The Last Gospel: A Survey of John

John 5

This week we follow Jesus to the pool at Bethesda. Here Jesus encounters a number of people on the fringes of society – the blind, the lame, and the paralyzed. Through engaging them in conversation – He learns that one of the men is a paraplegic, an invalid for 38 years. The challenges of a paraplegic in the twenty-first century pale in comparison with a person in the first century. His life would have been agony up to this point, crawling to move, isolated and unhygienic.

This man is here to be healed. The belief was that on occasion, an angel would come along and stir the pool of Bethesda, and the first person to get into the pool would be healed. Jesus ignores this superstition, and simply tells the man to pick up his mat and walk. He does. He is healed.

Join us this week as we explore Jesus’ heart here, as he selects the most vulnerable and most cast-off to heal, and then engages with the legalism of the religious as they confront this healing on the sabbath. Come and know the heart of Jesus!

-Pastor Nate Roschen