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I start with a mild warning. This devotional will dig a little into the Ancient Greek of John 5:3. Not everyone is a big fan of Grammar terms and deep discussions about the ancient languages of the Bible. I try to not use devotionals for these purposes, but this one can’t be avoided. - Pastor Scott
"Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed." - John 5:3
Ever wonder where the phrase “snake oil salesman” came from?
Well over a hundred years ago, the Chinese had been using an elixir that included oil from water snakes for arthritis and bursitis and other maladies. In fact, this oil was mildly effective. Many Chinese people came to America in the 1800’s to work on the railroads and brought their snake oil with them and Americans benefitted from their concoction.
But industrious businessmen started to make and sell their own version of snake oil to the public. The problem for them was that there was no Chinese water snakes around to actually make a genuine product. Instead, these men substituted the active ingredient with the oil found in red peppers and in some cases, even used turpentine. It was a totally fake product sold to millions of people. Today, the phrase "snake oil" is the catchphrase for any fake products or information peddled to the unwitting public.
But as time goes by, eventually every fake product is discovered to be just that. When that happens, the big trend that people had latched onto dies away. Everything from miracle cure medicine to fad diets to get-rich-quick schemes, they all meet their end in the light of the truth.
In John 5:3, we read of a pool in Jerusalem near what is known as the Sheep Gate. This pool was known for being the place in which many with severe disabilities would go looking to be cured. Every time the water was “stirred up” (verse 7), the disabled people would enter the pool hoping to be cured by the magical waters.
One such man who had been disabled for 37 years had lost hope. Because he unable to walk, he didn’t even have the ability to enter the water in a timely manner. He was hoping someone might pick him up and put him in the magic pool before the waters moved. But in reality, by this time, he was probably just waiting to die.
Along comes Jesus. He asks the man if he wants to be made well. The man explains his predicament. But instead, Jesus tells him to pick up his mat and walk. “Forget the pool. I’ll make you well.” The man immediately gets up, finds all the strength has returned to his legs and he is totally healed.
If you were to do a word search on the first part of the verse, you would find that most English translations say something like “In these lay a multitude.” But one popular translation, the New International Version, uses the phrase “Here a great number of disabled people used to lie…” That suggests that no one is lying there anymore by the time John wrote the gospel (between 85-95 AD). By this time, the pool, the Sheep Gate, and in fact, all of Jerusalem had already been leveled by Rome.
The Greek word used in this verse is katakeito from the root word, keimai, which means “to lie, to lie down.” In verse 3, it is an imperfect verb. The most likely English translation of the imperfect here would be “used to lie.”
John is making a point with his choice of words. He wants to communicate that this pool, Bethesda, near the Sheep Gate, is no longer there. It had been destroyed.
It was a temporary fad.
But Jesus came along and changed that lame man’s understanding. He had been waiting for the miracle of the snake oil. But Jesus wanted him to know it was fake.
A few English Bibles have a verse 4 which reads, “For an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water; whoever then first, after the stirring up of the water, stepped in was made well from whatever disease with which he was afflicted.” You should know that this verse is dismissed by the majority of scholars as inaccurate and invalid. The earliest manuscripts we have do not record this verse. It was added to our Bibles likely in the 9th century AD. Because the King James Version used the only available translations at that time to give us this verse, some Bibles today still leave it in there mainly for historical purposes. But what we know of the earliest manuscripts of John available today indicate that this verse was absolutely NOT written by the original author. Hence, many English Bibles go from verse 3 directly to verse 5.
In other words, an angel did NOT stir up the waters. There is NO evidence that anyone was ever healed in that pool. People were waiting in vain for the moving waters to do their thing.
Today, we all need to recognize the hard truth about life. There is no healing in miracle oils. There is no reliable get-rich-quick scheme. There is no African king waiting to send you his vast fortunes through an email exchange. The picture you see on the Internet may very well be an AI-generated fake. So much of what is promised to make our lives better just isn’t real.
But Jesus wants you to know that He is very real. He has the answers you seek. That’s not a vain promise. He is the Way, the TRUTH, and the Life (John 14:6).
So, let’s shut down the pools in our lives. They are not doing anyone a measure of good. Let’s stop looking for social-media solutions to real-world problems. Jesus’ promise of abundant life is the only fix we truly need.