Jesus went to Jerusalem for a religious festival. Near Sheep Gate in Jerusalem there is a pool with five porches; in Hebrew it called Bethzatha.
A large crowd of sick people were lying on the porches--the blind, the lame, and the paralyzed. A man was there who had been sick for thirty-eight years.
Jesus saw him lying there, and he knew that the man had been sick for such a long time; so he asked him, "Do you want to get well?"
The sick man answered, "Sir, I don't have anyone here to put me in the pool when the water is stirred up; while I am trying to get in. somebody else gets there first."
Jesus said to him,
"Get up, pick up your mat, and walk."
Immediately the man got well;
he picked up his mat and started walking.
