[Don't have a Bible handy? Click the reference above.]
Before Jesus lay a multitude of invalids, but He saw one man. As far as we know, this was the only man He healed at Bethesda this Sabbath day. Only one out of a multitude.
What did Jesus see in that one man?
What does this reveal to us about God?
I don't know.
It's a difficult account when you think of all who went unhealed... unnoticed... What specific criteria was He looking for that day? Or was it just random on His part? Did it have to do with how many years he had suffered? Or how many others had stepped out in front of him at the pool? Maybe it was because he had no one to help him?
I don't know.
But He says:
I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious,
and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.
Exodus 33:19 ESV
This is one of those mysteries we just have to trust Him with, remembering His judgment is perfect and ours is perverted by sin.
What we do have reaffirmed in this passage is Jesus, the Word made flesh, revealing God the Father to us.
...he was calling God his own Father,
making himself equal with God.
We will never understand all God does, whom He chooses to heal and whom He chooses to leave blind, lame, and paralyzed. But we do know, He came down from His heavenly throne room out of love for all people and nations. He came to make a way for all to receive eternal life.
Sometimes... most of the time... all we can do is trust Him and His wisdom and judgments.
Father God, Your ways are a mystery to me.
Some of Your ways make me doubt.
Please continue to remind me that You are good and perfect,
and I am not.
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