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, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.
Comment: If you are reading this passage in your own Bible you will note that v 4 in many Bibles is not included here. Apparently it is not in the earliest extant available copies. v7 says much the same thing as the redacted v4 and v7 is in the earliest copies. So, I don’t see a problem.
But the story is fantastic. The man at the centre of the story had been an invalid for 32 years. Was he born thus or had he had an accident or an illness? That’s irrelevant, the fact was that he was putting his hope in something which he admits had failed him. Why did Jesus not heal the multitude of those lying there? Perhaps Jesus saw ‘the seeds of faith’ in this man and asked whether He was serious about his desire to be healed. We read what happened. Not only was he able to move again but he had the strength in his, what by now had to be, withered limbs to walk carrying his ‘bed’, (of whatever that consisted.) Every eye in the place must have been on both the healed and the Healer.
Prayer: Thank You, Jesus, for healing this man.
As I read it! 