Bethesda

It’s quiet. I’m sitting in the pews of St. Anne’s church in Jerusalem – the supposed place that the Virgin Mary was born. Outside the walls of the church is the cacophony of noise that is the old city of Jerusalem, complete with tourists, cars, and buses, but all I hear is the sound of birds outside in the courtyard and the quiet steps of people who have chosen to visit St. Anne’s.

The first group of people were a dozen Korean pilgrims who have gathered in front of the church to sing a Christian chorus in Korean. The acoustics, like the Church in Shepherd’s field, are amazing! Although I don’t understand what they are singing, it is beautiful nonetheless. After some time, a family from Germany (I think) comes into the church and sit together in the front pew. They then begin to sing a hymn I don’t know, but with a somewhat familiar tune.

• What is it with all these pilgrims that feel compelled to sing in sacred places in Jerusalem?
• What is it about this place that draws so many to visit? Why am I here?
• What questions do I seek answers to?
• Why do I struggle with hearing God’s voice?
• Why do I constantly struggle with not being good-enough, worthy, or deserving of God’s grace?
• Where I need healing in my life?

St. Anne’s also happens to be the location of the pools of Bethesda. The name is derived from the Aramaic meaning “house of mercy or house of grace. Bethesda is the location, as recorded in John 5, in which Jesus heals an invalid.

1Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. 2Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. 5One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6When 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."
8Then Jesus said to him, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk." 9At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.

I assume this is where Bethesda Christian Association, the organization that provides care for those with developmental disabilities that I volunteer with, derives its name from.

As I sit in St. Anne’s on the ruins of the Pool of Bethesda, a large group of Danish tourists come in next and begin to fill up the church. They, of course, begin to also sing. They begin to sing “How Great the Art” – a hymn that I know! And the chorus, which I sing along to, begins to sink in…
Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee;
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!

The questions I had when I came in were now being slowly answered. My focus was too much on me (what I can do, who I am, etc.) and not on God. We all have something we are dealing with. Some sin, some guilt, some fear that we all deal with. We don’t need to run away from it. We just need to let go and leave it up to Jesus. For it is Jesus who heals the invalid. It is Jesus who will meet us regardless of where we are. Jesus the healer.