Once upon a time, there was a special place in the city of Jerusalem. This place was called the Pool of Bethesda. Many sick people lay there hoping to get well. It was believed that an angel touched the water from time to time. When that happened, the first person to get into the water got well.
Among the many people was a man who had been ill for 38 years. He couldn’t walk. That was a very long time! One day Jesus came to Jerusalem. He went directly to the pool of Bethesda. Jesus saw the sick man lying there and asked him, “Do you want to be healed?”
The sick man said sadly: “Yes, I would like to get well. But I don’t have anyone to help me get into the water when it moves. Someone else always comes in before me.”
Then Jesus said to him: “Get up! Take your mat and go!” The sick man was surprised. But he trusted Jesus and tried to get up. And lo and behold, suddenly he was healthy! He could actually walk! He took his mat and left full of joy.
All the people were amazed when they saw him running. He walked around proudly, for after so many years he could walk again.
Later, Jesus met the man in the temple and said to him: “You have been healed. Now live a good life!” The man was so grateful and told everyone that Jesus had healed him.
Message of history
Jesus can help us, no matter how difficult things seem. We can trust Him because He loves us and cares for us.
Bible passage
The story of Jesus healing the man at the pool of Bethesda is found in John 5:1-15.
John 5:1-15 (Schlachter 2000):
*”After that there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. But there is a pool in Jerusalem near the sheep gate, which is called Bethesda in Hebrew,[1] which has five porticoes. In these lay a great crowd of the sick, the blind, the lame, the withered,[2] who waited for the water to move; for at certain times an angel went down into the pool and stirred up the water[3]; he who first entered after the stirring up of the water was healed, no matter what disease he was afflicted with.
But there was a person there who had spent 38 years in illness. When Jesus saw him lying there and heard that he had been so long [in diesem Zustand] , he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” The sick man answered him, “Lord, I have no one to bring me into the pool when the water is stirred up; But while I am walking, another descends in front of me. Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed,[4] and walk. And immediately the man was healed, and took his bed, and walked about. Now it was Sabbath that day.
Then the Jews said to the healed man, “It is the Sabbath; you are not allowed to carry the bed! He answered them, “He who healed me said to me, ‘Take your bed and walk.’ Then they asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take your bed and walk?’ But the healed man did not know who it was; for Jesus had gone away because there was a crowd in the place. Then Jesus finds him in the temple and says to him, “Behold, you have been healed; sin no more, lest anything worse befall you. The man went and proclaimed to the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him.” *
