AT one time a student of Christian Science noted that the account of the lame man's healing at the pool of Bethesda in the fifth chapter of John appeared rather frequently in the Bible Lessons in the Christian Science Quarterly. She appreciated this healing by Jesus and had studied it each time to gain its spiritual lessons. However, reading the Bible Lesson one week for the first time and noting this account again in one section, she thought, "I know that story almost word for word, so I won't take time to reread it today." But almost immediately she realized that divine wisdom must have impelled the Bible Lesson Committee to include it, and she decided to read it again slowly and expectantly to see what new inspiration might unfold.
As she did this, the answer to a question often pondered was revealed. Why had Jesus chosen this particular man from the "multitude of impotent folk" who were seeking healing, when, according to superstition, "an angel . . . troubled the water" of the pool? It did not appear that he was especially receptive to spiritual means, for when Jesus first queried him, "Wilt thou be made whole?'' the man recounted his difficulty in getting to the water. Yet, despite this, Jesus had bade him rise, and he was immediately "made whole."
Now the man had been ill for thirty eight years, and yet he was still seeking his healing. He had not given up and accepted the belief that he was incurable. Otherwise he would surely have stayed at home and saved himself the painful efforts of trying to be the first to get into the pool.
