It is deeply interesting to trace the journeys of Jesus, Repelled by the cold Pharisees of Jerusalem, He had found His deepest joy in revealing the grace of the Father to the sinner at Sychar’s well. The new wine of divine grace had broken the old bottle of Jewish prejudices and law, and had found its true object in the case of a guilty and lost woman. Did He not come to seek and to save that which was lost? We see Him taking that same new stream of grace to Galilee; and the Galileans received Him.
“And after this”—after His spirit had thus been refreshed—“there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.” Now let us watch His steps, and hearken to His precious words. Whither turns He His steps? Does He hasten first to mingle with the careless crowd of self-righteous, pretending worshippers? No doubt there was great religious excitement, and great professions of devotedness and piety. Well did He know its hollowness. No, we do not find Him first with the crowd of Pharisees. There was a place of felt need, there was a multitude of poor, miserable objects even at Jerusalem. All this vas the proof and result of sin. In those five porches at the pool of Bethesda “lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water.”
What a scene of helpless misery! That misery attracts the heart of Jesus. Thither He directs His steps. Not a place in Jerusalem so suited to Jesus as this scene of misery. Look at them, and look at Him. Do you not see here a true picture of the moral condition of Christendom? There is that great crowd of those who say they are Jews, and are not, who answer in every respect to the Pharisees of Jerusalem—self-righteous, but utterly careless or indifferent about Christ. And, like them, about to be destroyed by overwhelming judgments!
But there are those who morally answer to the great multitude waiting for the moving of the water. Take each word used to describe their misery. “Impotent.” How many who feel something of the wretchedness of sin, yet remain, year after year, utterly helpless—yea, as to all good, “dead in trespasses and sins.” The pool was excellent, and had its healing to the one who could first step in. So of all the millions of Adam’s race, if you could be the first to keep the law, so as to be perfectly healed of your sin, would it not be truly blessed? Only you would be the first of all the fallen race that did it. But though you have waited and hoped so long, yet still you find yourself utterly impotent—“without strength,” it may be waiting, and longing to keep the law, and be healed; but you have no power; you find the law of sin in your members too strong for you. How impotent! How helpless!
But there is another plain word that is used to describe the waiting multitude—“blind.” Yes, this is man’s helpless condition also—groping about in the dark, not knowing whither he goeth. He has waited long, and tried long, to be saved. Must he not reform, must he not give up his sins, must he not follow holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord? But how is this to be accomplished? He cannot say, for he is blind, he cannot see how it is to be done.
And there is another class of waiters to be healed. A sorrowful, miserable class this is— “the halt.” You once professed, it may be, that you were saved; and you thought you walked with God, and kept His commandments; but you stumbled, you fell, and you have been lame ever since. You did not, perhaps, quite learn that there was no good in you. You are laid aside, lame, but waiting. Oh, how you long to be healed! Is it not so? Ah, that tear in your eye; there is One that sees it. If you could be healed in your way, you would have been the first that had stepped in, and that was made whole. But with all your efforts you are no better; no, it is just so.
There is still another, and even more wretched class of waiters for the moving of the water—“the withered.” These are on the verge of despair. Oh, how different these from the giddy, careless, worldly religious crowd over there in the temple! Every hope of healing almost gone. You have seen a drooping flower on a hot summer’s day; ah, more than that, withered. Has not Satan whispered, “It is better to be withered than make a profession of being a holy Christian, when you find you have no power to be what you once tried to be, and found you did nothing but fail?” And perhaps you have listened to the serpent, and given up all profession. Those bright hopes of your early days are all withered, and eternity is before you. Have you mingled with the hollow, professing crowd, or are you waiting to be healed? If you could but work out a righteousness fit for God, by keeping His commandments—if you could but step into the pool of healing!—but you cannot; and if you could, you would be the first. We are persuaded there is a great multitude of such impotent, helpless folk, seeking to be healed by works of law.
Let us not forget that this place of misery and helplessness, above all others and before all others, attracted the heart of Jesus. We must also notice the sovereign grace that singles out a sad, sad case: “And a certain man was there which had an infirmity thirty and eight years.” We are not told how many years he had been waiting, but it had been a long time; for we read, “When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he said unto him, Wilt thou be made whole?” Very sorrowful may have been your individual case—now a long time. Every effort may have failed, but the eye of this same ever-loving Jesus is upon you. He saw him, and He sees you. He said to him, and He says to you, “Wilt thou be made whole?” Jesus does not give him a prescription, or advise how he is to act, or what he is to do, to heal himself. No, all must be done for him: “Wilt thou be made whole?” The man does not see this at first. Conscious of his own helplessness, he only wants someone to help him; he says, “Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool.”
Does it not seem very strange that, though surrounded by preachers, and every possible religious form and ritual, yet you. have no one to really help you to be made whole? If you seem to get help for a moment, it is but for a moment. There is no perfect, permanent, abiding healing—no real known peace with God. Have you ever been alone before the tender, loving eye and heart of Jesus, like this impotent, helpless man? Do you hear His words, “Wilt thou be made whole?” Needest thou now to wait any longer? It is not a little amendment or restoration, but a wholly new, yea, eternal life, He gives. Jesus says, “Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.” The words of Jesus give life and power—a life and power that bears its own witness that it is of God. The change is immediate: “And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked: and on the same day was the sabbath.” How immediate and complete the salvation of that helpless sinner who hears the words of Jesus, believing Him who sent Him! A little lower down in the chapter Jesus says, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life.” Thus is he made perfectly, everlastingly whole. No condemnation, for Jesus has borne his sins, has also been made sin for him. He hears the words of Jesus, and passes from the old creation to the new, “is passed from death unto life.” He passes into a state of “no condemnation” and is made a partaker of eternal life; and to him that day is a true sabbath-day. He has perfect and everlasting repose, having redemption through the blood of Christ, even the forgiveness of sins. Having redemption, he also receives power; his body becomes the temple of the Holy Ghost, and the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus makes him free from the law of sin and death. He takes up his bed, and walks, that bed which was the proof of his impotence, the bed of helplessness. The utter inability to walk as a man in the flesh, seeking to keep the commandments, is now all reversed. He walks in the Spirit, and thus ceases to fulfill the lusts of the flesh. Lusts only provoked so long as he was in the flesh, under law, or seeking to be healed by it. Have you known this immediate, this blessed, mighty change? It is sad to think how modern—alas! even ancient—preaching has so dimmed and clouded the gospel, so hidden Jesus, and shut out His words, that the bulk of even the children of God are waiting to be healed—doubting and hoping, but never knowing that they are perfectly healed.
This greatly offended the Jews. It as greatly offends those who say they are Jews, and are not, in our day. They cannot endure so much as that a sinner should be brought face to face with Jesus—hear His own precious words, and be immediately healed—and know it, and prove it, by a holy walk in the power of the Spirit of God; to enter into one eternal sabbath of rest to the soul, of perfect peace with God; forever perfected, immutably perfected, by the one offering of Christ. No, no, this cannot be endured by all who would be Jews in our day.
The early church were healed, had peace with God, and were waiting for His Son from heaven. That which calls itself the church now is like the multitude of helpless folk waiting for the moving of the water to heal them. It must be self-evident that no one waiting to be healed can be waiting for Jesus from heaven. To them He would not be coming as the Bridegroom, but coming—as He will to the unbelieving—as the Judge of quick and dead. Are you waiting to be healed, or waiting for Him who hath healed you?
The Jews were occupied with the sabbath; they knew not the Lord of the sabbath. He was the Holy, Holy, Holy Jehovah who had given them the sabbath. And He was Lord of it. He did not make Himself equal to God, He was God. “For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will.” How truly sublime to see Jesus, God manifest in the flesh, thus seeking and healing the impotent, helpless man!
Just one word more before we close. Have you ceased to wait in lingering doubt and hope? Have you heard the words of Jesus? Do you know that He hath made you whole? Then you may possibly be asking this question: What shall I do now I am saved, made perfectly whole, in the risen Jesus?
What did the impotent man do? “The man departed, and told the Jews that it was Jesus which had made him whole.” It was not temperance, morality, works of law, or ritualism. “It was Jesus.” Oh, let us tell to the would-be Jews around us, “It is Jesus” Yes, He has made us whole. He has not half washed us in His precious blood. No, He has made us whiter than snow. Our sins are all forgiven, and we are justified from all things. (Acts 13:38, 3938Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: 39And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. (Acts 13:38‑39).) But it is through Jesus. “ It was Jesus” who died for our sins. “ It was Jesus” who was raised from the dead for our justification, who said, “It is finished.” “It was Jesus” who showed them His hands and His side, and said, “Peace be unto you.” “It was Jesus.” Yes, yes, Jesus hath done all things well. C. S.