1 After this, it was a Jewish feast, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2 And in Jerusalem, by the Sheep Gate, there is a pool called in Hebrew “Bethesda,” having five porches. 3 In these lay a great multitude of the sick, the blind, the lame, and the maimed, waiting for the moving of the water. 4 For sometimes an angel descended into the pool and stirred up the water. Whoever descended first after stirring the water would be cured of whatever disease he was afflicted with. 5 Now there was a certain man who had been ill for thirty-eight years. 6 Jesus saw this man lying there, and knew that he had been lying there for a long time, and said to him, “Do you want to be made well?” 7 The sick man answered him, “Lord, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred. But while I am coming, another descends before me.” 8 Jesus said to him, “Arise. “Pick up your bed and walk.” 9 And immediately the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. On that day there was a Sabbath.
10 Then the Jews said to him who was healed, “It is the Sabbath! It is not permissible for you to carry your bed.” 11 He answered them, “The one who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your bed and walk.’” 12 So they asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Pick up your bed and walk?’” 13 As for the one who was healed, he did not know who it was, because Jesus had withdrawn, since there was a crowd at the place. 14 Afterward, Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are made whole; sin no more, lest something worse happen to you.” 15 So the man went and told Elihud that Jesus was the one who had healed him.

the explanation:

The news of the recovery of the paralytic, which we recite on the third Sunday after Easter, is par excellence the news of Easter in its reflection on us. The Church’s choice of evangelical texts, in the Easter period, is intended to show us the effects of the Lord’s resurrection in us, that is, our resurrection from all dislocation and death (see today’s message: Acts of the Apostles 6: 1-7).

 Here, we will not simplify the topics of the Gospel of Easter Sundays, but rather we will limit ourselves to what the news of the recovery of the paralytic brings to us. The first thing that must be emphasized is that this news, which may seem simple on the surface, is difficult in that it conveys to us what happened without expanding into details that he leaves us to discover between the words and lines of the news.

 The incident of the healing of the paralytic takes place near a pond around which many sick people gathered, waiting for an angel. “He would sometimes descend into the pond and stir the water, and whoever descended first, after stirring the water, would recover from whatever illness he had been afflicted with.” There, Jesus came. He chose, from among the patients, a paralytic (or paralytic). After learning that he had been in his place for a long time, he asked him his exciting question: “Do you want to be healed?” The man replied to him and told him about his long wait, and that “there is no human being who, when the water is stirred, can throw him into the pond.” Let's expand a little. Man near a pond. Necessarily, his eyes are drawn to its waters, the movement of which he believes heals. A stranger comes to him, asks him a question, and he answers it.

This scene, in itself, suggests that the man, in response to his interlocutor, neglected to look at the pond. Did he leave it because he felt that his interlocutor intended to throw him into it? Did you beg him to respond, to do so? The text says nothing of that. He just repeats what the man said without any comment. This makes us believe that there is something worthy of attention that moved him to respond to his interlocutor. The general meaning is that the one who provoked it was the person of Jesus. But the text will tell us, later, that the man did not know the Lord until the end. This makes us believe that what provoked the paralytic was that someone approached him and spoke to him. So simple. Yes, the text doesn't say that either. But why not? We might think that this is a simple matter, and so we rule it out. But, isn’t what we exclude, especially in the Biblical texts, the first thing we should stop at? No one would leave a pond near which it would remain dark for forty years, if it had not been disturbed. The reader knows that the person he provoked with his words is Jesus. But the man of the Gospel did not know. This is what we must stop at, and see where we stand on it. Usually, we don't care much about being close to a sick person. We may pray for him, that he may be healed. This is important. But we rarely think about dedicating it to a visit and a friendly conversation! The world is full of neglected patients whose families feel sorry for them, or throw them, as they are old, in homes to rest without asking about them anymore! Here, the Lord points out to us that the sick person may need a companion more than anything else. He may ask for a shoulder to throw his worries on. He may, in many cases, think that this is his cure! No, the man did not want the Lord to throw him into the pond. He must have known that this blessing might have healed many others. But none of these people were led by their recovery to pay attention to those who were in their situation. What I think is that the man agreed to answer Jesus’ question because he felt completely neglected. Does this mean that the man suddenly thought that this blessing, even though it heals, does not restore the person’s humanity? Did he feel that the person speaking to him was not like other people? Nothing in the text says that. But also: why not! All of this shows that the Lord alone is the focus of the story (i.e. the true blessing and the saving person). It remains that this part of the recitation ends in favor of the man whom the Lord healed with a word, that is, by saying to him: “Arise, take up your bed, and walk.”

After this, two things happened. The first of them is the paralytic’s dialogue with the Jews on the Sabbath. The second is Jesus' encounter with him again in the temple. We will not dwell here on the topic of Saturday. What concerns us is that the man responded to those who objected to him carrying his bed on a day sanctified by ancient law: “The one who made me whole was the one who said to me: Take up your bed and walk.” The Evangelist’s comment on those who demanded that the man know the identity of his acquittal states, “As for the one who was healed, he did not know who he was.” Here, the text leads us to another matter. The man, who left the pool, found himself witnessing what happened to him. In front of whom? In front of his people and his religious people who hold him accountable for violating Sharia law! The blessing is transmitted. The blessing, this time, is his ancient law. So he abandoned her too. It is bold to abandon yourself, the traditions of your society, and your family whenever you want to stray from the truth. It is bitter to be back alone, neglected. The man does not know who healed him. He sides with those he does not know. He chooses to remain loyal to the one who spoke to him and healed him. The certificate is nothing else. It is to cling to the word of someone whose existence you may be the only believer in your surroundings, or in the entire world. Witnessing is speaking your experience to a world that not only finds you wrong, but may also reject you and your God.

Then the recitation confirms that the Lord “afterwards found him in the temple” and commanded him not to sin. Here, the phrase “he found him,” which is the focus of the text, means that the Lord alone is the world of the neglected. A person must not only accept healing, but also believe that the Lord has found him. This is the truth of existence that is not paralleled by any matter in existence. So the man went out to the Jews, “and told them that Jesus was the one who healed him.” How did he know him? The evangelist only says that the Lord found him and told him what he said. Is this an implicit indication that the Lord is standing in what he said? There is no other explanation. The constant faithfulness of the witness, which enables him to maintain his recovery and keep him away from sin, presupposes memorizing the Word of God and loyalty to the Person of the Word, or to His name. He went out to them to say that Jesus was the one who healed him. Jesus, alone, is the subject of the testimony, and his name is sufficient to demonstrate its sincerity.

Many commentators have said that this paralytic is every one of us. This, in fact, is the core text of the Eid service. How do we remember that the Risen Lord wants us to rise? How do we believe in his ability? How do we want it? How do we update all patients who know they need it, or don't know? How do we bear witness to Him in an objectionable world? How can we be faithful to His word? How do we care that He, His Name, appears in everything we say and do? Questions that, if we follow this evangelical text to answer, are able to teach us how to remain alive with a living God who always seeks us, so that we may exist.

At the beginning of the first verse of this Gospel passage, it is mentioned that Jesus ascended to Jerusalem, and it was a feast, and this part of the verse was dropped in the Gospel chapter. It is most likely that this holiday is Pentecost, which is the anniversary of the giving of the law at Sinai. John did not mention the name of the holiday in order to put in the forefront the Sabbath on which the paralytic was healed, and this is what the Jews later object to.

“And there is in Jerusalem at the Sheep Gate a pool called in Hebrew Bethesda, with five porticoes.” The five porticoes could be a symbol of the five Mosaic books, the books of the law, and the giving of the law on Mount Sinai. This interpretation is supported by the mention of Moses and the writings in John 5:41-47. The meaning of this symbol is that the law in the five Mosaic books cannot give life and that Israel must wait for something better. In John 5:41-47 Jesus in the first five books of the Old Testament refers to Jesus as the giver of life. If this is true, the healing of the blind man at the pool of Bethesda becomes, in light of the hadith that follows this Gospel passage, a symbol of the gift of eternal life in Jesus.

Until recently, archaeologists were doubting the authenticity of the places mentioned in the Gospel of John, and subsequently the authenticity of the Gospel of John, using the excuse that there was no trace of the Pool of Bethesda with its “five porticoes,” until it was recently discovered to the north of the Temple, thirty meters from the Church of St. Hanna, and near the Gate of Jerusalem, known as “Bab Setti Maryam”. The prevailing belief at the time was that this pool granted healing to whoever entered it first when the water was stirred.

 The text mentions that the movement of water by the angel brought about healing, and it is likely that the writer wants to confirm that the healing is actually brought about by God who sends the angel who performs his mission in carrying out the word of God. Behold, the Lord Jesus commands healing directly without the mediation of an angel, and this shows that God working through water has come to work directly with His word.

The sick gathered around the water, asking for healing. As for the Lord Jesus, he brought the water of eternal life, “which becomes in him a spring of water springing up into eternal life” (John 4:14-15). So the Lord Jesus always carries healing water that gives immediate and final results. As for the waters of Jerusalem, they are powerless unless God immerses them in them, charging them with healing efficacy.

“A person has been ill for thirty-eight years.” Mentioning the duration is to confirm that the disease has worsened and that recovery has become impossible. “Do you want to be healed?” It is as if the Lord Jesus was testing his hope. The paralytic’s answer shows the frustration that befell him. Even if he sought healing, he would not obtain it because the grace of healing was not available to all the sick people gathered there, but rather to the one who was thrown into the pond first. Instant and uninterrupted healing came with the coming of the Lord Jesus. Therefore, he said to the paralytic, “Arise, take up your bed and walk.” The Lord Jesus comes to you in the depths of frustration and lifts you up, raising you as if from death, so that life may be revealed in you as it was revealed in the paralytic when he carried his bed and walked in front of everyone.

Keeping the Sabbath is linked to God's rest on the seventh day, that is, after the completion of creation. The Jews took great care in preserving it, and it was stated in the Book of the Mishnah (i.e. the book of interpretation of the Holy Scriptures) that carrying a bed is forbidden on the Sabbath. But the Lord of the Sabbath (Mark 2:82) is the one who commanded the paralytic to carry the bed. Jesus commanded healing, and it was fulfilled, but the law of the Sabbath failed, so the paralytic answered his questioners, saying that by this work I am complying with the command of the one who healed me, and there is no law that hinders the implementation of this command.

The Jews believed that God’s rest after creation was limited to His creative work only, which ended on the seventh day: “And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His creative work which He had done” (Genesis 2:3). But they also believed that God is still working at all times in managing and ruling over the universe that He created. God never stops working, not even on Saturday. From here we understand the reason for the Jews’ anger at Jesus when he said that God is still working, and He is working too. He attributes divine qualities to himself, and what appears to the Jews as disbelief is nothing but the dazzling truth. This is because Jesus is the Son of God to whom the Father has given everything, especially since He is the Judge who will judge the world. He says: “For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so the Son gives life to whomever He wills. For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son” (John 5:21-22).

 “Then they asked him: Who is the man who told you, ‘Pick up your bed and walk?’” The Jews do not ask who is the person who healed you, but rather who told you to carry your bed. They do not care about healing, but about breaking the Sabbath. They want to know who called to work on Saturday. They said to the paralytic: “It is the Sabbath, so it is not permissible for you to carry the bed.”

“So that man went and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him.” The Jews, as previously mentioned, asked the man who had ordered him to carry his bed, emphasizing the lack of respect for the Sabbath. The paralytic answers their question, but changes his wording. He did not say that Jesus was the one who commanded him to carry his bed, but rather he said that Jesus was the one who healed him. This emphasizes the saving aspect of Jesus’ work, and that this salvation is not linked to the Sabbath, that is, to the law, at all.

“Behold, you have been made whole; sin no more, lest something worse happen to you.” The Lord Jesus does not want to confirm that there is a connection between sin and illness and that illness is a direct penalty for sin (John 9:3 and 11:4). This statement assumes that Jesus not only healed the paralytic from his physical illness but also forgave his sins. This symbolizes that Jesus gives new life to those who wait for him without the law and forgives them of their sins. The grace that the paralytic received and renewed his body calls him to be completely guided to God. If he ignores this, he will be afflicted with more than his previous illness, as he exposes himself to spiritual death. Jesus first asks for the repentance of both the healthy person and the disabled person. The kingdom is open to both, and there is no difference between them except to the extent that they are distinguished by their purity of heart and pursuit of holiness. Hence, some Christian traditions saw this miracle as a symbol of the sacrament of baptism. There is more than one testimony indicating that the sacrament of baptism was given, during the early ages, at the pool of Bethesda, as a memorial to the work of Jesus.

The Lord Jesus wanted to show the paralytic that he is facing a new stage. God has accomplished for him what he is unable to accomplish, i.e. external healing, and his role now is to live a life of uprightness, righteousness, and holiness. This is achieved by an internal decision on his part, and he cannot do it if he places his hope in God. But if he is unable, he will be frustrated to the end, and he will suffer worse as he will lose eternal life.

St. Ephrem the Syrian comments on Jesus’ saying: “My Father is still working, and I am working as well.” He says: “The angels do not receive the command to stop working on Saturdays, nor do the heavens receive the command to let down dew and rain, nor do the stars give orders to continue their path, nor do the plants receive the command to ripen the fruits, nor do Humans breathe and reproduce. On the contrary, women give birth on Saturdays, and there is no commandment prohibiting them from doing so. Circumcision of boys on the eighth day also violates the law of the Sabbath... If all creatures have this freedom, how much more so does their Creator? Thus the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” As for Saint Simeon the Modern Theologian, he also urges believers, based on this verse, to work constantly in order to obtain eternal life. He says: “We must also work, not only for food that is obsolete, but for food that extends to eternal life.” .

Quoted from my parish bulletin, adapted
Sunday, May 22, 1994 / Issue 21
Sunday, May 14, 2006 / Issue 20
Sunday, April 29, 2007 / Issue 17