Reading
Jn 5:1-16
5 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. [4] [From time to time an angel of the Lord would come down and stir up the waters. The first one into the pool after each such disturbance would be cured of whatever disease they had] 5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”
7 “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”
8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 10 and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”
11 But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”
12 So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?”
13 The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.
14 Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” 15 The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.
The Authority of the Son
16 So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him.
Meditation
The miracle reported in this page of the Gospel of John takes place in a place with extremely evocative names: the pool of Betzaeta, or the "house of mercy", near the "sheep's door". As if to want to return to that door which is Christ, through which we must pass to obtain the abundance of his grace.
The belief in the healing powers associated with the pool's thermal water was due to its bubbling from time to time, attributed - according to the verse that some ancient manuscripts do not record - to the intervention of an angel. Jesus heals a man who is unable to obtain salvation for himself by throwing himself into the pool at the right time. This man becomes the symbol of those limits that we cannot overcome alone in our process of spiritual growth.
It is Jesus who takes the initiative; it is he who comes to meet him, without the need for other intermediaries. His action, however, is preceded by a question that might seem obvious: "Do you want to get well?" (v. 6). Jesus wants to understand if this man wishes to get out of his resignation. We must consider the same question addressed to us, especially in the face of our spiritual infirmities, the worst of which is represented by taking refuge in a comfortable area where one does not go forward or backward, paralyzed by mediocrity.
For various reasons, we can find ourselves lying on the ground begging for some happiness. But Jesus, who makes himself present in infirmities, is able to restore integrity and fullness of meaning to our life. "Pick up... walk": the imperative formula recalls the same effective word of God, which worked in the creation of the world.
The long duration of the man's illness near the pool of Bethesda - almost forty years - makes the miracle incontrovertible, but instead of seeking Jesus to receive his blessing, the Jews decide to persecute him "because was doing these things on the Sabbath" (v. 16). Actually, the Scriptures ask to keep the Sabbath by abstaining from work, but they do not specify more. It was an oral tradition that established thirty-nine prohibited activities on the day of rest.
The Mosaic law was therefore not violated either by Jesus or by the man he healed. But the presupposed orthodoxy, the doctrine, is placed before orthopraxis by the Pharisees, that is to act rightly by doing good.
The bed that man, obeying Jesus, carries with him attests his complete recovery, but there is a moment when he finally lays it down to go to the temple to praise God. We too carry the memory of our mistakes with us, but the time comes in which we free ourselves from this burden to make room for the praise of God's mercy; there is a time to ask for healing, but also a time when our prayer must become pure adoration, when there is no more room for fear and regret, but only for praise.
Prayer
Come and visit us, o Lord, when we are prostrate in our infirmities; lift us up with your right hand, so that we can bear witness to your mercy. Amen.
- Rev. Dr. Luca Vona
