The Pool Guy

There's a strange little story in John 5. It's the man at the pool of Bethesda. As a young girl, I mis-read Bethesda as Bethseda. When I later realised my error, I decided to call him the pool guy as that was safer than looking like a fool who couldn't pronounce it correctly. So the pool guy he will always be. Let's just read about him:


John 5 1-9

Later on there was a Jewish festival (feast) for which Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem a pool near the Sheep Gate. This pool in the Hebrew is called Bethesda, having five porches (alcoves, colonnades, doorways). In these lay a great number of sick folk—some blind, some crippled, and some paralyzed (shriveled up)—waiting for the bubbling up of the water. For an angel of the Lord went down at appointed seasons into the pool and moved and stirred up the water; whoever then first, after the stirring up of the water, stepped in was cured of whatever disease with which he was afflicted. There was a certain man there who had suffered with a deep-seated and lingering disorder for thirty-eight years. When Jesus noticed him lying there [helpless], knowing that he had already been a long time in that condition, He said to him, Do you want to become well? [Are you really in earnest about getting well?] The invalid answered, Sir, I have nobody when the water is moving to put me into the pool; but while I am trying to come [into it] myself, somebody else steps down ahead of me. Jesus said to him, Get up! Pick up your bed (sleeping pad) and walk! Instantly the man became well and recovered his strength and picked up his bed and walked. But that happened on the Sabbath.


So, there's a pool in Jerusalem, and when it got stirred up, the first person who got into it was healed. Well how about that! That's pretty strange but the strangeness continues. The sick people congregated around it, hoping to be the first in when it bubbled up. We don't know how often the water bubbled up, it could have been once every few weeks, every few months, or even every few years. If you are sick, you would, undoubtedly wait there for as long as it takes wouldn't you? It is here we meet a man, our "pool guy", who has been ill for 38 years. That's a long time, and I wonder how long he had been hanging around the pool? The full 38 years maybe? Yet he'd never been the first to get in though.


Then Jesus noticed him. Now let's just pull up right here. Jesus turns up. He turns up at the pool where the sick people gather. Isn't that just like Jesus? He's always where the people are who need Him. There are all those sick people, and Jesus singles out one. He knew that the man had been in his distressing illness a long time; He saw that the man was hanging around waiting for the healing waters to be stirred up. 

The guy is there for a reason. Yet Jesus asks the most bizarre question: "Do you want to become well?" Is it just me, or does anyone else think that's a crazy question? I do a double-take each time I read that. However, there are people who don't want to be healed. They have become accustomed to the lifestyle of sickness - the check-ups, the attention and devotion from family and friends; the reality of adjusting to a new life can be daunting. Then there are those who have prayed, and are seeking a solution. But the solution may not come in the form they envisaged. Have you ever done that? Prayed to God, and told Him how to answer the prayer you just prayed? The problem with doing that is we might not receive the answer to that prayer when it comes in a different format to how we envisaged it would. We are also thinking we know better than God. But notice again, the pool guy doesn't actually say "Yes!!! Great scott man, of course I want to be well!". He doesn't state he wants to be well at all. He answers in the strangest way possible. His answer shows us so much because it shows us his heart. His aim is to get into the pool. His answer is all about how he can't get in the pool and how nobody helps him.


Here in John 5, our sick man saw himself getting healed by getting in that pool. It had probably become an obsession, to get in the pool before anyone else. How could he beat the others who were physically able to take themselves to the pool? He must have watched those waters like a hawk. Watching for movement, waiting, thinking about it every day. His desire to get in the pool had overtaken his desire to be healed, otherwise he would never have answered Jesus' question as he did. His focus was that pool. It had become a greater desire than his healing.


Then we have to wonder why no one helped him into the water? Could they have wanted some monetary reward? Perhaps so, as it would have involved people sitting around and waiting with him; waiting for the waters to bubble up, and no one knew when they would. Time's money, so they say. Perhaps, people had tried to help before, but he became angry when he didn't get there ahead of another person? Perhaps, he had no friends or family. The only friends he had were the other sick folk hanging around the pool, and they wanted to get into the pool too so they wouldn't, or couldn't help him either.


Either way, the man was in a bad place. Desperate to get in to the healing waters, and plagued for 38 yrs with a distressing illness with no one to help him. Then Jesus turns up. Are you ready for your original heart's cry to be answered? That's what Jesus is asking him. But it won't look like you envisioned it. You won't be getting in those waters at all. The man had wanted healing. That was the cry of his heart originally. But his eyes and his hope had become the pool. His heart was yearning for the waters to be stirred up. His every thought was getting to the pool. His original prayer had been overtaken by a fixation on the waters. But Jesus was about to put an end to that. He would have his prayers answered yet this pool that he'd spent so many years fixating on, expecting it to provide the answer to his prayers, wasn't even going to feature in it. He took his eyes off the pool for a moment, and spent time with Jesus. He didn't even know who Jesus was, and I'm willing to bet he never took his eyes off that pool for anyone. But Jesus, He's just magnetic. You can't help but want to talk to Him.


Such amazing things will happen when we put our eyes on Jesus and take our eyes off the pool. What's the pool? In our lives the pool could be anything that's distracting us from Jesus. It could be what we are expecting the answer to our prayers to be - that new job, that new spouse, that new house. It could be that we've asked God for breakthrough in an area in our lives, and we expect a certain outcome, but God has plans to do it all completely differently than we imagine. Don't let the answer to your prayers become your fixation. Just keep your eyes on Jesus and He'll take care of everything, and often in a way we least expect Him to. I'm sure the blind man who had mud rubbed on his eyes by Jesus was not expecting that! But it made him see, and he was healed.


Let's not dismiss the last phrase of verse 9. "But it was the Sabbath". The Jews obviously regard the Sabbath very highly. The pharisees got angry when Jesus healed on the holy Sabbath. But God is the God even of the Sabbath. He created it. It's important to not let anything take our eyes off Jesus and to inhibit us from taking hold of God's promises. Even if those things are holy and good. All those other sick people there, yet only one got healed. Was their regard for the Sabbath causing them to miss out on healing? Did they value the sanctity of the Sabbath above Jesus? The pool guy probably didn't care about the Sabbath any more. He just cared about getting in that pool.


Don't let anything take your eyes off Him Who loves you. When you pray, don't limit God. He knows the end from the beginning and He's more than capable of answering your prayers. He gives you the desires of your heart (Ps 37 v 4) because He loves you. And don't wait 38 years for the answers to your prayers because you got so focused on what you perceived the answer to be that you let that drive you. When we let God in, He will change everything with one word, one touch. We just need to keep our eyes off the pool, and on Jesus.


Be blessed x