There was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there
is in Jerusalem at the Sheep Gate a pool called in Hebrew Bethesda, with five
porticoes. In these lay a large number of ill, blind, lame, and crippled. One
man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying
there and knew that he had been ill for a long time, he said to him, “Do you
want to be well?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into
the pool when the water is stirred up; while I am on my way, someone else gets
down there before me. Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your mat, and walk.
Immediately the man became well, took up his mat, and walked.
Now that day was a sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who was cured,
“It is the sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to carry your mat. He answered
them, “The man who made me well told me, ‘Take up your mat and walk. They asked
him, “Who is the man who told you, ‘Take it up and walk’? The man who was
healed did not know who it was for Jesus had slipped away, since there was a
crowd there. After this Jesus found him in the temple area and said to him
“Look, you are well; do not sin any more, so that nothing worse may happen to
you.” The man went and told the Jews that Jesus was the one who had made him
well. Therefore, the Jews began to persecute Jesus because he did this on a
sabbath.
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Reflection:
How does it feel to be sick? Those who got sick already would answer that
it doesn’t feel good to be sick for you feel weak and can’t function properly.
Absurd as it may sound but sickness is sometimes God’s gift to us for it’s
through our sickness that we get to know God more deeply. It’s through our
getting sick that we become aware of the majestic healing power of God.
The blind man in our gospel had this kind of experience. He was beside
the pool waiting for someone to help him immerse in the pool. He didn’t know
Jesus thus he did not ask Jesus to heal him. Jesus by Himself desired to
appear to this man and heal him right there. If the man was not sick Jesus
would not have appeared to him.
It’s through our sickness often times that Jesus strongly manifest
Himself to us. Through our getting sick we get a clearer picture of who Jesus
is. If Jesus healed the man in our gospel without asking for it, would He not
heal us as well? We who know Him and we who always pray to Him.
There's always a silver lining when we get sick, we may not know it
immediately but there's certainly silver lining. And one of this is to get to
know more Jesus deeply and to have this up close and personal encounter with
Him. – Marino J. Dasmarinas
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