Healing Waters: The Story of Eli at the Pool of Bethesda

In the heart of Jerusalem, in its narrow, winding streets and teeming marketplaces, there nestled an area of much hope and despair. Five covered colonnades surrounded the pool of Bethesda, not just a place for the sick and the lame to gather, but a sign of hope for those who were ill. Of the many filling the pool daily, a man named Eli was one of them. Eli had been held in bondage for thirty-eight years, pinned down by his own conception of himself and his concept of life.

As to how much he wished for his healing, so he lay in wait at every breaking day around the Pool of Bethesda. The stories had been said—the tale of the angel who sometimes descended and stirred the waters, and the first one into the pool would be healed. And so Eli lay in wait by the edge of the pool, hope lighting a flicker in his heart, waiting for the smallest ripple that might signal the angel’s arrival.

Year after year, day by day, Eli had to wait for the moment when he could come down to the water, but everyone else went ahead one by one, with healed bodies, while his remained broken and paralyzed. Time was going by mercilessly, and it appeared that Eli’s condition was just the same as it used to be, constantly and rather cruelly reminding him of his state.

One day Eli sat by the pool, very melancholic and filled with longing thoughts, and he had a feeling that somebody was close to him. Turning his head, he saw a person standing—the eyes of that person were full of compassion and graciousness. It was Jesus.

When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, ‘Do you want to get well?'” John 5:6, NIV.

That question turned in Eli’s stomach. Did he want to get well? The answer was so obvious, yet he knew that it reached somewhere deep down inside himself, stirring what he had buried under layers of despair.

Then Eli’s eyes welled with tears, and he nodded in agreement. “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred up. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me” John 5:7, NIV.

Yet Jesus beheld Eli, with compassion, deep inside Eli, beyond the physical malady, into Eli’s soul—the sinful heart, the shameful mind, the brokenness that dwelt within. And He presented to him a way of healing and restoration.

Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk” John 5:8, NIV.

Eli blinked at the words of Jesus, for they were so full of a strange kind of clarity that seemed to clearly require more—from him, possibly, like an invitation to come forth and meet the shambles in his life with some kind of responsibility.

And with that, bearing his life—the errors, the sins, the aches, and the sorrows his life had induced in others—he felt his hands tremble, tremble out of fear. And then, as he opened up to Jesus his mistakes, his failures, a load lifted from him—a load of guilt and shame that he felt had been carried too long.

At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath (John 5:9, NIV).

With power under his limbs, Eli rose up from the place by the pool in a miraculous manner; a feeling of power that he had not felt for thirty-eight years. And he shouted in joy, picked up his bedroll, and started walking with his soul full of thanksgiving and praise. It was to the marvel of the crowds that had gathered at the pool of Bethesda to behold before their eyes that Eli, who in his looks some time back had been so crippled, could now stride amongst them with firm steps. And having looked on what had been done before their eyes, they were never able to refrain from glorifying God and were amazed at the power of His grace.

Eli’s life would never be the same from that day. The pulsating force of his testimony declared to the world the changing power of Jesus Christ—that no mess could be too messy for Him to clean up, no sin too great for Him to forgive, and no life too broken that He could not make new. As much as Eli walked through life, he never forgot that day when Jesus looked into his eyes and said, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk” by the pool of Bethesda; in those words, Eli found healing, redemption, and a new beginning.