REFLECTIONS TODAY

In John’s Gospel, the signs refer to the miracles performed by Jesus. There are seven signs in John. The third of these, which today’s Gospel passage narrates, is the healing of the lame man at the pool of Bethesda. We may reflect on Jesus’ question as he approaches the lame man: “Do you want to be well?” (v 6). We wonder why Jesus would be asking such a question. Isn’t it obvious that the man suffering from a serious disability for 38 years would surely want to be healed? 

The man answers Jesus indirectly. He tells Jesus about his seemingly helpless condition of having no one to help him to get into the pool right after its water is stirred up by an angel. 

The man airs out his sentiment which betrays his state of mind: that no one really cares for him. Jesus liberates the man from such kind of thinking when Jesus shows him, in words and actions, that Jesus truly cares for him. Do we care about other people? 
How do we show our concern for those in need of our help? Do we initiate helping the needy?

Gospel • John 5:1-16 
 

There was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem at the Sheep Gate a pool called in Hebrew Bethesda, with five porticoes. In these lay a large number of ill, blind, lame, and crippled. One man was there who had been ill for 38 years. 

When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been ill for a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be well?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; while I am on my way, someone else gets down there before me.” Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your mat, and walk.” 

Immediately the man became well, took up his mat, and walked. Now that day was a sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who was cured, “It is the sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.” He answered them, “The man who made me well told me, ‘Take up your mat and walk.’ ” 
They asked him, “Who is the man who told you, ‘Take it up and walk’?” The man who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away, since there was a crowd there. After this Jesus found him in the temple area and said to him, “Look, you are well; do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse may happen to you.” 

The man went and told the Jews that Jesus was the one who had made him well. Therefore, the Jews began to persecute Jesus because he did this on a Sabbath.

Source: “365 Days with the Lord 2025,” St. Paul’s, 7708 St. Paul Rd., SAV, Makati City (Phils.); Tel.: 632-895-9701; E-mail: publishing@stpauls.ph; Website: http://www.stpauls.ph.