a rabbi and teacher of the Law so he would recognize
that Jesus is telling him that He is doing the very things that had
been prophesied about the Messiah in the Older Testament. Jesus sent
John the Baptist back to his own scriptures in the Older Testament
that said that Messiah would do these things. Jesus let the Word of
God do the work of assuring John the Baptist that He is indeed the
One who was fulfilling all of these Older Testament scriptures.
Jesus
was at a pool near the Sheep Gate when He saw this crippled man who
was in need of healing.
Sheep
Gate
There
was a wall of protection and twelve gates around the earthly city of
Jerusalem in biblical times. The lambs (sheep) that were to be
offered as a sacrifice to God came through this gate. They had to be
cleansed, inspected and found without spot or blemish (defect).
Nothing
defective could be offered to holy God. (see
Malachi 1:8) Thankfully,
followers of Christ are made holy through the blood of Jesus making
us without defect so we can be His living sacrifice in service to Him
in spite of our physical condition.
When
Nehemiah began the rebuilding of the ruined wall of protection around
Jerusalem, he began with the Sheep Gate. He also ended at the Sheep
Gate. So, the wall around Jerusalem began and ended with the Sheep
Gate. It was the first one repaired and the last one dedicated. It
was the beginning and the end. In Nehemiah, the high priest Eliashib
and his sons the priests restored this Gate. Eliashib means “God
restores.”
God will restore all nations, tongues and tribes through His Son and
Great High Priest, Jesus.
This
is also a picture of Jesus who said, “I
am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.”
As the wall of protection around Jerusalem went full circle, Jesus
is the full circle of the Word of God and uses the full circle of the Word of God to rebuild and restore those
who love and believe in Him. Jesus is the Door through which all
must come to the Father. We are His sheep. Jesus said, “Most
assuredly I say to you, 'I am the Door of the sheep.” John 10:7
In Judaism, it was an earthly high priest that brought the
sacrificial animals through the sheep gate for inspection, cleansing
and sacrifice in the Older Testament. The end of this earthly
sacrificial lamb was death with no resurrection, but Jesus is the
spiritual sacrificial Lamb for the whole world. He has no end.
Jesus is the final sacrifice for the atonement of sin. His beginning
and end was and is eternal resurrected life.
Jesus
is telling those listening that He is the Door of the sheep – the
Sheep Gate – fulfilling the earthly Sheep Gate.
Jesus
is our Shepherd, and we are His sheep. We must all enter with our
Shepherd through the Sheep Gate. Jesus is the Door we must pass
through to enter the Heavenly temple of God. He is the High Priest
and the Lamb without spot or blemish who shed His blood as a
sacrifice to God for us. Because Jesus is without spot or blemish,
those who are “in Him” are also without spot or blemish in the
eyes of God. Jesus, God's Great High Priest, and His royal
priesthood of believers will be a wall of protection around the
spiritual city of our God – the “NEW” spiritual and eternal
Jerusalem. (see
Revelation 21:9-14) It
is the Heavenly Land of God's Promise – the spiritual Israel
(those
who strive with God) –
that is eternal.
The
building of the spiritual temple of God and the wall of protection
around His throne begins and ends with the sacrificed Lamb of God on
the cross. As the earthly high priest and priests began the
restoration and rebuilding of this earthly sheep gate during the time
of Nehemiah and Ezra, Jesus “rebuilds” us – His spiritual
temple – beginning in our hearts. He is recreating us back to the original
condition of the man and woman in Genesis who were holy when the
Godhead made them. Without Jesus we cannot have the spiritual
life-giving blood or understand the spiritual water of the Holy
Spirit and the Word that makes us spiritual.
Pool of Bethesda
Bethesda
means “house
of mercy” and/or “house of great outpouring.” God's
grace and mercy will be at work in Bethesda through His Son Jesus.
The outpouring of Jesus' love, grace, the Holy Spirit
and His Word will heal and help this man to walk uprightly.
The
pool at Bethesda was fed by a deep spring. This pool was used as a
mikvah for the purification of the Jews. A mikvah is a cleansing
similar to today's baptism. The water in this pool at Bethesda is
from a Divine source since it is a deep spring made and given by God
that filled the pool. The Jews believed that this pool at Bethesda
had miraculous healing powers. It would make sense that Jesus would
heal at this pool. Jesus uses the “natural” to illustrate and
teach “spiritual” truth. He is the Divine Source of living,
moving water both in the natural and in the spiritual. That living water – the Word and the Holy Spirit –
will clean us from all sin.
God
told Moses that the first high priest, Aaron, and his sons had to be
immersed in water before serving in His Sanctuary. At the time of
Jesus and the temple, every priest and Jew who wanted to enter the
temple had to be washed in the mikvah. Immersing in the mikvah to
the Jew is for purification, restoration and new life. In the ritual
cleansing in the mikvah, the Jew shows his desire to become one with
the Source of Life. You could say that it is a “rebirth” or
being born anew.
Pool of Bethesda
Rendering

There
were five colonnades, also referred to as porches, surrounding the
pool that acted as a covering from the storms or intense heat. Five
is the number of grace. At Bethesda, God's mercy and grace in Jesus
Christ is at work. Jesus, God's grace and truth, protects us from
the storms of life and the intense heat of our enemy who spiritually
paralyzes us through fear, unbelief, weakness, our flesh, etc. These
lame, sick, blind, deaf and paralyzed people were helpless to get
themselves out of their situation so they could be healed. They were
under a covering (the
Law) but
they had to depend upon themselves or others to get them into the
pool when the healing waters were stirred. The Law also depended
upon the actions of man to carry out its requirements, but under the
“new” covenant in Christ, man must depend solely upon Jesus who did
the work that man could not do. Without Jesus and the power of His
Holy Spirit, we are helpless and powerless over our circumstances and
the wiles of our spiritual enemy.
At
times, the deep spring would come at such intensity – perhaps from
the spring rain --
that
the water would bubble up – moving the water. Keep in mind that
moving water to the Jew is considered “living water.” This moving
of the water was attributed to an angel. Whether it was an angel or
just nature that caused the water to move is not known. The blind,
lame and paralyzed believed that the water in this pool had
miraculous power. The paralyzed, blind, lame and sick gathered
around this pool and lay there waiting for the water to move so they
could be healed. These believed that when the water moved, the first
person into the water would be supernaturally healed. So they had a
measure of faith and hope but they had to depend upon help from man
to receive their healing. Only one would be healed so their chances
of healing were slim and none! Jesus is about to show this crowd
that it is having faith in Him and His powerful Word and Spirit that
will heal the lame, sick, paralyzed, blind and deaf. God may have
sent an angel to stir up the water, but now He sent His Son to the
same pool to show that Jesus is the Healer and His living water of
the Holy Spirit is the Helper
in time of need.
Isaiah
had prophesied that the Lord would open the eyes of the blind, unstop
the ears of the deaf and the lame would leap like a deer when God
redeemed His people. (see
Isaiah 35:5-6) God's
Redeemer is at the pool of healing ready to make a lame man walk.
Jesus
is the deep fountain of living water. He stirs up the spiritual
gifts an our spirit within us to empower and encourage us to move
forward with Him to maturity and do greater works for His Kingdom.
Keep
in mind that Jesus came to this man, not the opposite. Jesus saw one
of the lost sheep of Israel in dire need just as He saw the dire need
of the Samaritan woman at the well. Jesus says, “You
did not choose Me; I chose you.” Jesus
is the One who does the seeking and saving of the lost and the broken
so none of us can boast or take credit for any of it. Why did
Jesus choose this particular man out of all of the others? Perhaps
this invalid man was in the gravest condition and had the greatest
need. He would probably be the last one to be able to get to the
water. Jesus will make the last one first! No one is beyond the
reach of Jesus. Healing the gravest and most needy of those gathered
around the pool would make the greatest impact and give the others
hope in Jesus.
(To be continued)
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