At a pool full of people waiting to be healed, Jesus found a man who had waited thirty-eight years with no one to help him. One question, one command, and he walked.
Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast. By the sheep market was a pool called Bethesda with five porches, where many sick, blind, lame and withered people lay waiting for the water to move, believing the first one in would be healed. One man had been sick thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him and knew how long he had suffered, He asked, “Wilt thou be made whole?”
The man answered that he had no one to put him in the pool, and someone else always got there first. Jesus said, “Rise, take up thy bed, and walk,” and immediately the man was made whole and walked. Because it was the Sabbath, some leaders objected to his carrying his bed. Later Jesus found him in the temple and said, “Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more.” The man told them it was Jesus who had healed him, and Jesus answered His critics, “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.”
Who’s who
Jesus Christ: who seeks out the one with no one
The man at the pool: sick for thirty-eight years
The multitude: waiting by the water
The critics: who objected on the Sabbath
Where and when
The pool of Bethesda, by the sheep market near the temple in Jerusalem.
Watch for the Savior
Watch whom Jesus chooses to help, what He asks, and why He finds the man again.
Eight stops from the road to Jerusalem to the temple courts. Scroll, or tap a number on the map.
Part 2 of 7
The story, plainly
Four scenes: the porches, the question, the healing and the temple. Look for the Savior in each one.
Read it plainly
The words that trip people up
Tap any dotted word for its meaning. The scripture stays exactly as written.1
John 5:3“Meaning: powerless; unable to help themselves. folk”
John 5:3“of blind, Meaning: lame; unable to walk well., Meaning: with shriveled limbs.”
John 5:4“and Meaning: stirred up. the water”
John 5:6“a long time in that Meaning: condition.”
John 5:13“he that was healed Meaning: knew. not who it was”
John 5:17“My Father worketh Meaning: until now; still.”
Part 3 of 7
Look closer
Small details tell the story. Some cards are details in the text; others share insights from Church leaders, Church resources or outside sources. Each card says which.
0 of 9 turned
All nine. The gate, the porches, the water, the mat, the hourglass, the hand, the rolled mat, the feet and the temple. John 5:1–18
Part 4 of 7
Where are you?
Waiting a long time, left behind, ready for help, or moving forward. Which feels most like you right now?
A next step for you
Your choice is saved only on this device.
Try it
At the pool
Tap the moments in John 5 in the order they happened, from the road to Jerusalem to the temple.
He came to the man who had no one.
Part 5 of 7
Their world, their words
A little background on the pool, its name and the Sabbath controversy helps the story come alive. Outside sources are labeled.
Church resource · Student manual
A house of mercy
The student manual says Bethesda “can be translated as” house of mercy or house of grace.2
Mercy came in person.
Church resource · Student manual
Where it was
Archaeologists have identified the site “just outside a north gate of the ancient temple precinct in Jerusalem.”2
Near the temple.
Church leader · Elder Dyches
He went looking
“The Savior left the multitudes to seek out those in greatest need.”3
He went to the hurting.
Scripture · John 5
Sabbath trouble
It was the Sabbath, and some objected that carrying a bed was “not lawful.” Jesus answered, “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.”1
A pool named for kindness, and the kindest Person of all walked in.1
Word study · Greek
hugiés ὑγιής · “whole” (John 5:6)
Bible Hub: “healthy, i.e. well (in body).”5Outside · lexicon
The word appears again and again in John 5. Jesus offered to make him well, and later warned him to stay that way in spirit too.1
What the text does not say
Jesus doesn’t ask whether the man has earned it, or tell him to get to the water faster. He doesn’t leave once the man can walk, either. He comes back to find him and care for his soul.1
Part 6 of 7
Look to Him
He seeks out the one who has no one. He heals by His word, and He comes back for the whole soul.
“As we repent and become converted to the Lord, we become whole, and our guilt is swept away.”
“Just as the lame man at the Pool of Bethesda needed someone stronger than himself to be healed …, so we are dependent on the miracles of Christ’s atonement.”
Bishop Merrill J. Bateman, quoted in the student manual2
“Through Christ, broken hearts are mended and peace replaces anxiety and sorrow.”
Bishop Merrill J. Bateman, quoted in the student manual2
The healed man
He told them
“The man departed, and told the Jews that it was Jesus, which had made him whole.” John 5:15
Jesus
The Father works
“But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” John 5:17
Everything on this page as a 11-page letter-size PDF: the map, scenes, cards, activity, word studies, tracker, Go deeper and sources. For home, class or a quiet Sunday.
The Pool of Bethesda is part of the Scripture Story Sketch Notes for the New Testament, set alongside Come, Follow Me for March 29–April 4, 2027 (Matthew 14; Mark 6; John 5–6).
Independent study notes from Weak Things, not an official publication of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Scripture quotations are from the King James Version. The words are in John 5:1–18; the insights in “Look closer” are labeled by source.
