Scripture Reading: John 5:1-9 (ESV)
A House of Mercy
1: 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.
4: Waiting for the moving of the water; for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred the water: whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was healed of whatever disease he had.
5: One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.
Grace and Insufficiency
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.”
Power and Authority
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.