The Healing at Bethesda and Eternal Health

True Health in the Eternal Word

1. The Gospel lesson has just sounded in our ears and made us eager to understand the meaning of what was read. I believe this is what you expect from me, and with the Lord's help, I promise to explain it as well as I can. Without doubt, these miracles were not performed without meaning—they symbolize something for us related to eternal salvation.

For consider the bodily health that was restored to this man—how long did it last? "What is your life?" asks Scripture; "it is a vapor that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away" (James 4:14). Therefore, when health was restored to this man's body for a time, some durability was restored to a vapor. This is not something to be greatly valued; "vain is the health of man" (Psalm 60:11).

Remember, brothers and sisters, that prophetic and gospel testimony, which is read in the Gospel: "All flesh is grass, and all the glory of flesh as the flower of grass; the grass withers, the flower falls away, but the Word of the Lord endures forever" (Isaiah 40:6-8; 1 Peter 1:24-25). The Word of the Lord imparts glory even to grass, and not a passing glory; for even to flesh He gives immortality.

2. But first, the tribulation of this life must pass away—the life from which God gives us help, to whom we have said, "Give us help from tribulation" (Psalm 60:11). Indeed, this whole life is a tribulation to anyone who understands. For there are two tormentors of the soul, torturing it not simultaneously but in turns. These two tormentors are named Fear and Sorrow. When things are going well for you, you're in fear; when things go badly, you're in sorrow.

The prosperity of this world—whom does it not deceive? And whom does its adversity not break? Amid this grass, in these fleeting days, the safer path must be followed: the Word of God. For when it had been said, "All flesh is grass, and all the glory of flesh as the flower of grass, the grass withers, the flower falls away," as if we should ask, "What hope is there for grass? What stability for the flower of grass?" it continues, "but the Word of the Lord endures forever."

And you might ask, "How is that Word available to me?" "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us" (John 1:14). The Word of the Lord says to you, "Do not reject My promise, for I have not rejected your grass." This gift that the Word of the Lord has granted us—that we might hold to Him, that we might not pass away with the flower of grass—this gift, that the Word should become flesh (taking on flesh, not changing into flesh, remaining what He was while assuming what He was not)—this is what the pool in the Gospel also symbolizes.

3. Let me explain briefly. That water represented the Jewish people; the five porches were the Law, for Moses wrote five books. Therefore the water was enclosed by five porches, just as that people were confined by the Law. The stirring of the water signifies the Lord's Passion among that people. The one who went down into the water was healed, and only one—this represents unity. Whoever takes offense at Christ's Passion is proud; they will not go down, they cannot be healed.

They say, "Am I to believe that God became incarnate, that God was born of a woman, that God was crucified, scourged, killed, wounded, buried? Far be it from me to believe such things about God! It's unworthy of Him." Let your heart speak, not your pride. To the proud, the Lord's humiliation seems unworthy of Him, and therefore healing is far from them. Don't exalt yourself; if you want to be made whole, go down into the water.

One might reasonably be alarmed if we spoke of Christ in the flesh as subject to change. But the truth presents to you Christ unchangeable in His nature as the Word. For "in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God" (John 1:1)—not a word that sounds and passes away, for "the Word was God." So your God endures unchangeable. O true devotion! Your God endures; do not fear. He does not perish, and through Him, you too will not perish. He endures, He is born of a woman, but in the flesh.

The Word even made His own mother. He who existed before He was made created her in whom He was to be made. He was an infant, but in the flesh. He nursed, grew, took nourishment, passed through the various stages of life, and reached maturity, but in the flesh. He grew tired and slept, but in the flesh. He suffered hunger and thirst, but in the flesh. He was arrested, bound, scourged, mocked, crucified, and killed, but in the flesh. Why are you alarmed? "The Word of the Lord endures forever." Whoever rejects this self-humbling of God does not want healing from the deadly swelling of pride.

4. Through His flesh, then, the Lord Jesus Christ gave hope to our flesh. For He took on what we know all too well in this world, what is abundant here: birth and death. To be born and to die are common here; to rise again and live forever were not found here. He found poor earthly merchandise here, and He brought strange heavenly goods.

If you're alarmed by death, love the resurrection. He has given you help in tribulation, for your health would have been in vain without it. Let us acknowledge and love the saving health in this world that is foreign to it—that is, health everlasting—and let us live in this world as strangers. Let us recognize that we are just passing through; this will help us sin less.

Let us rather give thanks to our Lord God that He has made the last day of this life both near and uncertain. From earliest infancy to decrepit old age, life is but a short span. Even if Adam had died today, what good would his long life have done him? What "long time" exists in something that has an end? No one can recall yesterday; today is pressed upon by tomorrow so that it passes away. In this brief span, let us live well, so that we may go where we will not pass away.

Even now as we speak, we are indeed passing away. Our words run on, and the hours fly by; so too our lives, our actions, our honors, our misery, and our happiness here below. All passes away, but let us not be alarmed; "The Word of God endures forever."