Questions Jesus asks
Do you want to be made well?
1After these things, there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
2Now in Jerusalem by the sheep gate, there is a pool, which is called in Hebrew, “Bethesda”, having five porches.
3In these lay a great multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, or paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water;
4for an angel went down at certain times into the pool and stirred up the water. Whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was healed of whatever disease he had.
5A certain man was there who had been sick for thirty-eight years.
6When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had been sick for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to be made well?”
7The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I’m coming, another steps down before me.”
8Jesus said to him, “Arise, take up your mat, and walk.”
9Immediately, the man was made well, and took up his mat and walked. Now that day was a Sabbath.
At the pool in Jerusalem, Jesus sees a man who has been ill for thirty-eight years. He asks whether the man wants to be made well. The man says he has nobody to put him into the water when it moves, and someone else gets there before him.
Jesus tells him to rise, take his mat and walk. The account says the man is made well immediately and does so. It identifies that day as a Sabbath. The thirty-eight years describe his illness; the text gives no matching duration for his visits to the pool. What obstacle does his answer describe?
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