The rays of the morning sun began to fall on the waters of the pool of Bethesda. Yosei looked at the pool with a sigh, the angel comes to stir the water at noon, he still can’t get out today anyway, who will be the lucky one to get into the pool and be healed? Almost everyone who had been there with Yose had been healed and returned. Every day new people came and filled the banks of the pond.
“Old man, did anyone feed you?”
Yose looked up in shock, Simon was the son of the woman who fed him every day. Does he feel so overwhelmed? He was always called the old man, which Yose didn’t like very much. He replied without showing any displeasure.
“Simon, oh… Why would anyone else care about me but you?”
Simon: “I don’t think you want to eat.”
Yose sighed.
“Why eat this and get healthy, I can never get in the pool”
Simon : “I’ve never seen you try to get into it? How can you heal without trying?”
Yose glared at him. Simon is preparing the bread and mutton curry he brought for him to eat.
” Can’t you see me? It’s been 38 years since I passed out, how do I get out of the pool without someone helping me? If I tried, someone would have already gotten in before me. “
Yose’s words were tinged with anger and frustration.
Simon watched Yose eat the bread in silence. He was barely 12 years old. He has seen his mother feeding Yose ever since he can remember, and she helps not only Yose, but most of the land of Bethesda.
Simon sat down as Yose began to eat.
“Old man!”
He was embarrassed to call him by any other name. Yose glanced at him and continued eating.
Simon continued:
“Not only are your legs tired, why don’t you ever try to get into the water?
Yose was very angry but he controlled it..Simon is a kid, maybe he should have heard someone else say that he asked like this.
“Perhaps others have the same opinion?”
Yose looked around asking himself. He felt that a Pharisee and his son laughed at him as they walked by. Yes, they are mocking his weakness. Only a paralytic can understand himself.
Yose lost his appetite and felt that food was stuck in his throat.
“Eat the whole thing, mother is angry that you are wasting food”
Simon’s voice snapped him out of his thoughts.
Simon heard a noise in the distance and ran to see what it was. Yose muttered at that.
“They’re still causing some trouble today, and it’s a pastime for them to trouble us who are immobile.”
He saw Simon running back. The crowd and noise were getting closer.
Simon approached him.
“It is Jesus of Nazareth. Let me tell mother, she has a great desire to see him.”
Simon ran away. Yose hurriedly ate. He had heard about the Nazarene, and although he felt in his heart that many were myths. He hoped that he would be able to meet him someday. He had heard the Pharisees and their people talking badly about Jesus, so he could not understand what the truth was.
He saw Jesus approach him unexpectedly.
“Jesus of Nazareth…”
Yose called loudly.
Jesus had come to him. Jesus asked him, looking him in the eye
“Do you want to get healed?”
Yose was silent for a moment and asked himself why Jesus asked him this. What does his look mean? Does the Nazarene think what Simon and others think? His voice cracked as he answered.
“Rabbi, when the water is stirred up, I have no one to take me down into the pool. By the time I get there, someone will be down.”
Yose suddenly realized the folly of what he had said. I don’t have anyone, thinking that someone will enter the water before me, and he has never tried to heal himself. That’s what he asked ‘do you want to get healed?’.
“Didn’t I long to be healed? “
The thought filled Yose’s mind, why had he never tried to get into the pool?
Jesus seemed to understand his thoughts, and with Jesus’ words came confidence in his mind and strength in his body.
“Get up, take up your bed and go home”
Having said that, Jesus walked away.
Yosei didn’t realize what was happening to him because Yosei was standing up. People were clamoring around him. With only the voice of Jesus in his ears, Jose began to roll up his bed.
Suddenly there was a commotion among the patients lying there. Behind Yose the waters of Bethsaida began to stir. Through the people who were crowding to get into it, Joseph walked to the people who were following Jesus.
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