Archives for May 20, 2015

Ruins of the Pool of Bethesda

The Pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem appears only once in Scripture, in John 5. There we read of a large crowd of sick and disabled people, who gathered in hopes of supernatural healing through the waters of the pool. Our Lord focused His attention on one man who had been crippled for thirty-eight years, and asked him this surprising question, “Wilt thou be made whole?” (Do you choose to become healthy?) The man did not directly answer the question, but instead explained why he could not get into the pool in time to be healed. Christ then simply commanded him, “Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.” By the mere power of Christ’s word, the crippled man got up and walked away with his bed (John 5:1–9).

O, the power of Jesus Christ! He is God. He shares in the same divine power as the Father, for they do all their works together (John 5:19–20). One day, by the same power He used to raise up this crippled man, Christ will raise the dead to life by the mere authority of His voice (John 5:28–29). All the billions of people who have lived and died on this planet will stand before Christ, and receive His holy judgment, either to life or damnation.

We need to have eternity stamped on our eyes. We must not rest in physical blessings and answered prayers about jobs or health or family. All of Christ’s works point us beyond this age, to consider whether Christ has healed not just our bodies, but our souls with eternal life.

The sad truth of the Pool of Bethesda is that after Jesus healed the crippled man, the Lord met him again and had to warn him, “Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee” (John 5:14). Despite all that Christ had done for him, the man had not repented of sin. He was in danger of a punishment far worse than a lifetime of disability, the punishment of the fire of hell. And how did the man respond to Christ’s warning? He betrayed Jesus to the Jewish religious leaders, turning Him in as a sabbath-breaker so that they sought to kill Jesus (John 5:15–16). The man Jesus healed, only hated Jesus when confronted with his sin.

Even if Christ has miraculously healed your body, that is no substitute for the miracle of healing your soul. Christ says to your soul, “Wilt thou be made whole?” If we would hope to participate in the resurrection unto life, then we must first be raised from spiritual death. The voice of Jesus is speaking and giving life through His Word today. Christ said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life” (John 5:24).

The Garden of Gethsemane

The Gospels of Matthew and Mark identify the place where Jesus went on the night that He was betrayed as “Gethsemane” (Matt. 26:36; Mark 14:32), which means “olive press.” Jesus often retired to this a garden or orchard of olive trees, located across the Kidron valley from Jerusalem on the Mount of Olives, while He was visiting Jerusalem (Luke 22:39; John 18:1). Yet on this night, He knew that He would enter the garden a free man, but leave it as a prisoner. There, in the “olive press,” Jesus began to feel a crushing weight press against His soul, and the pure oil of obedience flowed forth from His holy heart.

Only eleven were allowed to enter the garden with Jesus, and only three formed the inner circle of intimate friendship and support. But even those three could not enter all the way into His sufferings with Him. Moving a stone’s throw away, Jesus fell to the earth and cried to God whether there might be some other way than to drink this “cup,” even as He went forth to trod the winepress alone to be crushed under deep soul-suffering and divine anger. For the cup is a biblical symbol for the wrath of God against sinners (Pss. 11:6; 75:7–8; Isa. 51:17; Jer. 25:15; Rev. 14:10).

There are no words strong enough to express His suffering in this garden. Mark says that He was “sore amazed” (Mark 14:33); Luke reports that He was “in an agony” (Luke 22:44). Matthew tells us that He cried out: “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death” (Matt. 27:38). In a word, Jesus was encompassed, encircled, and overwhelmed with grief.

In addition to His foreknowledge of the cross, a combination of formidable, intense sufferings beat mercilessly upon Him. Satan beset Him with the demons and powers of hell. The abominable nature of sin and the awful curse His Father placed upon it weighed heavily upon Him. His Father’s comforting presence began to withdraw from Him.

If His Godhead had not supported Him, Jesus could not have sustained the horrors of Gethsemane. Three times Jesus had to leave His disciples and cry out as He writhed in pain on the grounds of the garden, “Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done” (Luke 22:42).

What should amaze us most about Gethsemane is not the dread wrath beginning to crush God’s Son, but the holy obedience with which He bore it. Heaven will eternally resound with wonder at those words, “not my will, but thine, be done.” Our last Adam emerged from this garden the Victor, ready to be bruised in order to crush the head of the serpent.

View of Modern Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives

The Mount of Olives, or Olivet, is part of an elevated ridge to the east of Jerusalem, known for its groves of olive trees. Sometimes it has been a place of the weeping of kings. David wept upon it as he fled Jerusalem to escape from Absalom (2 Sam. 15:30). Though David was the rightful king of Israel, his sins with Bathsheba had come home to roost, and now he must flee for his life while his own son sought to murder him and take his kingdom.

A thousand years later, the Lord Jesus Christ crossed the Mount of Olives, riding into Jerusalem on a donkey’s colt as a visible sign that the promised King had come (Zech. 9:9). Though cheering crowds greeted Him, when He crested the ridge and saw Jerusalem, He “wept over it” (Luke 19:41), for He knew that once again the people would reject their King. Yet Christ did not suffer rejection because of His own sins, as David did, but for the sins of His people (Isa. 53:8). He gave His blood to fulfill the promises of the new covenant and bring sinners into holy relationship with God (Luke 22:20; Jer. 31:33–34). Jesus wept not for Himself, for He knew that His kingdom would come, but for the sinners who rejected Him, blind as they were, because He knew that God’s sword would fall upon Jerusalem and devastate it (Luke 19:42–44).

To stand upon the Mount of Olives today and look towards Jerusalem is to remember the tears of the King for lost sinners. Have His tears touched our eyes? Our heart? Can we say with Paul that we have strong desires, great sorrow, and fervent prayers for the salvation of the Jewish people (Rom. 9:1; 10:1)—and all nations where people still live in spiritual blindness?

However, the Mount of Olives is not always a place of weeping in the Bible. It also is a place of blessing and rejoicing (Luke 24:49–53; Acts 1:8–12). It was here that Christ’s feet last touched the earth. Here Christ promised the empowerment of the Holy Spirit for the worldwide gospel mission, raised His hands to bless His disciples, and was taken up into the clouds to ascend to heaven. The disciples returned to Jerusalem with great joy, praising and blessing God.

If we too are disciples of Jesus Christ, then the Mount of Olives reminds us that we too have great cause for joy. Our King is seated at the right hand of God in heaven. He blesses us as our exalted Priest, pouring out all the blessings He won for us when He took the curse for our sins. And He is our living Prophet, proclaiming the Word to Jew and Gentile as His Spirit works through His faithful witnesses. Christ will come back just as He left, and therefore our message to the world is not one of despair, but of hope and joy in a victorious King.