Tuesday of the Fourth week in Lent
John 5:1-16
“Do not choose to sin further, otherwise something worse may happen to you.”
After these things, there was a feast day of the Jews, and so Jesus ascended to Jerusalem. Now at Jerusalem is the Pool of Evidence, which in Hebrew is known as the Place of Mercy; it has five porticos. Along these lay a great multitude of the sick, the blind, the lame, and the withered, waiting for the movement of the water.
Now at times an Angel of the Lord would descend into the pool, and so the water was moved. And whoever descended first into the pool, after the motion of the water, he was healed of whatever infirmity held him.
And there was a certain man in that place, having been in his infirmity for thirty-eight years. Then, when Jesus had seen him reclining, and when he realized that he had been afflicted for a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” The invalid answered him: “Lord, I do not have any man to put me in the pool, when the water has been stirred. For as I am going, another descends ahead of me.”
Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your stretcher, and walk.” And immediately the man was healed. And he took up his stretcher and walked.
Now this day was the Sabbath. Therefore, the Jews said to the one who had been healed: “It is the Sabbath. It is not lawful for you to take up your stretcher.”
He answered them, “The one who healed me, he said to me, ‘Take up your stretcher and walk.’ ” Therefore, they questioned him, “Who is that man, who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk?’ ” But the one who had been given health did not know who it was. For Jesus had turned aside from the crowd gathered in that place.
Afterwards, Jesus found him in the temple, and he said to him: “Behold, you have been healed. Do not choose to sin further, otherwise something worse may happen to you.”
This man went away, and he reported to the Jews that it was Jesus who had given him health. Because of this, the Jews were persecuting Jesus, for he was doing these things on the Sabbath.
What do the fathers say?
St John CHRYSOSTOM. The feast of Pentecost. Jesus always went up to Jerusalem at the time of the feasts, that it might be seen that He was not an enemy to, but an observer of, the Law. And it gave Him the opportunity of impressing the simple multitude by miracles and teaching: as great numbers used then to collect from the neighbouring towns.
This pool was one among many types of that baptism, which was to purge away sin. First God used water for the cleansing from the filth of the body, and from those defilements, which were not real, but legal, e. g. those from death, or leprosy, and the like. Afterwards infirmities were healed by water, as we read: In these (the porches) lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. This was a nearer approximation to the gift of baptism, when not only defilements are cleansed, but sicknesses healed.
The water, however, did not heal by virtue of its own natural properties, but by the descent of an Angel: In the same way, in Baptism, water does not act simply as water, but receives first the grace of the Holy Spirit, by means of which it cleanses us from all our sins. For many, then, their infirmities prevented their applying the cure; for it follows, Whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in, was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.
But now every one may attain this blessing, for it is not an Angel who troubles the water, but the Lord of Angels, who works every where. Though the whole world come, grace will not fail, but remains as full as ever; like the sun’s rays which give light all day, and every day, and yet are not spent. The sun’s light is not diminished by this bountiful expenditure: no more is the influence of the Holy Spirit by the largeness of its outpourings.
Behold the richness of the Divine Wisdom. He not only heals, but bids him carry his bed also. This was to show the cure was really miraculous, and not a mere effect of the imagination; for the man’s limbs must have become quite sound and compact, to allow him to take up his bed. The impotent man again did not deride and say, The Angel comes down, and troubles the water, and he only cures one each time; do you, who are a mere man, think that you can do more than an Angel? On the contrary, he heard, believed Him who bade him, and was made whole: And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked.