John 5:1-15
The Healing at the Pool
After these things,
there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now in Jerusalem by the sheep
gate, there is a pool, which is called in Hebrew, "Bethesda,"
having five porches. In
these lay a great multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, or
paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water; for an angel of the Lord went down
at certain times into the pool, and stirred up the water. Whoever stepped
in first after the stirring of the water was made whole of whatever
disease he had. A certain
man was there, who had been sick for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there,
and knew that he had been sick for a long time, he asked him, "Do you want to be made well?"
The sick man answered
him, "Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is
stirred up, but while I'm coming, another steps down before me."
Jesus said to him,
"Arise, take up your mat, and walk."
Immediately, the man
was made well, and took up his mat and walked.
Now it was the Sabbath on that day. So the Jews said to him who was
cured, "It is the Sabbath. It is not lawful for you to carry the
mat."
He answered them,
"He who made me well, the same said to me, 'Take up
your mat, and walk.'"
Then they asked him,
"Who is the man who said to you, 'Take up your mat,
and walk'?"
But he who was healed
didn't know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, a crowd being in the
place.
Afterward Jesus found
him in the temple, and said to him, "Behold, you are
made well. Sin no more, so that nothing worse happens to you."
The man went away, and
told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.