The Historical God.
For centuries, the Pool of Bethesda, which is the centerpiece of today’s readings, was thought to have been a fictional construct in the Gospel of John. As with more than a few aspects in the Gospels, the historicity of this place was either disbelieved, disputed or downright rejected as “fake.” Even the “five porticoes” mentioned by John’s Gospel as characteristic of the pool, were concluded to be merely allegorical, representing the Five Books of Moses.
But in the 19th century archaeologists discovered both the pool itself and the five porticoes, all as John described. Today you can visit the Pool of Bethesda, near the Sheep Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem (again, as John had described) climb down some metal stairs and dip your hand into the water that still flows into the cisterns.
It’s a potent reminder that Jesus came into a real place and a real time and encountered real people with real histories. The paralyzed man in the Gospels, who has waited 38 years for healing, comes into contact with a God who enters human history in the most profound way. And this God wants most of all to encounter us, in whatever state we find ourselves: even when alone, wanting and desperate.
Notice too that Jesus instinctively knows that the man needs help. Apparently alone (he has no one to help him into the healing waters) the man seems to have given up on ever finding healing in life. But Jesus knows this and reaches out to him. Jesus, friend of the friendless, seeks him out.
Often we doubt that God will enter into the history of our own lives. We feel alone, wanting and desperate ourselves, and wonder if it’s all real. Well, as the story of the Pool of Bethesda shows, it is. But more to the point the story of your life shows that: it is a graced history into which God has definitively come.
James Martin, SJ
James Martin, SJ, is a Jesuit priest, editor at large of America and author of many books, including Jesus: A Pilgrimage and Building a Bridge.
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