For the believing Jew – such is his psychology – God reveals Himself in some sign, a miracle that is noticeable to everyone. For example, in the book of Exodus, God reveals Himself with ten terrible miracles, and every reader understands that no one but God can perform this. In the same way, many today are thirsting for signs, a miracle that would immediately catch our eye and prove to us that God is really among us.

Therefore, a miracle is often perceived precisely as a proof of the existence of God, His presence and action. This, in fact, is spoken of in the Gospel of Matthew. Jesus exclaims: "A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh a sign, and no sign shall be given unto it, except the sign of Jonah the prophet" (Matt. 16:4). In the Gospel of Mark, He says: "A sign shall not be given to this generation" (Mark 8:12). So Jesus rebukes us, and quite harshly, for looking for signs, wonders. And "no sign shall be given." Why? For the simple reason that faith, which is based on a thirst for miracles, and not on a thirst for God, is extremely imperfect. God turns from a goal into a tool for performing a miracle.

Experience shows that when people seek a miracle and it finally happens, they mostly act like the nine lepers in Luke chapter 17 who did not even notice that the miracle had happened. Jesus healed ten, but nine quietly went on to enjoy the blessings of life that were now available to them. And only one realized that a miracle had happened to him. The same thing happens to us all the time. If our faith begins with the fact that we demand a miracle, then we can say that we invite God for a time, like some specialist in the field of household services. After the service is provided, we no longer need a specialist, we generally forget that he exists. Such is the psychology of the pagan. He turns to his gods in case of need and then forgets about them. And if our faith in the True God begins with such a thirst for miracles, it also slips onto this pagan path, turns into something consumerist – having received what we need, we forget about God.

Why does Jesus begin to talk about the nature of faith when it comes to the life of a youth? Probably because it is important to Him that the father of this boy becomes different. Why is a miracle possible? What saves a person? This is mentioned many times in the Gospel. "Great is thy faith" or "Thy faith hath saved thee"—these are the words Jesus utters several times. In addressing this phrase to the child's father, Jesus also calls on him to kindle this personal faith in his heart. He said to the courtier: "Go, your son is alive." And this "go" in the mouth of Jesus sounds quite harsh. In response to the father's request to come to him and heal the child, He seems to say: "No, you go! Act yourself! And help will come from you." And what happened? The father goes and the son recovers. So, in response to the thirst for a miracle, which, as in the book of Exodus, is performed outside of us, when we are only observers, Jesus offers something different: He calls man to make his breakthrough. Further on about the courtier it is said: "He believed the word that Jesus had spoken to him, and he went." He did not see the miracle and did not hear about it, he heard only "go," reminiscent of the "go" that God once said to Abraham: "Go out of your land... into the land which I will show you" (Gen. 12:1). The question arises: what is faith? The father believed what he could not see, because the sick son was far away. "Now faith is," says the Apostle Paul, "the fulfillment of things hoped for, and the assurance of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1), that is, the confirmation of what we do not see. "Thou hast believed, because thou hast seen me; blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed," Jesus says to the Apostle Thomas (John 20:29). It is that inner conviction which is based only on something deeply rooted in the heart, it is something "beyond hope," as the Apostle Paul says (Romans 4:18). It is clear that a person always lives in hope, but faith is that which is "beyond hope." Faith is when hope invades those areas where, it would seem, there is nothing to hope for. This is a firm conviction that is not based on anything external and has no proof. This is what this short Gospel text tells us about the healing of the boy.

Chapter 6.

AT THE SHEEP'S GATE.

JESUS AND THE PARALYTIC

The fifth chapter of the Gospel of John begins with the story of the healing of the paralytic. The unfortunate man was lying at the Sheep Gate at the bath. This Jerusalem pool is called Bitezda in some manuscripts of the Gospel (Bethesda in Slavonic and Russian), Bethsaida in others, and differently in still others. Therefore, it is not clear what this place was actually called. In the Synodal translation, the word "Bethesda" is explained in a footnote: "House of Mercy," but then in Hebrew it should sound like Bethesed. Other commentaries say that it may have been called Betzafa, "the house of the bath", as it can be assumed that this bath had covered passages around the pool and therefore really looked like a house.

In these passages "lay a great multitude of the sick, the blind, the lame, the withered, waiting for the movement of the waters" (John 5:3). Then there is an insertion, which is absent in the oldest manuscripts (such as the Codex Sinaiticus), but is present in later Byzantine manuscripts (and from there it got into the Synodal translation). This is a very important point. It is about the fourth verse: "For the angel of the Lord went down into the pool from time to time and stirred up the waters; and whoever was the first to enter it after the water was disturbed, recovered, no matter what disease he was possessed with." How did this insert come about?

The idea that the one who entered the pool was the first to recover after the water was disturbed is further contained in verse seven, where the sick man says to Jesus: "... but I have no man to lower me into the pool when the waters are troubled; but when I come, the other has already descended before me." There is no further information in the Gospel about the Angel of the Lord and the fact that the first one who entered the troubled water recovered from the Angel of the Lord. Obviously, this is the commentary of a Byzantine translator who inserted in the eighth or ninth century the text that now constitutes verse 4, based on the meaning of what is said below. At first glance, this text does not distort the content of the Gospel story, but somewhat reduces the degree of its dynamism and expressiveness. However, in fact, this is not entirely true.

Most likely, this bath was a place of pagan worship. It was in this place in Jerusalem that archaeologists discovered the remains of a sanctuary in honor of the healing god Sarapis, the god of the late Hellenistic syncretic religion. The cult of Sarapis developed in Egypt and then was transferred to other countries of the Middle East. In this way, it gained a foothold, in particular, in Jerusalem, where not only Jews, but also pagans, Greeks, Romans, and immigrants from various countries of the East lived. All the cities of the Middle East in Jesus' time were already international—Antioch, Alexandria, Pergamum, and Jerusalem. And the pagans who lived in Jerusalem probably went to the pool, the sanctuary of Sarapis. In this case, it is understandable why Bethesda had a multitude of sick people waiting for the water to move: for it was around such sanctuaries of the healing gods that a kind of shelter was formed for the sick and the poor who came here from all over the world.

And so, a motley, multi-lingual crowd flocked to Jerusalem to the Sheep Gate, to the pool with the sanctuary of Sarapis. And that's where Jesus comes. It is very important to imagine this picture. Jesus comes to a place where people are gathered, speaking different languages, suffering from different diseases, each believing in something different. They have only one thing in common: each hopes to leave here physically healthy. Everything else does not bother anyone here. Interestingly, in such sanctuaries, if a person recovered, he brought votives – objects dedicated to the gods: golden images of eyes, ears, liver, etc., if diseases of these organs were cured.

Jesus' gaze falls on a man who has been living somewhere nearby for 38 years, waiting for recovery. 38 years of human life is, of course, a huge figure, but here it also has a symbolic meaning. This is almost 40 years - the period of wandering of the Jews in the wilderness in the time of Moses. It should not be overlooked that this figure does not simply indicate a specific period. For people of biblical culture, this is almost an idiom. This is an infinitely long time, they simply cannot imagine a longer time. Jesus approaches the paralytic and asks: "Do you want to be healthy?" He appeals to his desire, to his will. Jesus does not heal a sick person against his will, He calls this person to want to be healthy, not to wait for mercy from an unknown deity, but to humanly want his life to change. And the relaxed person turns out to be quite an active person.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus addresses this paralytic with the same words that in the Synoptic Gospels He addresses the paralytic who was brought on a stretcher (Matt. 9; Mk. 2; Lk. 5). But if the sick man was almost indifferent, then in the fourth Gospel the paralytic exclaims: "Yes, Lord." This "so" certainly reflects: "I want."