A Much-Loved account of a healing by Christ Jesus is given in the fifth chapter of the Gospel of John. The healing occurred by the side of the pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem which was frequented by the sick. It was believed that the water of the pool was disturbed periodically by the entrance of an angel, resulting in the healing of the first sick person to enter the pool thereafter.
Jesus noted a man lying there who had been sick for thirty-eight years and who had come to the pool in the hope of receiving his healing in this manner. He had been repeatedly frustrated because he had no one to assist him into the pool after the disturbing of the water, and more active sick people had entered before him. Jesus said to the man, "Rise, take up thy bed, and walk," and the man was made whole.
Here was an individual who was weighed down by false beliefs, which are typical of those enslaving mankind today. His faith that the supposed troubling of the water by an angel would have a healing effect was tinged with superstition and mysticism and was restricted by the belief that this help was periodic and limited to a fortunate few. He did not possess the spiritual understanding of God, who is everywhere present and whose help is continually available to mankind.
