He was just a humble beggar. Sick, bedraggled, and impoverished, he had endured 38 long years of suffering. Every day, he went to lie near the healing waters of the Pool of Bethesda. Always hoping for a miracle or a cure. Hoping that someone, anyone, would notice him. That someone would see his need and help him into the water.
People constantly passed by the pool, located near the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem, where the poor man lay. Both the rich and the poor passed through that gate, as did the religious leaders. People who could and should have helped him. People who should have cared.
Day after day, they passed him by, never seeming to notice his struggle to reach the pool. That changed the day Jesus passed by and learned that he had been in that condition for a long time. As recounted in John 5, the Lord healed him that day and told him to pick up his mat and walk.
The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”
John 5:10
This marvelous miracle ended his lifetime of suffering and granted him the chance to live a normal life. But the religious leaders failed to recognize any of this. Just as they had ignored the man in his time of need, they failed to acknowledge or rejoice in the miracle of his deliverance.
They were too taken up with looking at the mat.
They focused on the mat and the rules he was breaking by carrying it. This blinded them to his poverty, his need, and his 38 years of suffering. It also prevented them from seeing or giving thanks for the miracle of his healing.
The Pool of Healing
Many scholars believe that the Pool of Bethesda was probably built by a wealthy benefactor to provide shelter for the sick, functioning as an ancient medical spa. People went there to bathe in the healing mineral waters of the spring-fed pool and rest under its five shady verandas.
Due to its proximity to the Sheep Gate, some theorize that sheep were washed in the pool before being sacrificed. Others claim that Jewish worshippers used it for ritual bathing. While the pool’s exact purpose remains unclear, scholars largely agree that its main function was to serve as a reservoir for ritual cleansing.
Many people believed that an angel would occasionally come down and ‘stir’ the water, imparting healing properties to it. According to tradition, anyone who entered the pool at that time would be healed. This is where the lame man lay, waiting for the ‘healing waters’ to arrive.
While we may never know exactly how the pool was used, we do know that it was not the source of his healing. He was healed by a single word from Jesus Christ.
Two contrasting kingdoms
Interestingly, the word Bethesda means “house of mercy.” It was there, in that “house of mercy”, that two kingdoms collided. Two worlds with diametrically opposed ethical codes: The Kingdom of Christ, which centers on love and mercy, and the religion of the Pharisees, based on power and wealth.
Those two kingdoms clashed there in the “House of Mercy — because nothing illustrates their contrasting values more clearly than mercy.
The Kingdom of Religiosity
Religious self-righteousness is blinding. It blinds us to the needs of those around us and prevents us from helping them. It also keeps us from rejoicing when those needs are met.
“Get off your mat and leave it,” religion says. “So what if it’s your only possession? Just don’t break the rules. Don’t rock our religious boat or threaten our good life.”
The religious crowd found fault with the lame man the moment he broke their rules. “It is wrong to carry your mat on the Sabbath,” they said.
They would have abandoned him and left him in need. “He refuses to follow our rules, so he is in the wrong.”
Religiosity erects high walls of rules and regulations designed to censure and expel those who transgress them. These man-made rules matter more to them than people do. Instead of helping people in need, religion pushes them away without even allowing them to take their bed.
The House of Mercy
But Mercy understands and sees their needs. It recognizes their need for spiritual, physical, and emotional healing. Mercy reaches out with compassion. It builds bridges to help those in need access God’s life-giving healing waters. And it rejoices in God’s goodness when they do so.
Two kingdoms:
There’s the “house of mercy,” which sees the needs, and the “house of rules,” which sees a beam in everyone’s eye but its own. And what about that dirty old mat? Mercy even helps them carry it!
đź“· Image credits: chess pieces; all others by www.LumoProject.com
4 replies on “Clash of Two Kingdoms: A Lame Beggar Healed”
They were too busy looking at the mat. Isn’t that the problem with so much of what the world is seeing today? The focus on the mat? Not on hope, not on mercy, not on seeing someone whom everyone else ignores because they’re “invisible”, but on a rule, a tradition, a regulation that keeps us from seeing people and Jesus. This is really good, my friend. Thank you.
So true, Dayle. We’re often so focused on our rules and regulations that we fail to see the things that the Lord wants us to see. This leads to fault-finding and censure. Yet, all the while, we fail to see the beam we have in our own eye. Let’s look beyond the mat!!
What a great phrase, “They saw only the mat,” and for 38 years they had never once seen the man. Thanks Sheila!
Thank you, Pete! I pray that we may look past the mat and see the people, and how Jesus wants us to treat them. It’s so easy to fall into “religious habits.”