The Pool Called Bethesda
The healing of the paralytic (John 5:1-15) is recounted on the Third Sunday after Pascha. The Gospel tells us that the setting for this healing was a pool “in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate… which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porticoes” (John 5:2). For centuries this pool was unknown causing scholars to doubt the historical basis of this story. In the nineteenth century archeologists began uncovering its remains. Bethesda was actually a double pool. This original was designed in the eighth century BC as a reservoir for rain water. Around 200 BC a second pool was added, traditionally dedicated to washing sheep, perhaps before being sacrificed. In the first century BC smaller pools were constructed by the Roman soldiers garrisoned in Jerusalem and dedicated to the Greco-Roman deities Fortuna and Asclepius the Healer. The Romans would go there in search of healing for their ailments. They would sleep in the shrine and report their dreams to the priest who would prescribe treatment. Was the paralyzed man in the Gospel seeking healing from Asclepius? We do not know. That the Lord’s word alone was more powerful that the presence of any Roman god was not lost on those who first heard this story. They had come to know Christ as the Source of healing, the Fountain of living water, the One who quenches the thirst of those who come to Him.The Pool of Siloam
On the Fifth Sunday after Pascha we read about the healing of the man born blind whom Jesus sends to wash in the pool of Siloam (John 9:1-38). This was a large man-made pool cut out of rock on the southern slope of the ancient heart of Jerusalem called the “City of David,” just outside the city walls. An aquaduct, called Hezekiah’s Tunnel, brought water from the Spring of Gehon over 1700 feet away. The broad steps leading down into the pool suggests that it was used as a mikvah for pilgrims entering the Holy City. According to the Gospel, the Lord sends the blind man to (ritually) wash in the pool, where he finds that he has already been made whole. We are invited during this season to see the risen Christ with the eyes of the newly-baptized. Like them we recognize Him as the Source of life, the One who heals bodies and souls, who calls Jews, Samaritans and Gentiles alike to acknowledge Him as Lord. “And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. …Let him who thirsts come” (Revelation 22:1, 17).On the Samaritan Woman
“Jesus answered and said to her, ‘Whoever shall drink of this water shall thirst again. But whoever shall drink of the water that I shall give shall never thirst again’” (John 4:13). Insipid, temporary, and unsatisfying was that life and its glory, for it was worldly. The proof of it being worldly is the fact that the cattle of Jacob drank from it (i.e. the well). . . But the water which the Savior gives is from His spirit and His power. . .The words “shall never thirst again” mean that His life is eternal and never perishes as does the first (life) which the well provides, but rather is lasting. For the Grace and gift of our Savior cannot be taken away, and is not consumed or destroyed in the one who partakes of it. The first life is perishable.
“The water I shall give that one shall be a well of water within, springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:14). The words “springing up” refer to those who receive what is richly supplied from above and who themselves pour forth that which has been supplied to them for the eternal life of others.
Fragments from a Commentary on the Gospel of John by Heracleon preserved in Origen's Commentary on John