Part 18 of 35 Get up and walk
"Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool with five covered colonnades, which in Hebrew is called Bethesda" (John 5:2). Many people who were sick, blind or lame lay beside it. One man there had been ill for thirty-eight years.
Jesus asked him: "Do you want to get well?" The man said he had no one to help him into the water. Then Jesus told him: "Get up, pick up your mat, and walk." "Immediately the man was made well, and he picked up his mat and began to walk" (John 5:6–9).
Wherever Jesus went, he healed people who were sick, blind or unable to walk, showing God's love and power.
Bible Beside quiet waters
A well-loved psalm pictures God as a shepherd: "The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul" (Psalm 23:1–3). Jesus later said: "I am the good shepherd" (John 10:11).
Real world The pool, found again
In the 1800s, archaeologists digging beside the Church of Saint Anne in Jerusalem's Old City found two large pools separated by a wall of rock. Many think that colonnades on the four sides and the middle wall made the "five covered colonnades" John described.
Art In this artwork
The illustration shows a marble pool fed by a small waterfall over marble steps, with cypress trees.
Look closer
- Follow the water from the top to the pool.
- Find the cypress trees.
Think about it
- Why do you think Jesus asked the man, "Do you want to get well?"
- How did the man's life change that day?
- Where do you go to feel calm?
Key words
- Colonnade
- A row of columns holding up a roof.
- Heal
- To make well again.
- Shepherd
- A person who looks after sheep.
Sources
Bible quotations are from the Berean Standard Bible, which is in the public domain. The other facts on this page come from these sources:
- The Bible, Gospel of John
- The Bible, Psalms
- Shimon Gibson, "The Final Days of Jesus: The Archaeological Evidence" (2009)
