Him when Jesus had seen lying, and knew that he had been now a long time, he saith to him: Wilt thou be made whole?
τουτον ιδων ο ιησους κατακειμενον και γνους οτι πολυν ηδη χρονον εχει λεγει αυτω θελεις υγιης γενεσθαι
12 Church Fathers comment on this verse
Why did Jesus leave all the others and approach the man who had been sick for thirty-eight years? And why does He ask, "Do you want to be made well?"
He did not ask in order to learn this, for that would have been needless. He asked in order to reveal the man's patience, and to instruct us. For this very reason He left the others and approached him.
For this reason the Lord asks him, wishing to show us this man's patience. He does not ask in order to learn. It is not only needless, but foolish, to ask a sick man whether he wants to be made well.
Thus I have said that He asks in order to show us this man's patience.
Christ did not say, "Do you want Me to heal you?" so that He might not appear vainglorious.
An evident proof of Christ's immeasurable goodness is that He by no means waits for petitions from the sick. In His love for mankind He anticipates their request. As you see, He approaches the man lying there and shows compassion to the sufferer without being called.
If He asks him whether he wishes to be freed from the infirmity, it is not because the One asking was ignorant of what was unquestionably evident to all. Rather, He stirred him to a stronger desire for healing and encouraged him to ask for it more earnestly. The question whether he desires to receive what he longs for clearly indicates that He can grant it. He was already prepared to do so, but still awaited the request from the one receiving grace.
Therefore let us consider the mystery through which that sick man was healed by the Lord. The Lord Himself came, the Teacher of love, full of love. As was foretold of Him, He brought a word upon the earth (cf. Is 10:23; 28:22). He revealed that on the two commandments of love hang the Law and the Prophets.
On these Moses stood with his forty-day fast. On these Elijah stood with his forty-day fast. The Lord also brought this number in His witness. That sick man was healed by the Lord through His personal presence.
But what did He say to him before the healing? "Do you want to be made well?" (Jn 5:6). The man answered that he had no man to put him into the pool. Truly he needed a man for healing, but for this he needed that Man who was God. "For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus" (1 Tim 2:5). Behold, the Man whom the sick man needed has come. Why, then, was the recovery divided?
St. Gregory calls the bed the bodily rest that is weakened by pleasures. He says: you had no man, that is, no manly thought. You had no man to put you into the pool when the water was troubled. This means a thought that would lower you into the water of purification when a thought arises in you that disturbs your power to discern better from worse.
But now you have found a man, who is also God. When someone purifies by recourse to teaching, God is the One who acts. The man is the instrument He uses for the salvation of the sufferer. You were taken from the bed, or rather, you yourself took up the bed. That is, through active virtue you raised up the body and were no longer dragged downward by it.
One who gives himself to bodily pleasures cannot be tireless in virtue or readily hasten toward knowledge. Therefore he has no man (Jn 5:5-15), that is, no conscious discernment. When the water is troubled, such discernment would lower him into the pool, that is, into virtue capable of receiving knowledge and healing every infirmity. This is so, provided the sick man, through negligence, does not delay and is not already seized by another infirmity that prevents his healing.
For this reason the paralytic lay in his infirmity for thirty-eight years. Whoever contemplates visible creation, yet not for the glorification of God, and does not piously lift his mind to intelligible nature, rightly remains paralyzed for this number of years. The number thirty, understood according to natural contemplation, signifies sensible nature. Considered according to spiritual division, it signifies practical virtue. The number eight, understood according to natural contemplation, signifies the intelligible nature of bodiless beings. According to contemplative vision, it signifies wise theology.
Whoever is not moved by these things toward God remains paralyzed until God the Word comes to him and teaches him. He commands briefly: "Rise, take up your bed, and walk" (Jn 5:8). That is, God the Word commands him to be master of his mind and to guard it from the love of pleasures that surrounds it. He commands him to lift the body upon the shoulders of the virtues and to go to his own house, plainly, to Heaven. For the worse should be lifted by the better upon the shoulders of spiritual labor for the sake of virtue. The better must not be dragged by the worse, through the soul's paralysis, in pursuit of pleasures.
He gives preference to the man who had lain there for a very long time and was the most patient. On the one hand, he was more deserving of compassion. On the other, Christ wished to show that, among the many who need healing from above, the most patient more readily incline God to mercy.
Jesus Christ did not say, "Do you want Me to heal you?" This was both because He was alien to pride and because the sick man did not know Him at all. Therefore He did not require faith of him. He asked the sick man not in order to learn, since it would be wholly unnecessary to learn a known fact, but so that his patience might be made clear from his answer. See what he answers:
Jesus asked, "Do you want to be made well?" Notice His humility. He did not say, "Do you want Me to heal you?" He did not wish either to boast or to proclaim Himself before the miracles.
The man answered, "I want to, but I have no man." For where there is no one who shows mercy, there is no man. "This is why I ask: not to learn what sick person does not wish to recover, but to make manifest the cruelty of your healthy countrymen. They did not give you a hand to lower you into the spring, though even an enemy would have done this if asked."
Behold true compassion. Behold divine mercy. Behold boundless love for mankind. The paralytic does not ask to be made whole, nor does he present even the least request to Jesus. Yet He, seeing him lying on his bed and knowing, as God, his many years of infirmity, immediately grants him healing.
What, then, was the purpose of the Lord's question, "Do you want to be made well?" Who ever asks a sick man whether he wants health? Moreover, Jesus Christ, as God who knows the heart, knew the sick man's will perfectly. Why, then, does He ask?
The God-man sought faith from other sick people: "Do you believe that I am able to do this?" (Mt 9:28). From this paralytic He seeks only desire: "Do you want to be made well?" (Jn 5:6). Those others did not suffer because of sins: "Neither this man sinned, nor his parents" (Jn 9:3). Therefore faith in Christ was sufficient for their healing.
This man suffered because of his sins: "Sin no more" (Jn 5:14). Therefore the cooperation of his will was required for his healing. By this question the Lord showed us that, for the forgiveness of sins, the cooperation of the sinner's free choice is also necessary.
Notice also that the Lord's question called forth the paralytic's answer. The answer revealed the paralytic's weakness and patience, and also the hardness of heart of the Jewish people.
By the pool lay many sick people thirsting for healing. From time to time an Angel of the Lord descended and troubled the water. The sick person who first entered the water afterward received healing.
The paralytic lies by the pool. For long years he waits for healing and does not receive it. Why? "I have no man." He has no man to lower him into the healing water. So the paralytic lies there, and God looks upon him.
By that paralytic one may understand all sick and paralyzed humanity, poor humanity infected by ancestral sin and awaiting healing for itself. Humanity languished, and God looked upon it. Of course, by His almighty power God could have regenerated humanity in one instant and made it holy instead of sinful. The Lord was mighty enough to do this, but the righteousness of God did not permit it. No occasion could be given for Satan to reproach God with injustice.
For the salvation of humanity, a man was needed. For long years people awaited this Man and languished, like the paralytic by the pool of Siloam. And the Man came and redeemed humanity, cleansing it from ancestral sin. But now we have gone astray again. Again we await a man who would lead us to the springs of living water.
When Jesus came to this pool, He saw a sick man who had suffered for thirty-eight years and asked him, "Do you want to be made well?" The sick man evidently did not know that the Messiah-Christ stood before him. Otherwise he would have asked Him for healing.
He merely explains to Jesus, as to an ordinary man, the reason for his failures. "I want to, Lord," the paralytic answered. "But my misery is that I cannot quickly enter the water by myself, and there is no one to help me. Each time I try to enter the pool, someone gets ahead of me and enters before I can gather my strength."
Taking pity on the unfortunate man's hopeless condition, Jesus said to him, "Rise, take up your bed, and walk." The healing occurred instantly. The sick man rose, took up the bed on which he had lain, and walked. Now it was the Sabbath day.
"Knowing that he had already been lying there a long time": either He learned this from others who were there, or immediately by His divine omniscience; cf. Jn 2:25.
"Lying" means being in sickness.
"Do you want to be made well?" This question aimed to awaken the energy of the sick man's faith. The very unusualness of the question compelled the sick man to gather his thought, turn it toward the One questioning him, and expect help from Him.
Yet, as is evident, the sick man did not understand where his interlocutor's words were leading. His thought turned to the healing spring, and he seemed to complain that he could not make use of its healing power.
Verses 5-9. The thirty-eight years are the years of the unfortunate man's illness, not the years of his age, as some have thought. Otherwise the text would have read: ἦν δε τις ανθρωπος εν ασθενεια, τριακοντα και οκτω ετη εχων. Even that would not be wholly Greek. The Greeks said εχειν εν ασθενεια, not ειναι εν ὰσθενεία, when speaking of someone's sick condition (Xenophon, Cyrop. 6, 1, 20). In verse 6 the Evangelist says of the long suffering: πολον ηδη χρονον εχει.
The Savior came to the place of suffering humanity and turned His loving attention to the grievous sufferer. The sufferer tells Him about himself, that he had "lain a long time" and had found no "man to put" him into the healing pool. Suppose the sick man had not lain by the pool for thirty-eight years, and suppose there had not been no compassionate man for thirty-eight years. Still, one must admit that if "many years" passed without attention to such an unfortunate man, the picture is not flattering to Jewish or pagan humanity.
People may write much about humaneness, but that does not mean seeing humaneness in experience, or proving one's own humaneness by deeds. Only Christ Jesus proved His love for mankind by deeds. Only with the help of His grace have people become examples of self-denying love for mankind.
"Rise and walk," said the Lord. The sick man "rose and walked." More than this, at the Lord's word he carried his own bed. Such is the word of Jesus. However successfully a skilled physician may treat a patient, one who receives help after a long and serious illness feels weakness and exhaustion for a long time. The heavenly Physician does not heal in this way. He spoke, and the man who had been sick for thirty-eight years became completely whole and carried his bed with him.
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 17 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS