You Don't Need The Pool

The story of Jesus healing the man at the pool of Bethesda depicts the despair, disappointment, sickness, hurt and pain we experience in this world. But, thankfully, it is also a story of hope, healing, joy and salvation.

In John 5:1-14, John the Apostle describes how hundreds of the sick, crippled, blind and paralyzed sought healing at the pool of Bethesda. It was said that an angel stirred up the water periodically, and the first person who stepped into the pool after it was stirred got healed. The pool of Bethesda was probably crowded with people who needed solutions to all kinds of problems, including their friends, relatives, or carers.

While reading the passage, the first image that came to my mind was a crowded hospital. For instance, an understaffed health facility in a poor rural community in a third-world country is a place where you can feel a palpable sense of fear, sadness, disappointment, and anxiety in the waiting rooms or long queues. Now and again, you would hear people in pain, people weeping over the loss of a loved one, prayers being offered loudly, in silence and desperation. I imagine the pool of Bethesda and its environs being this chaotic, especially after the angel stirred the water. I imagine some people stayed beside the pool but died of sickness or infirmity without a chance to get into the pool. Some did not have family, friends or carers to help them into the pool; the man Jesus healed fell into this category.

Let’s pause for a second, think about the world in which we live. Isn’t what is described at the pool of Bethesda a microcosm of the world? We are all in pursuit of one thing or the other. We are told or believe that once we get hold of these things we seek, life will be better, and we will experience complete satisfaction. We are always pursuing happiness, a degree, money, riches, marriage, a happy family, a career, and so on. Some of us seek these things because of the hurt, pain and emptiness we bear inside. We believe achieving these goals will bring relief to our pain and dissatisfaction. Some of us have family, friends, loved ones and a community to support us in our pursuit. Others have no one and have to go through life alone. Many have found themselves involved in various schemes to meet their life pursuit, and some have put themselves in harm’s way or tragically lost their lives trying. We are somewhat waiting for the pool. We are waiting for when it will be our turn to experience the healing, joy, and complete satisfaction from the pool. We look at others who got into the pool before us and envy how blessed they are.

Back to the story, Jesus approached the man at the pool who had a crippling infirmity for 38 years. Jesus asked him a simple question “would you like to get well?” (John 5:6, NLT). Considering that Jesus knew the man had been ill for a long time, it is obvious Jesus did not lack information about the man’s need for healing. In the scripture, Jesus asks many questions as a way of eliciting what is genuinely in men’s hearts. The disabled man answered, “I can’t, sir, for I have no one to put me into the pool when the water bubbles up” (John 5:7, NLT).

His sole ambition in life was to be the first to jump into the pool after it was stirred. Every other purpose, dream and aspiration had to wait until he could get into the pool. The pool somewhat was the key to his wholesomeness—so he thought. Worse still, he had no one to help him into the pool. It is interesting that in the Hebrew and Aramaic languages, Bethesda means “House of Kindness” or “House of Mercy” or “House of Grace”. Isn’t it ironic that in a place named after kindness, mercy or grace, this paralyzed man had no one to show him kindness or mercy? But Jesus changed that; he showed him kindness, mercy and grace.

Jesus did not respond to the paralyzed man’s complaint or need for a helper. It was as if Jesus was saying to him, “You don’t need the pool, you need me”.

It made sense to name the pool Bethesda because that’s where the downtrodden sought deliverance and healing. However, even in proximity to a source of solution, healing couldn’t be accessed by many. Like in our world today, many of us lack satisfaction amid wealth and perhaps the most prosperous moment on earth in human history. We need something more than the world or the “pool” can provide. Like the disabled man, we think the solution is to be the first to get into the pool. We believe the answer is to equip ourselves with education, investments, healthy living, a car, family, house, and everything this world provides. We think we need a helper or someone of influence who would come to our rescue and put an end to our misery and problems. Indeed, maybe we need these things to get through life, and sometimes we achieve them. However, with everything we acquire, we remain “sick”, hungry and perpetually unsatisfied. Could it mean that we do not have our priorities right and that our pursuit is not our primary need?

Jesus told him, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!” John 5:8,NLT

Jesus did not respond to the paralyzed man’s complaint or need for a helper. It was as if Jesus was saying to him, “You don’t need the pool, you need me”. Yes! Jesus was saying, “you don’t need a dependent, you need me”. Jesus was saying, “you don’t need to wash in the pool, for I am the river of living water”. This is the message Jesus has been preaching to the world since he walked on this earth. We do not need the pool; we need Jesus!

Everybody needs Jesus and scripture gives us many reasons why we need Jesus. A world ravaged by sin needs righteousness, a world of suffering needs hope, a world of lies needs the truth, a world of chaos needs peace, a world of darkness needs light, a world of despair needs joy, and a world of death needs life. All these can be found in Jesus Christ alone.

For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. John 3:16-17, NLT

To be clear, Jesus is not a magic wand we wave at the problems we face in this world or to meet our desires. Instead, accepting Jesus into your life transforms you from the inside out. So rather than pursue the things of this world “using Jesus” as a means, you increasingly become like Jesus; this is what God wants us to become. He wants us to be sons. As sons, the object of our focus would no longer be the pool or man to help us into the pool but on the one who transforms us beyond the need for the pool. After you have gotten everything the pool offers, your sonship in Jesus Christ is what you will have left. No wonder Jesus later told the man after his healing, “Now you are well; so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you.” John 5:14, NLT. Jesus was essentially saying, “Now that I have given you what you sought from the pool (healing) and even more, live a life where you won’t need the pool, and that life can only be found in me”.

As you read this, you may be at a time in your life where, like your parents, friends, and everyone else, you’re striving to get into the pool of one or many milestones. It could be in pursuit of healing, joy, comfort in a loss, marriage, children, a degree, a job, career, or anything significant in this world. Let your hunger and thirst for Jesus be your primary focus as you look to satisfy your emotional and physical needs. It is only in Him we can find true and complete satisfaction. It is a satisfaction that is endless; it lasts for eternity.

My prayer is that we may live a life that is most satisfied in Jesus Christ. Amen.