The Healing at the Pool
5 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. [4] 5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”
7 “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”
8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 10 and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”
11 But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”
12 So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?”
13 The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.
14 Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” 15 The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.
The Authority of the Son
16 So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. 17 In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” 18 For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. (John 5:1-18, NIV)
This passage of Scripture documents just one of many times in the Bible where the actions and words of Jesus angered the Jewish leaders, the scribes, and the Pharisees. The verb “to hear” in this story evidently denotes not the outward act of hearing but to receive in a proper manner, to suffer it to make its proper impression on the mind, to obey. All that Jesus taught about Himself as the mediator sent from the Father claimed that He could do nothing by Himself. This was a message that many spiritual leaders in Jesus’s day had trouble hearing, in every sense of the word.
According to his writings on spiritual formation, Dallas Willard writes, “Legalism controls people and events through rules, bypassing the realities of the heart and soul from which life really flows. That is why Jesus tells us we must go beyond the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees to heart-and-soul transformation if we are truly to enter new life.”1
The Jewish leaders rejected God’s purpose for themselves. They were not open to God’s purpose because it was not what they thought it should be. The Jewish leaders were controlled by legalism. Rather than rejoicing with the formerly paralyzed man over his miraculous healing, the Jewish leader condemned him instead, criticizing him for carrying his mat on the Sabbath. Could there be a sadder ending to this story? Here was a chance to marvel at the wonders of God’s love, but the leader simply couldn’t “hear” it.
There are many physical and hereditary causes of hearing loss. In this post, I will focus on hearing loss caused by damage to the hair cells located within the cochlea of the inner ear.
Sound waves are collected by the pinna of the outer ear. They move through the auditory canal which is lined by skin glands that produce earwax. Earwax traps dirt and protects from infection. The amount of earwax varies, and some people produce more than enough so they choose to have it removed by their doctors.
Once inside the middle ear, sound waves are changed into vibrations by the tympanic membrane. These vibrations travel through three tiny bones: the malleus, the incus, and the stapes all vibrate. The pressure on both sides of the tympanic membrane must remain constant. Have you ever experienced a popping sensation when flying in an airplane, or driving up a mountain? The narrow Eustachian tube connecting the middle ear to the back of the nose acts as a pressure valve, keeping the pressure balanced on both sides of the eardrum during a change in elevation.
The vibrations now enter the inner ear into the semicircular canals. The function of these canals is to detect changes in motion. If a person is dizzy, falling, or performing gymnastics routines, signals are sent to the brain via the auditory nerve. The brain interprets these signals and sends messages to the muscles that help keep you balanced.
A second important structure within the inner ear is the cochlea. The vibrations are now converted within the hair cells to electrical signals that are carried to the brain via the auditory nerve. These hair cells naturally die as a person ages. Other causes of hair cell destruction are prolonged exposure to loud noise, neck injury, trauma, and certain prescription drugs. Tinnitus or ringing sounds are also symptoms of hair cell damage. Loss of these hair cells is permanent, yet doctors are currently working on hair cell regeneration.
It can be so easy to lose our spiritual hearing as we’re constantly bombarded by the loud noises of our culture. We’re told who and how to love (or not love), and over time, our hearing gets damaged. In a recent sermon, Pastor Daryl Diddle said, “Jesus was a rebel with a cause. Redemption is possible for all. Jesus broke religious, ethnic, economic, and gender boundaries. Jesus never favored one group over another. He ate with normal people: Gentiles, women, sinners, and tax collectors.” In closing, he asked, “Are we following the guidance of God’s word and the Holy Spirit or following human traditions? Where are we prejudiced? Break the boundaries and move forward, spreading God’s word to everyone.”
Father, may we have ears to truly hear Your message and share Your love with our broken world!
1Willard, Dallas. Hearing God Through the Year. InterVarsity Press, p.190
https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo/inner-ear-hair-cells.html?sortBy=relevant
Fearfully and Wonderfully Made 
Thank you for sharing.
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