Jesus Heals a Man at the Pool

Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast. Near the Sheep Gate there was a pool called Bethesda, with five covered areas around it. Many sick people lay there, including people who were blind, lame, or paralysed.

One man there had been sick for thirty-eight years. Jesus saw him lying there and knew he had been unwell for a long time. Jesus asked him if he wanted to be made well.

The man answered that when the water was stirred up, he had no one to put him into the pool. While he was trying to get there, someone else always stepped down before him. Jesus told him to get up, pick up his mat, and walk.

Immediately the man was made well. He picked up his mat and walked. But it was the Sabbath, and some Jews told the man who had been healed that it was not lawful to carry his mat on that day.

The man said that the one who made him well had told him to carry it. They asked who had said this, but he did not know, because Jesus had withdrawn while a crowd was there. Later Jesus found him in the temple and told him not to keep on sinning, so that nothing worse would happen to him. Then the man went and told the Jews that Jesus was the one who had made him well.