No One to Help

¹ After this there was a Jewish festival, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ² In Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate in the north city wall is a pool with the Aramaic name Bethsaida. It had five covered porches, ³ and a crowd of people who were sick, blind, lame, and paralyzed sat there. ⁴ Sometimes an angel would come down to the pool and stir up the water. Then the first one going into the water after it had been stirred up was cured of any sickness. ⁵ A certain man was there who had been sick for thirty-eight years. ⁶ When Jesus saw him lying there, knowing that he had already been there a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” ⁷ The sick man answered him, “Sir, I don’t have anyone who can put me in the water when it is stirred up. When I’m trying to get to it, someone else has gotten in ahead of me.” ⁸ Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” ⁹ Immediately the man was well, and he picked up his mat and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath.