Pool of Bethseda

Have you ever had a big dream or goal that you felt you had to achieve because it would make your life so much better?

What is your goal in life? Do you have a goal that you are working on right now that you need to obtain?

Are you trying to get a new promotion or a better job?

What about with your family or friends?

Many people strive for things that at first seem impossible to achieve.

It takes dedication and stamina to achieve big goals.

Some things may seem out of reach. Sometimes we continuously fail at reaching our goals.

There is a difference between striving in life and thriving in life.

Sometimes that difference is in our level of contentment with what God has already given us.

We also may need to realize that we need to rely on God and His will above our own wants and desires.

Text Exegesis

Pray and Read John 5:1-15

John 5:1–15 NRSV

After this there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha, which has five porticoes. In these lay many invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be made well?” 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 making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.” Jesus said to him, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.” At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk. Now that day was a sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been cured, “It is the sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.” But he answered them, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Take up your mat and walk.’ ” They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take it up and walk’?” Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had disappeared in the crowd that was there. Later Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you have been made well! Do not sin any more, so that nothing worse happens to you.” The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.

There was a verse omitted in many translations, which is verse 4.

It has not been found in the original manuscripts of John’s Gospel

Talks of a belief that was not held of everyone, that an angel stirs the water ever so often and gives the water its healing power.

The man strived day after day to reach the water in the pool of Bethesda. It was always just out of reach.

The man must have felt rejected, unloved, not good enough, maybe undeserving.

He needed help. He needed someone to see him and bring him to the water.

Jesus shows up and gives him healing.

Jesus did not take him to the water, but healed him without it.

Jesus gave him encouragement. The man had the faith to stand without any magical water or work from another person.

The Jews warned the man that he was braking the law of the Sabbath by carrying his mat.

In Jeremiah 17:19-27, it talks about how no one is to bring a “burden” from homes or carry anything into Jerusalem on the Sabbath.

His mat was seen as his burden. What they did not know was that Jesus had freed him from his burden.

The man told Jesus what was wrong, and Jesus made it right!

The man felt cheated because others always beat him to the pool.

When Jesus asked him if he wanted healing, the man told Jesus his problems.

Jesus took care of him without having to continue to strive for the healing water.

All he needed was Jesus, not the physical water from the pool.

Jesus stopped him from his strife and helped him thrive!

We strive for the things of this world like a hamster running on a wheel.

We try every kind of medicine and diet to make us well and fit.

We work more and more so that we can have things of luxury and convenience.

We strive until we die.

Or, we can strive for God’s will.

When we seek God’s will, we begin to thrive.

Take your problems and worries to Christ.

Have faith that God is going to give you all you need.

Walk with endurance and confidence that God is for you at all times.

God will give you Sabbath rest and the endurance to do His good work.

What if we stopped striving in life and take our problems to God first?

What is God’s goal for your life?

What does it look like to stop working towards what this world says you should do and walk in the will of God?

What is your strife? What does it look like to thrive?

Do you believe that God can give you all you need to stop striving and start thriving in life?