Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called
Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. 3 In these lay a
multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. 5 One man was there
who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When 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?” 7 The 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.” 8 Jesus said to him, “Get up,
take up your bed, and walk.” 9 And at once the man was healed, and he
took up his bed and walked. ” John 5:2–3, 4-9.
Many historians believe that people in Jesus’
day associated this “swimming bath” with healing. There were legends of an
angel that came on occasion to “stir the waters” of the pool. The first person
to enter the water was healed. Such is how the paralyzed man in this passage
describes his dilemma to Jesus. He could never reach the water in time to be
healed. Jesus simply asks him, “Do you want to be healed?” When the man finally
tells Him, in a roundabout way, that he does, Jesus heals him. The man never
needed the pool’s water for healing of any sort, be it physical or spiritual.
Born and raised Catholic, I have been exposed
since childhood to many religious traditions. Other organized denominations,
including Protestant, have them as well. Traditions and rituals have their
place. They allow one’s mind to focus, perhaps, on a specific aspects of the
Gospel, or offer a sense of structure and order to one’s faith. What happens
when such rituals and traditions become a person’s faith, overshadowing the single,
true meaning of Christianity: Jesus, his birth, death and resurrection, and His
atonement for our sins?
For example, many use holy water and oil for
baptisms, anointing of the sick or a blessing of a home. When used
symbolically, this might remind us of our own baptism, or Jesus as the Living
Water in our lives. How often do we, as individuals or a society, look at such
things as having actual power. Buying vials of water from the Holy Land, wooden
crosses blessed by [fill in whatever name applies]. True healing, blessing and
power comes only from God, not any item in this world.
Jesus listens patiently to the man explain that
he’s not been healed because he has not gotten into the water in time. Jesus
could have explained that the water, and the tradition around the pool of
Bethesda, will never heal him. Only He, God, can. In our own lives, what symbol
or practice, what routine or tradition do we turn to for grace or blessings,
instead of Jesus? Think about it this week, being aware of when we look to some-thing,
rather than Someone.
PRAY
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