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Gospel Reading for March 17, 2026 – John 5: 1-16
MINDFUL
There was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem at the Sheep Gate a pool called in Hebrew Bethesda, with five porticoes. In these lay a large number of ill, blind, lame, and crippled. One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been ill for a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be well?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; while I am on my way, someone else gets down there before me.” Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your mat, and walk.” Immediately the man became well, took up his mat, and walked.
Now that day was a sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who was cured, “It is the sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.” He answered them, “The man who made me well told me, ‘Take up your mat and walk.'” They asked him, “Who is the man who told you, ‘Take it up and walk’?” The man who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away, since there was a crowd there. After this Jesus found him in the temple area and said to him, “Look, you are well; do not sin any more, so that nothing worse may happen to you.” The man went and told the Jews that Jesus was the one who had made him well. Therefore, the Jews began to persecute Jesus because he did this on a sabbath.
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Jesus caused quite a stir on several occasions by healing the sick on the Sabbath. Although he knew very well that this would anger the Jewish leaders, he continued to do so. We see this in Matthew 12: 9–13 (the man with a withered hand), Luke 13: 10–17 (the woman crippled for eighteen years), Luke 14: 1–6 (the man with dropsy), John 9: 1–16 (the man born blind), and in the Gospel passage we reflect on today.
As Jesus said in Mark 2:27, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” Jesus wanted the people to understand that the laws of God are never meant to place burdens on us. On the contrary, God’s laws are meant to free us and help lift the burdens of others. For to love is to be free to do good to others—and for others to receive the fruits of that goodness.
The man in today’s Gospel had been ill for thirty-eight years, waiting and hoping that someone would place him into the pool when the water was stirred. What he had long hoped for finally became possible because Jesus noticed him and reached out to help him.
Lord Jesus, teach us to be MINDFUL of the needs of others and to help them in every way we can!
