God's Word for You (Monday, Feb 8, 2010)
A Daily Devotion by Pastor Tim Smith
John 5:1-3
The Second Passover of Jesus’ Ministry: Jesus at Bethesda
5 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. (NIV)
This seems to be the second Passover mentioned in John’s gospel. Although the text is not specific as to what festival this was, it seems likely that this was the Passover that occurred in the spring of 28 AD. As we mentioned in the previous chapter, this is the about the only event John mentions from this second year of the Lord’s ministry; the Feeding of the 5,000 (John 6) took place about eleven or twelve months later, around the time of the Passover in 29 AD.
We don’t know exactly where the pool of Bethesda was, but the Sheep Gate is also mentioned in Nehemiah 3:1, 32 and Nehemiah 12:39. The Nehemiah references help us to locate the pool on the north side of the city, beyond the Temple. It was divided into two sections. The reference to the “five covered colonnades” in verse 2 seems to hint that there was one colonnade on the east end, one in the middle, one on the west end, and two longer ones north and south, something like this:
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As Werner Franzmann points out in his book Bible History Commentary, the covered walkways and the soothing water of the pool made Bethesda “a place much like a hospital.”
In this Gospel, John has brought us here to Bethesda to show us one of the many miracles Jesus performed in Jerusalem. John is really speeding us through the ministry of Christ to show us certain events that led up to Jesus’ crucifixion. One begins here: The opposition against Jesus because he healed on Sabbath Days and was unafraid to truthfully say that he is the Son of God, which naturally meant that either he was committing blasphemy (and therefore deserved death) or else he was the Messiah promised throughout the Old Testament who came to rescue mankind from their sins.
We fall at the feet of Jesus still today, because we did not go searching for him. Like the sick people convalescing or dying beside the pool of Bethesda, Jesus has come to us. He has not come with a rumor or a myth; he has come with healing for our bodies and healing for our souls. That’s why we trust him. That’s why we worship him. And that’s why we serve him.
Something Extra:
“John 5:4”
Some manuscripts and versions add:
“...the paralyzed—and they waited for the moving of the waters. 4 From time to time an angel of the Lord would come down and stir up the waters. The first one into the pool after each such disturbance would be cured of whatever disease he had.”
Most of the ancient Greek manuscripts that don’t have this passage are from Egypt (there is one from Italy), and a few of the translations (we call them “versions”) don’t, either, including the Coptic (also from Egypt), Georgian (from southern Russia) and Armenian. But quite a few Christians knew about this verse from very early times, including some in Egypt, but also Greek texts from Syria, Asia Minor, Italy and North Africa, and the Ethiopic version as well. The earliest reference I can find to it is from Tertullian, a pastor from the area of Carthage in North Africa who preached from 145 to about 200 AD. From Tertullian’s time on, Christians have been including this as a verse and assuming it was part of the original text.
Whether it belongs in the text of the Bible or not—the NIV is certainly justified to include it as a footnote—it is at the very least a helpful comment that helps us to better understand the text. The people there at the pool thought that something like this was going on, and whether it happened once or more than once, or never, the invalid Jesus was about to heal thought it did, but his angel-search kept him from seeing Christ himself.
May we keep our eyes focused on Jesus alone, and may nothing else—angels, demons, or otherwise—keep us from seeing our Savior God.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul's Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. His wife, Kathryn, attended Chapel from 1987-1990 while studying Secondary Education (Theater and Math) at UW-Madison. Kathryn's father, John Meyer, was also the first man to serve as a Vicar at Chapel.
