There was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
Now there is in Jerusalem at the Sheep Gate
a pool called in Hebrew Bethesda, with five porticoes.
In these lay a large number of ill, blind, lame, and crippled.
One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years.
When Jesus saw him lying there
and knew that he had been ill for a long time, he said to him,
“Do you want to be well?”
The sick man answered him,
“Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool
when the water is stirred up;
while I am on my way, someone else gets down there before me.”
Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your mat, and walk.”
Immediately the man became well, took up his mat, and walked.

Now that day was a sabbath.
So the Jews said to the man who was cured,
“It is the sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.” 
He answered them, “The man who made me well told me,
‘Take up your mat and walk.'”
They asked him,
“Who is the man who told you, ‘Take it up and walk’?”
The man who was healed did not know who it was,
for Jesus had slipped away, since there was a crowd there.
After this Jesus found him in the temple area and said to him,
“Look, you are well; do not sin any more,
so that nothing worse may happen to you.”
The man went and told the Jews
that Jesus was the one who had made him well.
Therefore, the Jews began to persecute Jesus
because he did this on a sabbath.

The miracle Jesus worked on the paralyzed man on the Sabbath is behind the dialogue he has with the Jews found in our readings for Wednesday and Thursday of this week. “My father is at work until now, so I am at work.”

Like the man born blind,  the paralyzed man does not approach Jesus. Jesus approaches him. The man never enters the healing waters. God’s Healing Water, God’s Son, heals him.

John’s gospel describes the place where the miracle happened in Jerusalem. It is close by the temple. In our first reading today Ezechiel promises life-giving water will flow from the temple. Jesus, the new Temple, offers life and light to a paralyzed world.

Archeologists have uncovered the place. Here are some pictures:

Reconstruction of Bethesda, located near the temple and the Fortress Antonia, where the paralyzed man was healed; from the Jerusalem model, Jewish Museum

Ruins of the healing pool of Bethesda.

Until the 19th century, there was no clear archaeological evidence for the pool but archeologists have uncovered the ruins of the ancient healing place marked by ancient churches since the 5th century. The beautiful 12th century church of St. Ann stands today next to the ruins. Tradition says the birthplace of Mary, the mother of Jesus, is nearby. The site, near St. Stephen’s gate, is a popular pilgrim destination today.

Artist rendering of the pool. The Fortress Antonia is in the background. Not only the Jews, but also the gentiles were among the ill, the blind, the lame, to be healed in this pool.