Show Don't Tell: John 5:1-15

Instead of saying "Jesus healed a man at the pool of Bethesda," count the thirty-eight years. Some time later, Jesus goes up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda, surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who is there has been an invalid for thirty-eight years. Jesus sees him lying there and learns that he has been in this condition for a long time. "Do you want to get well?" "Sir, I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me." Thirty-eight years of watching others beat him to the water. "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk." At once the man is cured; he picks up his mat and walks. The day this happens is a Sabbath. The Jewish leaders say to the man: "It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat." "The man who made me well said to me, 'Pick up your mat and walk.'" They ask: "Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?" The man who was healed has no idea who it is. Later Jesus finds him at the temple: "See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you."