We also see from this that the Galileans were worse than the Samaritans. For the Samaritans expected no sign from the Lord, and many believed in his word alone; but as a result of this miracle, only this official and his whole household believed: for the Jews were converted to the faith little by little on account of their hardness, according to: “I have become as one who harvests in the summer time, like a gleaner at the vintage: not one cluster to eat, not one of the early figs I desire” (Mi 7:1).
5
LECTURE 1
1 After this there was a Jewish festival, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2 Now at Jerusalem there is a Sheep Pool, called in Hebrew Bethsaida, having five porticoes. 3 In these porticoes lay a great number of people: feeble, blind, lame and withered, waiting for the movement of the water. 4 From time to time an angel of the Lord used to come down into the pool and the water was stirred up, and the first one into the pool after it was stirred was healed of whatever ailment he had. 5 There was one man lying there who had been sick for thirty-eight years with his infirmity. 6 Jesus, seeing him lying there and knowing that he had been sick a long time, said to him, “Do you wish to be healed?” 7 The sick man said, “Sir, I have no one to plunge me into the pool once the water is stirred up. By the time I get there, someone else has gone in before me.” 8 Jesus said to him, “Stand up, pick up your mat and walk!” 9a The man was immediately cured; he picked up his mat, and walked.
699 Above, our Lord dealt with spiritual rebirth; here he deals with the benefits God gives to those who are spiritually reborn. Now we see that parents give three things to those who are physically born from them: life, nourishment, and instruction or discipline. And those who are spiritually reborn receive these three from Christ: spiritual life, spiritual nourishment, and spiritual teaching. And so these three things are considered here: first, the giving of spiritual life; secondly, the giving of spiritual food (c 6); and thirdly, spiritual teaching (c 7).
About the first he does three things. First, he sets forth a visible sign in which he shows Christ’s power to produce and to restore life. This is the usual practice in this Gospel: to always join to the teaching of Christ some appropriate visible action, so that what is invisible can be made known through the visible. Secondly, the occasion for this teaching is given (v 9b). Thirdly, the teaching itself is given (v 19). As to the first he does three things. First, the place of the miracle is given. Secondly, the illness involved. Thirdly, the restoration of the sick person to health (v 8).
700 The place of this miracle is described in two ways: in general and in particular. The general place is Jerusalem; so he says, After this, i.e., after the miracle performed in Galilee, there was a Jewish festival, that is Pentecost, according to Chrysostom. For above, when Christ went to Jerusalem, it was the Passover that was mentioned; and now, on the following festival of Pentecost, Jesus went up to Jerusalem again. For as we read in Exodus (23:17), the Lord commanded that all Jewish males be presented in the temple three times a year: on the festival days of the Passover, Pentecost, and the Dedication.
There were two reasons why our Lord went up to Jerusalem for these festivals. First, so that he would not seem to oppose the law, for he said himself: “I have not come to destroy the law, but to complete it” (Mt 5:17); and in order to draw the many people gathered there on the feast days to God by his signs and teaching: “I will praise him in the midst of the people” (Ps 108:30); and again, “I have declared your justice in the great assembly” (Ps 39:10). So Christ himself says, as we read below (18:20): “I have spoken openly to the world.”
701 The specific place of the miracle was the pool called the Sheep Pool; so he says, Now at Jerusalem there is a Sheep Pool. This is described here in four ways: by its name, its structure, from its occupants, and from its power.
702 First, it is described from its name when he says, there is a Sheep Pool ( probatica piscina ), for probaton is Greek for “sheep.” It was called the Sheep Pool for it was there that the priests washed the sacrificial animals; especially the sheep, who were used more than the other animals. And so in Hebrew it was called Bethsaida, that is, the “house of sheep.” This pool was located near the temple, and formed from collected rain water.
703 In its mystical sense, this pool, according to Chrysostom, has prefigured Baptism. For the Lord, wishing to prefigure the grace of baptism in different ways, first of all chose water: for this washes the body from the uncleanness which came from contact with what was legally unclean (Nm 19). Secondly, he gave this pool a power that expresses even more vividly than water the power of Baptism: for it not only cleansed the body from its uncleanness, but also healed it from its illness; for symbols are more expressive, the closer they approach the reality. Thus it signified the power of Baptism: for as this water when applied to the body had the power (not by its own nature, but from an angel) to heal its illness, so the water of Baptism has the power to heal and cleanse the soul from sins: “He loved us, and washed us from our sins” (Rv 1:5). This is the reason why the passion of Christ, prefigured by the sacrifices of the Old Law, is represented in Baptism: “All of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus, have been baptized into his death” (Rom 6:3).
According to Augustine, the water in this pool signified the condition of the Jewish people, according to: “The waters are the peoples” (Rv 17:15). The Gentiles were not confined within the limits of the divine law, but each of them lived according to the vanity of his heart (Eph 4:17). But the Jews were confined under the worship of the one God: “We were kept under the law, confined, until the faith was revealed” (Gal 3:23). So this water, confined to the pool, signified the Jewish people. And it was called the Sheep Pool, for the Jews were the special sheep of God: “We are his people, his sheep” (Ps 94:7).
704 The pool is described in its structure as having five porticoes, i.e., round about, so that a number of the priests could stand and wash the animals without inconvenience. In the mystical sense these five porticoes, according to Chrysostom, signify the five wounds in the body of Christ; about which we read: “Put your hand into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe” (below 20:27). But according to Augustine, these five porticoes signify the five books of Moses.
705 The pool is also described from its occupants, for in these porticoes lay a great number of people: feeble, blind, lame and withered. The literal explanation of this is that since all the afflicted persons gathered because of the curative power of the water, which did not always cure nor cure many at the same time, it was inevitable that there be many hanging around waiting to be cured. The mystical meaning of this, for Augustine, was that the law was incapable of healing sins: “It is impossible that sins be taken away by the blood of bulls and goats” (Heb 10:4). The law merely shed light on them, for “The knowledge of sin comes from the law” (Rom 3:20).
706 And so, subject to various illnesses, these people lay there, unable to be cured. They are described in four ways. First, by their posture: for there they lay, i.e., clinging to earthly things by their sins; for one who is lying down is in direct contact with the earth: “He had compassion on them, for they were suffering, and lying like sheep without a shepherd” (Mt 9:36). But the just do not lie down, but stand upright, toward the things of heaven: “They,” i.e., sinners, “are bound, and have fallen down; but we,” the just, “have stood and are erect” (Ps 19:9).
Secondly, they are described as to their number, for there was a great number of them: “The evil are hard to correct, and the number of fools is infinite” (Ecc 1:15); and in Matthew (7:13): “The road that leads to destruction is wide, and many go this way.”
Thirdly, these sick people are described as to their condition. And he mentions four things which a person brings on himself through sin. First, a person who is ruled by sinful passions is made listless or feeble: and so he says, feeble . So it is that Cicero calls certain passions of the soul, such as anger and concupiscence and the like, illnesses of the soul. And the Psalm says: “Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak” (Ps 6:3).
Secondly, due to the rule and victory of a man’s passions, his reason is blinded by consent; and he says as to this, blind, that is, through sins. According to Wisdom (2:21): “Their own evil blinded them”; and in the Psalm (57:9): “Fire,” that is the fire of anger and concupiscence, “fell on them, and they did not see the sun.”
Thirdly, a person who is feeble and blind is inconstant in his works and is, in a way, lame. So we read in Proverbs (11:18): “The work of the wicked is unsteady.” With respect to this the Evangelist says, lame. “How long will you be lame?” (1 Kgs 18:21).
Fourthly, a man who is thus feeble, blind in understanding, and lame in his exterior actions, becomes dry in his affections, in the sense that all the fatness of devotion withers within him. This devotion is sought in the Psalm (62:6): “May my soul be filled with fat and marrow.” With respect to this the Evangelist says, withered. “My strength is dried up like baked clay” (Ps 21:16).
But there are some so afflicted by the lassitude of sin, who do not wait for the motion of the water, wallowing in their sins, according to Wisdom (14:22): “They live in a great strife of ignorance, and they call so many and great evils peace.” We read of such people: “They are glad when they do evil, and rejoice in the worst of things” (Prv 2:14). The reason for this is that they do not hate their sins: they do not sin from ignorance or weakness, but from malice. But others, who do not sin from malice, do not wallow in their sins, but wait by desire for the motion of the water. So he says, waiting. “Every day of my service I wait for my relief to come” (Jb 14:14). This is the way those in the Old Testament waited for Christ: “I will wait for your salvation, O Lord” (Gn 49:18).
707 Finally, the power of the pool is described, for it healed all physical illnesses in virtue of an angel who came to it; so he says, From time to time an angel of the Lord used to come down into the pool. In certain ways, the power of this pool is like that of Baptism. It is like it, first, in the fact that its power was unperceived: for the power of the water in this pool did not come from its very nature, otherwise it would have healed at all times; its power was unseen, being from an angel. So he says, From time to time an angel of the Lord used to come down into the pool. The water of Baptism is like this in that precisely as water it does not have the power to cleanse souls, but this comes from the unseen power of the Holy Spirit, according to: “Unless one is born again of water and the Holy Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (above 3:5). It is like it, in a second way, in its effect: for as the water of Baptism heals, so also the water of that pool healed. So he says, the first one into the pool was healed. Further, God gave to that water the power to heal so that men by washing might learn through their bodily health to seek their spiritual health.
Yet the water of this pool differs from the water of Baptism in three ways. First, in the source of its power: for the water in the pool produced health because of an angel, but the water of Baptism produces its effect by the uncreated power not only of the Holy Spirit, but of the entire Trinity. Thus the entire Trinity was present at the baptism of Christ: the Father in the voice, the Son in person, and the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove. This is why we invoke the Trinity in our baptism.
Secondly, this water differs in its power: for the water in the pool did not have a continuous power to cure, but only from time to time; while the water of Baptism has a permanent power to cleanse, according to: “On that day a fountain will be open to the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse the sinner and the unclean” (Zec 13:1).
Thirdly, this water differs as regards the number of people healed: for only one person was cured when the water of this pool was moved; but all are healed when the water of Baptism is moved. And no wonder: for the power of the water in the pool, since it is created, is finite and has a finite effect; but in the water of Baptism there is an infinite power capable of cleansing an infinite number of souls, if there were such: “I will pour clean water upon you, and you will be cleansed from all your uncleanness” (Ez 36:25).