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Christ was eminently a public man. Wherever most people were congregated, there was He; not induced by curiosity, pleasure, or desire for admiration, but to fulfil His mission. Here we find Him after a fifty-six miles' walk. The prospect of usefulness made it worth the trouble.

I. THE NARRATIVE.

1. The hospital and its bath. The cloisters were designed for ordinary bathers, but since it bad become medicinal, they were filled with the diseased.

2. The patients and their diseases.

(1)  The blind with all manner of ophthalmic complaints.

(2)  Halt, persons lame from accident, disease, or eruptions.

(3)  Withered, those whose sinews had shrunk, and power of movement had become impossible.

3. The angel and his operations.

4. The impotent man and his special infirmity. He was deprived of the power of rapid motion, and laid expecting help; but helpful friends are only found at feasts, not in hospitals,

5. The Physician and His cure.

(1)  What a question He asked! The doctor generally says, "Tell me your disease, its symptoms; let me feel your pulse." This Physician knew more than the patient.

(2)  Power came with the healing word, and the man instantly became vigorous.

6. The objectors and their cavils.

7. The restored man and his lesson.

(1)  The miracle had a beneficial effect, for he went into the Temple to express his gratitude.

(2)  Christ gave him a caution. A worse evil might accrue through sin than thirty-eight years' affliction. And so now: a guilty conscience, loss of God's friendship, hell.

8. The communication and its effects. Who can blame the man for his effusive testimony to his benefactor? Yet it was scarcely prudent, a fact that should be borne in mind by the over-zealous, for "the Jews sought to kill Jesus."

II. THE INSTRUCTION.

1. Sickness is often God's discipline to prepare the mind to welcome Christ. "Blessed is the man whom Thou chastenest." The Thessalonians "received the Word in much affliction."

2. If we would be healed of our spiritual maladies we must be found where that healing is ordinarily bestowed.

(1)  This may be a work of difficulty, as in the case before us.

(2)  There are special seasons in which God vouchsafes signal blessings to the Church.

3. The most desperate and lengthened cases are not beyond the reach of Christ's powers.

(1)  Those who have reached the age of this man and whose sin seems inveterate.

(2)  Backsliders.

4. Copy the sympathy of Christ to the afflicted. We cannot help them as He did, but we can help and comfort them. Visit the fatherless and widows, the sick, etc.

(J. Sherman.)

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KJV: After this there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

WEB: After these things, there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.