Get Up and Walk

John 5:1-18

¹After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ²Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. ³In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. ⁵One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. ⁶When 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?” ⁷The 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.” ⁸Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” ⁹And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath. ¹⁰So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.” ¹¹But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’” ¹²They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” ¹³Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. ¹⁴Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.” ¹⁵The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. ¹⁶And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. ¹⁷But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.” ¹⁸This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. 

This is one of those miraculous signs I would have loved to witness personally. Just imagine how dramatic it would be to see someone’s legs return to full health after being paralyzed for 38 years. We know that this man’s legs had to have been shriveled and bent. The muscles were gone. GONE. Thirty-eight years is a very long time. Then Jesus comes along and tells him to “take up his bed (mat) and walk.” 

This event is yet more proof of our amazing Savior’s power, grace, compassion, and cunning. I’ll bet you weren’t expecting “cunning” were you? Put yourself into the scene. This particular pool had a legend attached to it. It was believed that an angel came to the pool every now and then and stirred the waters. If you were the first person to enter the pool while the water was still moving, you would be healed of your physical infirmity. So naturally, there were dozens of injured people around the pool hoping to be the person healed. This is what the paralyzed man explains to Jesus. (There’s no reason to dwell on what was going on with this pool. I believe it was sensationalized speculation based on nothing more than hope.) Maybe Jesus would hang around and throw him into the pool next time it was stirred! But then Jesus does the unexpected – of course. He simply tells the guy to get up, take his mat and walk. In that moment, these shriveled, paralyzed, useless legs grow muscles and strength. The guy stands up and takes his mat with him. Jesus disappears into the crowd.

Now, back to the idea that Jesus was “cunning”. It’s the Sabbath. Instead of rejoicing with a man who is healed after 38 years, the Pharisees are angry because he’s carrying a mat on the Sabbath. That’s against the rules they had created to earn their own righteousness. Jesus is taking His message to the hierarchy. “Your rules are stupid and will not earn you righteousness. And, by the way, I am the Son of God.” (Translation by Carolyn.) This battle between Jesus and the Pharisees is in full swing at this point although this particular story does not include a direct confrontation between the two.

Finally, Jesus advances His ministry to this individual man whom He healed. Jesus now challenges him to be changed not just physically, but spiritually as well. It’s time to believe in the One who healed him and become a member of the Kingdom of God. We don’t hear from this man again, but one can only assume he heeds the words of Jesus. We do well to join this man in receiving from Jesus the spiritual healing of which we are all in desperate need, recognizing Him as the only way into God’s Kingdom.