Lamb of God: A Novel

Chapter 17

Jerusalem

Jesus and those who follow him finally get to see Jerusalem. After the usual Songs of Ascents, they enter by the Gennath Gath, passing through the Towers Pool.

But it looks odd that some lowly travelers enter into the Upper City (it's actually midwest of the city), where the rich people and those of status live. Here is the Palace of Herod, now empty. There used to live that infamous Herod the Great, who about 30 years ago attempted to put an end to the life of the Messiah. Since then no one has been threatening Jesus' life.

That will change during this stay in Jerusalem.

Now Jesus will have to pass the "Upper City" and get to the Temple Mount.

Pool of Bethesda

The feast of Weeks is generally known among the Jews as when God gave the Law—actually the eternal Ten Commandments—through Moses to the children of Israel. Here people from many places in the world come for this feast of the Law—the Written Law and not the Oral Law, which did not exist then, contrary to the claims of the Pharisees.

Jesus knows that the interpretations of the Elders favored by the Jewish authorities are incorrect, that the expansion of the Law is merely tradition, and that these leaders of the people care too much about these man-made traditions, and even more than the Law of God himself!

As Jesus goes around one Sabbath, he passes north of the Temple and east of the Antonia Fortress, where Pilate governor of Judea would stay when at Jerusalem. And most likely he is sick of having to stay here just to swell any attempts of rebellion.

Now here Jesus notices the Sheep Market, closed because it's the Sabbath day. Jesus has no problem with that. Business is work, and to do business on the Sabbath day would be to transgress.

As he meditates on the Word of God, he finds himself by the Pool of Bethesda, the one with five porches and entrances. Bethesda means "house of mercy"—or maybe "the flowing water". There is that pool: 360 feet long, 120 feet wide, and 80 feet deep. Then he sees to his amazement lots of invalids looking longingly at this pool. There are blind, lame, paralyzed.

Jesus longs to heal all these people. But a quick look at the Temple Mount makes him pause. There are people heading there for the morning. Jesus knows that vast healing would lead countless people to him, and the priests won't be at all happy about it. That today is the Sabbath would make this case worse. They have added extra rules about the Sabbath that made it not a blessing but a burden.

Jesus, however, sees a man there, sick for 38 years. His legs are unresponsive, making him lame in his feet. He was here many days waiting for the water to stir up on its own. He, like the other sick ones here, is of the belief that whoever steps in first after the stirring up would be healed.

Jesus understands that this helpless man was in this position for so long. As the man sighs of agony, Jesus says to him, "Do you wish to be cured?"

The man turns to Jesus and says, "Oh, yes! But—"

Turning back at the water, the sick man said, "I have no one, Sir, to put me into the bath when there is a stirring of the water, and, while I am getting to it, someone else steps down before me."

Jesus kneels down and merely says to the man, "Stand up, take up your mat, and walk!"

The man takes on faith, despite not knowing who this is. Perhaps this man is a Prophet! He gets up, and he does it without any pain. In truth, this is a miracle!

Restored thus, the man gets down again to take up his mat and quilt—this being his bed—to roll up. Then he looks around for the person who healed him, but he has slipped away in the crowd that was around, not wanting any attention to be called.