Chapter 12—Jesus at Bethesda
“After this there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to
Jerusalem. Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool,
which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches.
In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered,
waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a
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certain season into the pool, and troubled the water; whosoever then
first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of
whatsoever disease he had.”
Jesus did not hold himself aloof from the poor, the suffering, and
sinful. His great heart of love went out in yearning tenderness for
wretched objects who needed his help. He was acquainted with the
sufferers who had learned to look forward to the period when it was
thought that the waters were agitated by a supernatural power. Many
suffering from different maladies visited the pool; but so great was
the crowd at the appointed time, that they rushed forward, trampling
under foot men, women, and children weaker than themselves.
Hundreds were pressed back and could not get near the water.
Many disappointed sufferers, who had, by great pains and effort, suc-
ceeded in reaching the pool, died upon its brink without being able to
make the first plunge into its depths. Shelters had been erected about
the place that the sick might be protected from the scorching rays of
the sun and the chilliness of the night. Some wretched sufferers spent
their nights in the porches, and would drag their diseased bodies to the
favored spot day after day in the vain hope of obtaining relief.
One man had been afflicted by an incurable disease for thirty-eight
years, and he had repeatedly visited the pool. Those who pitied his
helplessness would bear him to and fro at the time when the waters
were supposed to be troubled. But those stronger than himself would
rush in before him and seize the opportunity that he coveted. Thus the
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poor, palsied sufferer waited by the pool day and night, hoping that
the favored moment would at length come when he could plunge into
the water and be healed. His persistent efforts toward this object, and
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