A Deeper Look into John 5.1-15

Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. ² Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda^[a] and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. ³ Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. ^{[4] [b] 5} One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. ⁶ When 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.”

⁸ Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” ⁹ At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.

The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, ¹⁰ and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”

¹¹ But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”

¹² So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?”

¹³ The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.

¹⁴ Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” ¹⁵ The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well. John 5 NIV

It is considered that Christ went up to Jerusalem for a Passover---based on the fact that His ministry was roughly three and a half years long. It is mentioned that He went to feasts in John 2.23; 5.1; 6.4; and the final time at the end of His ministry, John 11.55. (  BibleStudyTools  )  ( Mack  )( Bible.Org ). There is no mention of the talmidim (disciples), so it is possible that the men had returned to family, work, etc., or any other options.
Christ goes to the Sheep Gate. This gate, mentioned in Neh 3.1; 3.32, is the gate through which sacrificial animals were led, most often lambs, hence the name. The Sheep Gate in Aramaic is Bethseda., also "house of mercy", relating to the cures that happened there. Bethesda was the original name of the deep pool, but it can also be known as the Sheep Pool. It was originally dug in the 8th century BC, and was then called the Upper Pool. There was another pool--so this is technically a double pool, with a north and south pool, divided by a wall with the fifth colonnade. The five porches were to shelter the ill and lame who waited for their chance at healing. ( Bible.org )  (  )
Since it is listed that the water healed anyone of any disease, but only at certain times, and was never argued against by the people of the time, it is highly suggestive that this indeed could and did happen. It is unusual to hear of a water that only healed sometimes, but if it did, it healed ALL ailments, according to tradition. However, there is no record of anyone actually being healed there---so whether it worked or not, had a placebo effect, or whether the people flocked to it as they do in these days of the hope it might work, or any other remedy and cure... ( Bible.org )
Intriguing that while Christ stands before the pool, He would see two groups of "ill" people. On one side, the people crying out in misery of body and spirit, yet the other side was the Temple, filled with the priests who were so lost as to be counted ill. 
Christ chose this one man, and only He would know why. The man was 38, which was above the average life expectancy of the time period--he had been an invalid for a lifetime, imagine that?  Possibly he was the most pitiful case there, we simply do not know. ( BibleStudyTools )
Christ seeks him out, asks him if he wants to be healed.
 Interestingly, He does not ask for faith itself.
It could be considered a strange question to ask someone who is miserable if they want to be healed. Who doesn't? I would take healing in a heartbeat were it offered to me.
The question perhaps focuses the man's attention on Christ, making him feel a sudden rush of hopelessness of ever being healed (I would!), and perhaps that small flash of hope for a cure. If nothing else, perhaps this man would wait and watch for the right time and help him into the water!It is interesting that the man did not answer with a simple yes, but instead gave a sad summary of his plight and time spent waiting, ever hopeful, for his chance at a cure. ( BibleStudyTools)
The man believed that his ill health was a punishment from God. Now, this can be an incredibly long discussion. Many people turn from God over the things that happen in life, others cling all the tighter to Him. GotQuestions points out that God either allows things passively, or causes them. For example, He created the world perfectly, yet allowed Adam and Eve the free will to make a very poor choice. Many may state that that is unfair, but it is illogical in the midst of the struggle we are seeing over free right of will for nearly every action. ( GotQuestions )
“For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Rom 8.20-22 NIV (  GotQuestions ) [check out the GotQuestions article for more information]
The entire world is literally screaming over its fate, along with us. So whether an individual has sinned and caused their own illness and disease, must be a one on one discussion with God. If no sin is found, it is often the sin of the broken world we live in...regardless, God is there, and as I have learned, will lend you so very much if you merely ask it of Him. 
Christ also did not show this man that He was the Messiah--He did so later in this tale. Christ heals the man instantly and completely, so that he could and did pick up his mat and walk--a sign of his full healing being that he was able to carry away his mat. ( BibleStudy Tools) ( Bible.org )
I have often wondered about this---how did the man know he was cured. After having rheumatoid arthritis, iritis and fibromyalgia...if a man said to me get up and walk, I would know before I moved whether I was healed or not. I would not need to shift one muscle. I imagine this man must have been in great pain, and that suddenly it was gone. Isn't it sad that in today's society, some groups tell any sick among them that it was because they did not have enough faith? This man was not even required to HAVE faith...it was not asked of him, since this was to the glory of God. We are pitifully erroneous to tell those who are ill that they don't have enough faith---sometimes God has plans for us we are not yet aware of, but become more clear as we walk the path of illness.

Part of the healing of this man was showing such a healing to the Sanhedrin. As we have discussed, they were to look into anything that might show the Messiah--yet they mainly ignored sign after sign. Sound familiar in today's insistence that Christ will NOT return? He has not yet, why should He? Be wary of anything that contradicts the Word--though the scoffers actually confirm the Word. 

The man was healed on the Sabbath, though, which caused a huge problem in the eyes of the Pharisees and Saducees. They seemed to only see the fact that this man was breaking one of the Oral Law (not the Law given by Moses)--rather than the fact that a man they MUST have seen from his being at the pool off and on (or always?) for the last 38 years was now WALKING. ( BibleStudyTools )(Bible.org )

Christ heals on the Sabbath 5 times that we are told of (here, Mt 12:9-14; Lk 13:10-17, 14:1-6 and John 9:1-41), obviously pointing out that the Oral Law did not matter so much as was thought---but that good should be done for the glory of God. 

Remembering the Sabbath is not so much about rules; how many steps I take, whether I cook or not. It is meant to be a change in the week, a whole day to honor God, and to rest. It doesn't mean we should be so worried about every small thing that we forget about God in the midst of it. Perhaps the Mary and Martha story applies here as an example. Sometimes (most of the time) it is better to give time to God than to minute rules--so long as all is done in an attempt to honor God without thinking it is salvation winning techniques. ( Mack )( BibleStudyTools )( Bible.org)
The now poor healed man could be punished by death for carrying the mat. He could do nothing about his healing--it could not be reversed in any manner he knew. The leaders saw him and the Man who healed him as a threat, but the healed man did not know who or where Christ was. ( Mack )( BibleStudyTools )( Bible.org)
Christ used the present tense with His statement of See, you are well again, meaning that the cure was permanent. He warned the healed man that he should stop sinning, that something worse might happen. Sinful behavior does lead to much suffering, as we ourselves have experienced, or witnessed in other people. ( Mack ) ( BibleStudyTools )( Bible.org )

Now with a name of his Healer, the man went and told the leaders who He was, getting them even more stirred up---see next post for that!