Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” And immediately the man was healed, took up his bed, and walked. And that day was the Sabbath. The Jews therefore said to him who was healed, “It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your bed.”

Jesus healed a man who had been sick for 38 years. It happened in Jerusalem near the pool called Bethesda. Jesus first asked him: “Do you want to be healed?” The sick man answered sadly: “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.” When the sick man described his situation of complete helplessness, Jesus said to him: “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” And immediately the man was healed, took up his bed and walked. Jesus showed His divine power here. He spoke a word and the man was healed. Behind the word of Jesus is not only His will but His divine power too. On the part of the sick man, one can see an attitude of the obedience of faith; he took up his bed and walked, carrying his bed, although that day was the Sabbath. He thus came into conflict with the Jews, who said to him: “It is not lawful for you to carry your bed.”

Jesus showed that He is Lord of the Sabbath. The man did not break the Sabbath rest when he carried his bed, the more so because he had been told to do so and because it was connected with a miraculous healing. Here we can see the blindness of the Pharisees who are unable to perceive that a man who had been paralyzed for 38 years was healed. They strain out a gnat and swallow a camel; they are unable to discern what is essential.

Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. We all are paralyzed in a certain area – we want and cannot. We want to overcome a bad habit, a kind of bondage, and we cannot. There are people paralyzed by alcohol, immorality, envy, anger… This paralysation makes man unable to walk in the Spirit of God, in true freedom, and no physician, no psychologist can heal him. And moreover, man is paralyzed by sin as such, as the Scripture says: “All have sinned.” The source of evil is in every one of us and paralyzes everyone. The only one who heals, the only one who forgives sins, the only one who makes us free is Jesus. He Himself often comes to us and wants to deliver and heal us. He can heal us immediately, or He heals us gradually; what is necessary is our obedience of faith.

The spiritual poison, which the devilish serpent “injected” into human nature through the disobedience of our first parents, is in us. The fruit of this poison is physical and spiritual death. Jesus delivers us from both. He delivers us from spiritual death by forgiving our sin. And He will deliver us from physical death when at His second coming He will raise our bodies to life again. The condition of salvation is to be united to Jesus by faith.

Download: Reflection on Joh 5_8-10