Joh 5:1 After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
Joh 5:2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades.
Joh 5:3 In these lay a multitude of invalids--blind, lame, and paralyzed [waiting for the moving of the water;]
Joh 5:4 [for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool, and stirred the water: whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was healed of whatever disease he had.]
Joh 5:5 One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.
Joh 5:6 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?"
Joh 5:7 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."
Joh 5:8 Jesus said to him, "Get up, take up your bed, and walk."
Joh 5:9 And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath.
The mention of an angel stirring the waters echos of Hebrews 1, don't you think? The One who is superior angels has arrived!
But, more to the point, what is being undone here? I think it's along the lines of what Paul says in Romans:
Rom 5:12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned--
Sin came into the world, and death through sin. There is no doubt, I think, that the main thrust of Romans 5:12-21 is SPIRITUAL death, but it also must encompass physical death as well, especially in verse 12, because Paul is saying that the fact that people physically die is a sign that sin is in fact in the world and that sin, because everyone does die, has spread to everyone. To carry this thought further, I don't think it is a stretch at all to say that physical infirmities are merely a subset of death. That is to say, that just as everyone is affected by sin and will die everyone is affected by sin and suffers from sickness. To be sure, some are sicker than others, but we are all affected by it.
So, this man, although he is obviously not dead, suffers from the sin that Adam brought into the world just as surely as all the generations who have come before him, who are now dead.
Jesus, comes to undo this. He asks the man, and He asks us:
DO YOU WANT TO BE HEALED?
And although the man, in a roundabout way says, "Of Course!" and Jesus does in fact heal him, and Jesus does continue to work miracles like this, these kinds of miracles are a light thing compared to the real kind of healing that Jesus brings, the eternal kind...
And so we come around, again, to the SPIRITUAL nature of Jesus' ministry, that while He certainly performed these SIGNS, the SIGNS in and of themselves are not what are significant, for SIGNS are not meant to be wondered at in and of themselves but rather are to be wondered at in terms of WHAT THEY POINT TOWARDS!
Adam didn't just give up lush gardens, nice weather, abundant food and cool walks in the evening when he ate the fruit of the tree...he gave up ETERNAL LIFE...
Jesus offers you a way to get it back...
DO YOU WANT TO BE HEALED?
Chris
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