PrayerBits for Wednesday

PrayerBits

A bite sized devotional program
produced by the West Side Presbyterian Church

Wednesday: John 5:1-9 Jesus breaks the rules

Scripture lesson: In the passage following this it is pointed out that Jesus healed on the Sabbath, which was forbidden. In this passage Jesus surprises the man by healing him without using the standard medical practice of being put in the pool at a certain moment.

Time to reflect: What rules and practices are hemming you in?

The Healing at the Pool

 1Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. 2Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda[a] and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed.[b] 5One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, "Do you want to get well?"

 7"Sir," the invalid replied, "I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me."

 8Then Jesus said to him, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk." 9At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
      The day on which this took place was a Sabbath,