6 When Jesus saw him lie, and[163] knew that he had been now a long time _in that case_, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole? 7 The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have[164] no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me. 8 Jesus saith unto him, Rise,[165] take up thy bed, and walk. 9 And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked: and on[166] the same day was the sabbath. [162] Luke 8:43; 13:16. [163] Ps. 142:3. [164] Deut. 32:36; Ps. 72:12; 142:4; Rom. 5:6; 2 Cor. 1:9, 10. [165] Matt. 9:6; Mark 2:11; Luke 5:24. [166] ch. 9:14. =5-9. Which had an infirmity.= The original implies rather a loss of power than a positive disease; probably it was a nervous disease of the paralytic type.--=Thirty and eight years.= The words “in that case,” are added by the translator, but they correctly convey the meaning, which is not that he had been at the Pool of Bethesda, but that he had been diseased that length of time.--=Wilt thou be made whole?= Why this question? Not necessarily because there was any reasonable doubt whether the man desired healing; nor because Christ required, as a conditional preliminary, the man’s assent to healing on the Sabbath; nor because he would imply blame, as though the man’s long infirmity were the result of his own weakness of will; nor, surely, because he would indicate that he was an impostor and desired to use his apparent but exaggerated infirmity to appeal to the compassion of others. All these hypotheses have been suggested. But Christ almost, if not quite, always requires on the part of the healed some act of the will precedent to and concurrent with his act of grace; the cured are never merely receptive and quiescent. I believe there is a deep religious meaning in this, for every miracle is a parable of redemption, and that our Lord would teach us that it is only as we will to be made whole that any wholeness is possible for us, even through omnipotent divine grace. In this particular case it is certainly true that the man might have traded on his infirmity and not really desired to be cured; and though Christ’s knowledge of character would have rendered the question unnecessary for his own information, it was not unnecessary to make it clear to others that he was acting in sympathy with the man, nor was it unimportant as a disclosure to the man himself that he must rouse himself from the lethargy of despair, and lay hold, by hope, on the salvation brought to him.--=I have no man.= It is the friendless who appeals peculiarly to the Friend of the sinful and the suffering.--=Rise, take up thy bed and walk.= The original (κράββατόν) implies a small, low bedstead. See for illustration Mark 2:4, note. Here, however, the term may be used