The Pool of Bethesda

Jesus goes up to Jerusalem for a Jewish feast and comes to the pool called Bethesda, where many sick and disabled people lie among the covered walkways.

S¹ome time later there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ²Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool with five covered colonnades, which in Hebrew is called Bethesda. ³On these walkways lay a great number of the sick, the blind, the lame, and the paralyzed.

Jesus notices a man who has been invalid for thirty-eight years, questions him about desire for healing, then commands him to rise, take up his mat, and walk. The man is made well at once and begins to walk.

⁵One man there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. ⁶When Jesus saw him lying there and realized that he had spent a long time in this condition, He asked him, “Do you want to get well?” ⁷“Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am on my way, someone else goes in before me.” ⁸Then Jesus told him, “Get up, pick up your mat, and walk.” ⁹Immediately the man was made well, and he picked up his mat and began to walk.

Because the healing happens on the Sabbath, the Jews object to the man carrying his mat. He repeats Jesus’ command without yet knowing his identity. Jesus later finds him in the temple, warns him to stop sinning lest something worse happen, and the man reports that Jesus made him well.

¹⁰Now this happened on the Sabbath day, so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “This is the Sabbath! It is unlawful for you to carry your mat.” ¹¹But he answered, “The man who made me well told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ” ¹²“Who is this man who told you to pick it up and walk?” they asked. ¹³But the man who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away while the crowd was there. ¹⁴Afterward, Jesus found the man at the temple and said to him, “See, you have been made well. Stop sinning, or something worse may happen to you.” ¹⁵And the man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.