In my previous post, we explored the feelings of the man by the Bethesda pool in John 5. This incident, though, teaches us a lot about Christ.
1. Christ is compassionate. The angel would trouble the pool waters at a certain season, and the first one into the pool when the waters moved was healed. You can imagine that everyone with an illness or disability that could get to the side of the pool was there in hopes of being the first in and getting healed. My guess is that a lot of sick people, lepers, people with palsy, diabetics losing limbs, those with bleeding issues, chronic bronchial problems, etc, etc, etc, were there. There could have been hundreds, or maybe even thousands of these people. (My point is that it was not a cool hang-out!) Still, Christ waded through this sea of diseased humanity to heal the impotent man by the pool. He wasn't there to rub elbows. He was there to minister. He had compassion on the impotent man. What about the others? Scripture doesn't tell us whether He healed them or not. The story is about the situation with the impotent man.
2. Christ is all powerful. (To quote VeggieTales, God is bigger than the boogie man.) Christ did not need special ointments, rituals, magic words or anything else to heal that man. He healed him by the power given to Him by God.
3. Christ seeks those who can not help themselves. Jesus is recorded in scripture healing those who are unable to heal themselves. He healed the lame that could not walk, the blind that could not see, the deaf that could not hear and the lepers that could not clean themselves. What made them eligible for their healing was that they realized their helpless state. In order for Christ to heal us, we need to realize that we can not do it without Him.
4. Christ seeks those He can save. The man by the pool in Bethesda was not seeking Christ. He didn't even know it was Jesus Christ who healed him (John 5:13). It was Jesus who went out into that sea of humanity to seek the man. People do not naturally seek God. Most tend to run from him. They may seek religion, but they do not seek God, "lest their deeds should be reproved" (John 3:20). But Jesus seeks those whom he may save (I Timothy 1:15). I am thankful that He chased me down, and had the grace to save me after I had run from Him for so long.
5. Jesus saves and heals completely. The impotent man, once healed was able to walk and carry his bed. Jesus healed him well enough to be able to take on the activities of a normal healthy man. This man was not walking on wobbly knees. When Christ saves, He saves completely. It is not up to us to keep it, nor do we have to complete it. He did all the work, did all the saving. Our job then becomes to grow closer to Him in a relationship with Him, and grow in our faith through study of the Bible.
John 5 is an intensely theological chapter of the Bible. I highly recommend studying it.
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