“Why didn’t Jesus heal all the other sick people (Jn. 5)?”

September 2022 – Grace & Truth Magazine

QUESTION: Why didn’t Jesus heal all the other sick people who were at the pool of Bethesda in John 5?

ANSWER: The account in John 5 says nothing about the rest of the “great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water” (v.3 NKJV ) that were lying at this pool. Therefore, it is easy to jump to the same conclusion as our questioner does, that Jesus did not heal all the other sick people at the pool of Bethesda. But all we can say with certainty is that we do not know the answer to this question. Is it right even to ask it when the apostle John, the author of this gospel, wrote the following statements by inspiration of the Holy Spirit?

• “And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name” (20:30-31).
• “And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. Amen” (21:25).

A few of these “many other signs” and “many other things” are recorded in the other three gospels. However, what the Spirit of God inspired the writers to write was not written for our or our children’s entertainment. These things, and specifically these “signs,” were written to set Jesus before their readers as the Christ, the promised Messiah, so they might have life – eternal life – in His name. Because of this precise purpose and focus, the gospel of John has often been used as a tract, and God has saved countless people through reading it.

When we read this gospel we are amazed again and again at the awe-inspiring, astounding power quietly and humbly displayed by the Son of God here on earth as Man.

• In chapter 2 He changed a large quantity of water into wine – six stone pots containing 20 or 30 gallons each. It was a better quality wine than the family had run out of at this wedding. Surely there would have been enough left after the wedding celebration to supply their need for many days.
• In chapter 4 He instantaneously and completely healed a boy 25 miles or so away, at the very moment He was telling his father that the boy was well.
• In chapter 5 He healed the man who had lain at the pool for 38 years – perhaps longer than any other of the crowd of sick people there. The man had given up hope and was paralyzed as a result of something sinful he had done long before.
• In chapter 6 He thanked God for the lunch a little boy gave Him, and with those five barley loaves and two small fish He fed 5,000 men (Mt. 14:21 adds, “besides women and children”). They ate as much as they wanted, and 12 baskets full of leftovers were gathered up.
• In chapter 6 He walked 3 or 4 miles in the dark of night on the surface of the storm-tossed lake to where His disciples were in the boat, struggling to row across the lake. In chapter 9 He healed a grown man as He passed by, a beggar who had been blind from birth, something that had never been heard of before.
• In chapter 11 He called a man, who had been buried four days earlier, out of the cave where his body lay. The man, Lazarus, came walking out alive, bound in his grave clothes.
• In chapter 21, after His resurrection, He told seven of His disciples, experienced fishermen who had been fishing all night long without result, to cast their net on the right side of the boat. The net was then filled with 153 large fish but was not broken.

Each of the seven incidents mentioned before His death and resurrection show Him with superhuman divine power, selflessly doing good for the benefit of others. Much more could certainly have been said as well. The eighth sign demonstrates that after His resurrection He was still the Same. Neither His power nor His loving concern for His own was in any way diminished.

When we think of the life of our Lord Jesus on earth, do we ever find Him passing people in need and going by without addressing their need? No, the Gospels all present Him making Himself available, even into the night, to individuals and crowds alike.

The priest and the Levite in His account of the “Good Samaritan” passed by on the other side. The Samaritan, a picture of Himself, journeying, came to the half dead victim lying on the side of the road, went to him, rendered aid, took him to the inn, paid his expenses, and promised to return for him (Lk. 10:30-37). Such is our Lord Jesus. Multitudes followed Him bringing all their sick. They “begged Him that they might only touch the hem of His garment. And as many as touched it were made perfectly well” (Mt. 14:36).

“He needed to go through Samaria” to reach an outcast woman and through her, many of the people of her city, Sychar (Jn. 4:4, see vv.3-42). He healed a Syro-Phoenician woman’s demon-possessed daughter (Mk. 7:24-30). We can name many more whose faith in Him was graciously rewarded. Only on His second visit to His hometown of Nazareth do we read that “they were offended at Him … Now He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief” (Mt. 13:57-58). Notice the word “many”; the word is not “any,” for even there He would do some mighty works for such who would look to Him in faith. It is difficult indeed to think of the Jesus we know from the inspired Word of God ever callously passing by needy people without helping them.

Another thing to keep in mind is that when Jesus was here on earth, though He ever was and is and will be God the Son, He was at the same time the Son of Man, the ever-dependent One. He did what He did by the Holy Spirit, as we see in Matthew 12:24-32 and Hebrews 10:15. Repeatedly in the Gospels we find Him praying, even rising before daybreak and going to a solitary place to pray (Mk. 1:35). Luke made mention of Him praying 14 times in his gospel. Isaiah 50:4-5 prophesied that He would do this morning by morning. When challenged here in John 5, He asserted in verse 19 that whatever He saw the Father doing He, the Son, did in like manner. He went on to speak more of this intimate relationship with the Father in John 7–8. The Father declared His good pleasure in the Lord Jesus when He was baptized at the onset of His public ministry (Mt. 3:17) and later on the Mount of Transfiguration (17:5). All that Jesus did as Man on earth was done in perfect harmony with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

Whether we understand it or not, all that the Lord Jesus did, and all that He did not do while here on earth, was absolutely right and brought glory to God.

Answered by Eugene P. Vedder, Jr.