(a) Describe the healing of the man by the pool called Bethzatha. [11 marks] (b) State two reasons why Jesus performed healing miracles. [4 marks]

Answer Details

(a) The healing of the man at the pool called Bethzatha (John 5:1-18)

• Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. By the Sheep Gate there was a pool, called in Hebrew Bethzatha (Bethesda), which had five roofed colonnades.
• In these lay a multitude of invalids, blind, lame and paralysed, who waited for the moving of the water, believing that whoever stepped in first after the water was stirred would be healed.
• One man had been ill for thirty-eight years. Jesus saw him lying there, and knowing he had been there a long time, asked him, Do you want to be healed?
• The sick man answered, Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred, and while I am going another steps down before me.
• Jesus said to him, Rise, take up your bed, and walk. At once the man was healed, took up his bed and walked.
• Now that day was the Sabbath, so the Jews objected that it was unlawful for the man to carry his bed. He explained that the one who healed him had told him to do so, but he did not yet know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn into the crowd.
• Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said, See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you. The man told the Jews it was Jesus, and they began to persecute Jesus for healing on the Sabbath.

(b) Two reasons why Jesus performed healing miracles

1. To show compassion and relieve human suffering, meeting the physical needs of the afflicted out of love.
2. To reveal His divine power and authority as the Son of God, confirming His teaching and leading people to faith in Him.