Devotiona+

The Last Para+ytic

in 0erusa+em What was his
connection to the
others whom
Jesus healed?

BY DANIEL BOSQUED

18 February 2019 AdventistWorld.org Photo: Kasper Rasmussen

H
ave you ever missed a great opportunity? Has any- someone sick? Anxiety about
thing good happened to everyone except you? Have trying to be healed too? Maybe
you ever felt that God has blessed many, but He just he started looking for Jesus at
passed you by? Bethesda.
A story in the Bible may reflects those feelings. It’s At least twice Jesus performed
the story of the healing of the paralytic man in Acts 3. several miracles at the same time in
We know that he was lame from birth; that he was Jerusalem, both in the Temple. One
more than 40 years old (see Acts 4:22); that he sat at the beginning of His ministry
every day asking for alms at the gate called Beautiful at the Temple; and that (John 2), and the other at the end of
during His ministry Jesus had not cured him. He may have been one of the last His ministry (Matt. 21).
people in Jerusalem not to have felt Jesus’ healing touch. About the first occasion Ellen
White writes that after purifying
A CONNECTION? the Temple, Jesus stayed attending
Before we review this story, let’s recall the story of another man who the sick who came to Him. “All
appears in the Gospels, the man cured at the Pool of Bethesda (John 5:2-9). received attention. Everyone was
Jesus noticed him because he had been ill for 38 years. Jesus approached healed of whatever disease he
him, and after a brief dialogue cured him with a simple command: “Rise, had.”3 On the second occasion “the
take up your bed and walk” (verse 8). blind and the lame came to Him in
An important element of this story is that Jesus was the one who the temple, and He healed them”
approached him. Normally those who were sick were brought to Jesus. Or (Matt. 21:14). Ellen White adds that
someone asked for help on their behalf. But on this occasion, of all the sick those who returned to the court-
people in Bethesda (many, according to the text [verse 3])—Jesus chose him. yard “stood transfixed before the
I am struck by the possible links of this story in John 5 and that of Acts wonderful scene. They saw the sick
3. Bethesda was located in the city of Jerusalem, and the paralytic in John 5 healed, the blind restored to sight,
had been ill for 38 years. It was the same time as our friend from Acts, since and deaf receive their hearing, and
it is said that he was more than 40 years old shortly after the death of Jesus. the crippled leap for joy.”4
So when the healing at Bethesda took place in John 5, he would have been Jesus healed everyone present.
about 38 years old too. Therefore, they had been sick about the same time. But our friend was not among
Perhaps our friend had also been in Bethesda at other times, among the them. For some reason he missed
crowd of “sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed” (verse 3). Who knows? the many healings of Jesus. Maybe
When Jesus walked through Bethesda before reaching the paralytic, He he began to feel that he was always
passed by other sick people, maybe other paralytics. He walked beside their in the wrong place.
beds; He heard their cries; but He did not heal them. Why not?
Ellen White observes that Jesus wanted to heal more people that day, “but ANOTHER CHANCE
it was the Sabbath day. Multitudes were going to the temple for worship, On other occasions Jesus took
and He knew that such an act of healing would so excite the prejudice of the the initiative to meet those who
Jews as to cut short His work.”1 needed Him. For example, with
Jesus had a reason for every action. We know that He could not heal the Samaritan woman “He needed
everyone without obstructing His work, but why did he choose this paralytic to go through Samaria” (John 4:4);
and not another? with the Canaanite woman “Jesus
Again, Ellen White notes that this was a desperate case: “His persistent went out from there and departed
efforts toward the one object, and his anxiety and continual disappointment, to the region of Tyre and Sidon”
were fast wearing away the remnant of his strength.”2 (Matt. 15:21); with the demoniacs
The paralytic was apparently about to give up. Jesus knew all the cases of Gadara “they came to the other
and chose him. side of the sea, to the country of the
Maybe the disabled men from Acts and John knew each other. Maybe they Gadarenes” (Mark 5:1).
even saw each other again. Can you imagine the conversation? So the Gospels tell of at least
“You’re walking!” three types of healing: (1) people
“Yes, Jesus healed me!” who came to Jesus and were healed;
“Where is He?” (2) people who asked for help for
“I don’t know. He was at Bethesda a few moments ago.” those who could not come, such
What would have crossed the other man’s mind? Joy for the healing of as the man taken to the roof of the

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The man no Our friend had to mourn. Perhaps
after a certain time he accepted
and praising God” (Acts 3:7-9).
What a wonderful story!
longer asked with resignation that he would
never be cured. Drying his tears, he HEALING FOR ALL
for a miracle; he thought, At least I will not be a bur- I don’t know where you are.
den to anyone. I still can ask for alms. Maybe you were healed long ago in
just wanted to I will do that for the rest of my life. Bethesda. Maybe Jesus found you
“Take me to the Temple, please,” there and healed you directly.
survive. he probably asked his friends. Maybe Jesus had to go around
In reading the story this way, because you were far away. Maybe
everything makes sense. The man someone brought you to Jesus,
was brought every day to the or good friends asked for Jesus to
door of the Temple. When he saw heal you.
the disciples, he “asked for alms” Or maybe you’re like our friend,
(Acts 3:3). sitting at the door of the Temple
house in Capernaum (Mark 2); and Notice, he no longer asked for a with broken dreams, frustrated by
(3) people who sought out Jesus. miracle; he just wanted to survive. the undeniable feeling that God
Interestingly, our friend did not has passed you by. You may feel
fall into any of these categories. SOMETHING BETTER forgotten by God. The last paralytic
Normally when Jesus passed But when Peter approached, he of Jerusalem.
through a city no one was left sick. said to the man: “‘Look at us.’ So he If so, your story’s not over. God’s
What evidence do we have gave them his attention, expecting ways are inscrutable, unattainable,
to reconstruct this story of the to receive something from them. and incomprehensible. Because
paralytic in Acts 3 and Jesus? Ellen Then Peter said, ‘Silver and gold I when we least expect it, a messen-
White writes about him: “This do not have’” (verses 5, 6). ger of God can come into our lives
unfortunate man had long desired It seemed like the last straw. A and speak to us in the name of
to see Jesus, that he might be healed; bad joke. Jesus of Nazareth.
but he was almost helpless, and was But I like to imagine Peter’s Every day we meet people like
far removed from the scene of the conversation with our friend: “I the paralytic. Evicted. At the door
great Physician’s labors.”5 His case have nothing of what you expect, of the Temple. Hopeless. Without
was therefore a desperate, fruitless because I am a time traveler. I’m illusion. They no longer ask for a
search. Jesus had not looked for here to remind you of your dream. miracle. They feel forgotten by God.
him, he did not find Jesus, and I’ve come to give you what you’ve Our mission, like that of Peter
nobody took him to Jesus. been looking for. I bring you some- and John, is to remind them of a
Ellen White describes his last thing from Jesus of Nazareth.” promise in Jesus’ name: Don’t give
effort to see Jesus: “His pleadings at Ellen White observes: “As Peter up. Keep believing. Keep trusting.
last induced some friends to bear thus declared his poverty, the coun- Because one day not too far in the
him to the gate of the temple, but tenance of the cripple fell; but it distance, there in the temple of the
upon arriving there, he found that grew bright with hope as the apostle Most High God, you also will walk,
the One upon whom his hopes continued, ‘But such as I have give I leap, and praise God.
were centered, had been put to a thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of
1
Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages
cruel death.”6 Nazareth rise up and walk.’”7 Press Pub. Assn., 1898, 1940), pp. 201, 202.
Ibid., p. 202.
Imagine how he must have felt! I What? In the name of Jesus?
2

3
Ibid., p. 163.
imagine him crying out, “Why, Lord? Jesus was alive? 4
Ibid., p. 592.
5
Ellen G. White, The Acts of the Apostles (Mountain View, Calif.:
All have been healed except me!” “And [Peter] took him by the
6
Ibid
Forty years not being able to right hand and lifted him up, and Ibid., p. 58.
walk. Forty years of broken dreams. immediately his feet and ankles
Forty years trying to be healed. But bones received strength. So he,
he was always in the wrong place. leaping up, stood and walked and Daniel Bosqued, Ph.D., teaches New
And when he finally got close to entered the temple with them— Testament at River Plate Adventist
Jesus, he learned that Jesus had walking, leaping, and praising God. University in Libertador San Martin,
Entre Rios, Argentina.
been killed. And all the people saw him walking

20 February 2019 AdventistWorld.org