Category: Essays

After the Christ healed the man at Bethesda, the Jews sought to slay the Lord because He had “…done these things on the sabbath day.” Jesus had been doing His Father’s work and the Jews looking to slay Jesus Christ were moving according to their father, the Devil. The Christ taught that Satan is a liar, murderer, and thief. The Jews persecuting Jesus were fools functioning as liars, murderers, and thieves. Christ has called His believers to be distinctly different than the children of Satan. 

Jesus Christ taught that there was no truth in Satan from the beginning and that he is a liar. Jesus Christ spoke that Satan, “abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” Satan does not work with truth and neither do his children. The truth is not with them. The Jews were clearly deluded in their thinking as they sought to murder He who had just made whole the man at Bethesda. Had they no good question to ask the man about the miraculous healing the Lord had just performed? Had they no sound thinking with respect to the fact that the man could walk on his own?

The Christ also taught that Satan “was a murderer from the beginning,”. Christ also spoke of Satan’s children as, “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do.” The Jews sought all the more to kill Jesus because Christ spoke truth when He said, “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” Is it that the Jews lusted to kill Jesus and did so with a fool’s thirst for blood over what they truly knew not. God had previously commanded “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.” The Jews, children of Lucifer, sought to murder the Christ who is the sabbath for His children and who is always holy… what fools!

How is it the Jews, like Satan, were not functioning in a capacity of thieves as well? By trying to slay Jesus Christ how is it they weren’t trying to rob the people of hope? Christ had just made whole the man at Bethesda and how many more people was He willing to heal? How is it the Jews weren’t trying to rob the people of knowledge? What is it they did not know about Satan and how many people the Christ was going to instruct about the “…god of this world.” The Jews, in their delusion, were also seeking to rob from others “…the light of the world.” Christ taught, “he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” The Jews were of darkness in their effort to keep others from experiencing Christ.

In contrast to Satan’s children are what Christ’s believers are called to live as. Instead of being those who have no truth, a believer of God is called to love truth and grow in knowledge of it. Jesus taught, “I am the way, the truth, and the life:”. The Word of the Lord teaches, “ And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.” With that said, what is more paramount for the child of Jesus Christ than love of the truth? What could possibly be greater for a man than to have passion for the truth?

As opposed to being murderers, we are called to be persons of love. We are called to be “…as harmless as doves.” We are instructed that if we love the Lord we will keep his commands. We are commanded with the first and greatest commandment to “…love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength:”. That is, we are called to love love for “God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.” As like the first and greatest commandment, the second greatest commandment is to love our neighbour as ourself. Is it that with these two commandments the yolk of the believer in the Lord is light and that the believer be thereby free to a life lived with passion for the Christ? As well, is it that the believer be changed with respect to others, for what was once wicked has been changed to be righteous and commanded to love others, even if they be enemies. How different than the Jews is this?

As opposed to functioning as thieves, as the Jews were, the Christian is called to let their light shine before men. The believer is called to be the salt of the earth and to share the light of Christ with others. How is it then that the believer isn’t called to be a being that is to give freely to others and to do so with passion? The good Lord’s Word teaches, “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” 

Satan lived as the enemy of Christ and his children, the Jews, lived in that manner as well. The wicked are those that have no truth in them. They are the children of the Devil and as Christ taught, they will do the lusts of their father, who is Satan. They truly are fools in their words and deeds and their lives are lived in vain. The children of God are called to be better than the wicked. We are called to be holy, as our Father is. The believer is called to be a person of truth, to love others, and to give of the Christ freely.

The scene at Bethesda occurs after Jesus performed His second miracle of His gospel. The scene itself can be seen as symbolic. Symbolism can be seen in the multitude which can be looked at as mankind. This ‘mankind’ can form a backdrop to the interacting between Christ and the man at Bethesda. The man himself can be seen as a symbol for some of what man is, some of what man needs, and who man needs it from. What the Christ gives the man of Bethesda can also be looked at from more than one perspective. 

The backdrop of the scene can be looked at as being the multitude which in turn can be looked at as being symbolic of mankind. The Scripture reports that the multitude be “great” and of “impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered” and “waiting”. Is it not that this multitude with affirmaties can represent mankind under curse and suffering a number of different afflictions. Is it that each member of the multitude ‘waits’ for opportunity to be healed of what ails them?

We learn from the Scripture that the man of Bethesda had an affirmity for 38 years and was being ‘stepped in upon’ by others before he himself could receive healing. Is it not for us to infer that the ‘others’ may not have had an affirmity as severe or for as long as the man? The man doesn’t make mention of waiting for a ‘turn’ agreed upon by him and the multitude. Is it that as the multitude waited for healing they did so in an unGodly manner? Could it be that the multitude was being governed by no good rule?

I consider here the notion of the multitude representing the flesh of one man ruling over the flesh of another. Was it that those with the affirmities were being governed by what Lucifer  considered to govern man when he was making reference to Job? I refer to the book of Job chapter 2 verses 4 to 5 where Satan speaks, “Skin for skin, yea all that a man hath will he give for his life. But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face.” Was it that the multitude at Bethesda was essentially functioning no better than what Satan expected man to be?

The man himself can be looked upon as though he represents some of what man is. It can be seen in Scripture that the man of Bethesda was frustrated in his effort to be made whole. Given  his condition near the pool of Bethesda and when asked by the Lord, “Wilt thou be made whole?” the man at Bethesda replied, “Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me.” How is it that man in and of himself isn’t frustrated without the Lord in his life? Is it not that all of man’s works are under the curses issued unto Adam and man’s best efforts at trying to be accomplished are always curtailed by that he is bound to be frustrated by aging unto death? Is it not that the very essence of what man without Christ is be a form of frustration and that death calls out to his most inner recesses of person? 

The man at Bethesda can also be seen as being symbolic of some of what man needs. In this case the man is wanting his affirmity to be healed. He is without a man to lower him into the water at the correct time for him to receive healing. Some of what the man clearly needs, therefor, is the charity of another person. Without charity for the frustrated man what is there? Is it the man sits through the days and sleeps restlessly through the nights waiting for another vain effort to get healed. Was it that he learned of his fellow man, and more of the evil nature of man in the process as day after day his hopes of being healed were dashed by an unspoken rule of the multitude: and that rule being ‘every man for himself’?

The Christ gives the man at Bethesda the charity the man needs in order to be healed. He also gives the man more of what he needs. Note what happens: The man at Bethesda refers to Christ as “sir.” I infer here this is his first encounter with the Lord. If I have inferred correctly, the Lord has entered into the man’s life both in the flesh and with the question “Wilt thou be made whole?” Upon expressing his frustration to the Christ, the Lord issues three commands does He or does He not? The first being that the man is commanded to “Rise,”. The second command is to “…take up thy bed,” and the third command is “and walk.” The creation needs the Creator, of this there should be no doubt. In this case the creation needing its Creator is man. The man’s Creator, the Christ, appears to the man at Bethesda as man, though He is not a man. Man receives more of what he needs from his Creator. This included commands. Since Adam, there is not a man in existence that does not exist without existing under commands from Jesus Christ.

Is it we can see that the Christ gave the man what he needed in way of charity so he could be made whole? We can also glean, can we or can we not, that the Lord has given to the man at Bethesda greater than the man could think he wanted? Did he or did he not think that he had to be lowered in the pool to receive healing? Jesus Christ is Lord over all, including all of spirit and flesh. Given Christ’s commands, the man was made immediately whole. How is it not that, by healing the man in such a manner, the Christ has unbound the man from how he had previously been bound. Had he not been physically bound to be with ailment? Had he not been mentally bound to think the best he could do was be near the pool at Bethesda in hopes that one day his effort to be whole would not be frustrated? Had he never imagined, and I think he didn’t, that his Creator would enter into his life in such a manner and free him in the manner in which He did?

Christ and the man at Bethesda can be considered from more than one perspective. By doing so one may consider more about what may have been happening with the scene. From considering a backdrop of mankind functioning according to its own evil manner to a man trying to escape what ails him, the reader can possibly get a better appreciation of the Lord come into the man’s life. By trying to see more of what the Christ gave the man outside of the physical healing itself, the student of the Scripture can possibly come to learn more about the potency of dwelling on the Holy’s Word, asking questions about the Scripture, and considering answers.