Man Healed at Pool of Bethsada
One man there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying by the pool and knew he had been there a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to get well?”
“Sir,” he replied, “I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am coming, someone else gets there first.” (They believed that an angel came down at intervals and energized the waters and whoever stepped in first was healed of his affliction.)
This is the eighteenth of thirty-five major miracles
Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” Immediately the man was healed, and he picked up his mat and began walking.
This happened on a Sabbath day, so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “This is the Sabbath. It’s illegal for you to carry the mat.”
He answered, “The Man who made me well is the One who told me to pick up the mat and walk.”
So they asked him, “Who is this Man who told you, ‘Pick up your mat and walk’?” But he didn’t know who it was, since Jesus had left the area because of the large crowd.
Later on Jesus found the man in the temple and said to him, “Now you’ve been healed. Don’t sin anymore so nothing worse happens to you.”
The man left and told the Jews it was Jesus who had healed him. And because Jesus was doing such things on the Sabbath, the Jews continued to persecute Him and tried to kill Him.
Jesus told them, “My Father is continuing to work until now, and so am I.”
This made them want even more to kill Him. Not only was He breaking the Sabbath, but He also was calling God His own Father, thus making Himself equal with God.
Cheney, Johnston M., Stanley A. Ellisen, and Johnston M. Cheney. Jesus Christ The Greatest Life: A Unique Blending of the Four Gospels. Eugene, OR: Paradise Publishing Inc., 1999. Print.
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