January 26: John 5:5 One man was there who had been ill for 38 years

This guy is two things at once: He is a real man with a real illness, and he is a symbol of all people in every generation who can’t quite make it into the pool for healing. Jesus asks him, and all the rest of us, if we really want to be healed? And Jesus tells us to go on ahead and pick up our mat. Start walking. The guy by the pool did just that, and so have many more after him, who have encountered the Lord Jesus in his story.