Religion & Spirituality
In north Jerusalem, above the Temple, there was a pool called Bethesda, meaning ‘house of mercy’. The pool was possibly stirred by an angel who may have used the natural mineral properties to heal people or may have caused a miracle of healing. Sometimes healing is from natural processes and sometimes supernatural—God can use both. People laid under five covered porches waiting for the ‘stirring’ to occur. A man had been going there for 38 years with his infirmity (Gr. astheneia, ‘feeble, weak’). Passing by, Jesus goes to the pool to disrupt the man’s disability with mercy. God cares for us in our suffering. Both human ability and disability have a purpose. God’s desire is to be loving and merciful to us in our pain and to show us who we are through our pain (2 Cor. 12:6-10).