John 5:1-9a

5 After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. 3 In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. 5 One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” 7 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 going another steps down before me.” 8 Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” 9 And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.

Some of the invalids by the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem believed that the water in the pool of Bethesda—no doubt fed by a spring—had healing properties, but the lame man complains that he has no way of getting to the water. I love the question Jesus puts to the man, a question that cuts right to the heart of the matter, “Do you want to be healed?”

P.S. Eagle-eyed readers will notice that v.4 is missing in the ESV translation. This is because some of the oldest manuscripts don’t have this verse, and the editors have decided not to include it. This is a good example of how biblical scholarship works—editors have to make hard decisions about what to include or exclude. But the missing verse is included in a textual footnote in the ESV:

John 5:4 Some manuscripts include here, wholly or in part: paralyzed—and they waited for the moving of the waters. 4 From time to time an angel of the Lord would come down and stir up the waters. The first one into the pool after each such disturbance would be cured of whatever disease they had.

QUESTION OF THE DAY:
If Jesus asked you what you wanted Him to do for you, what would you say?