Jesus Cures Crippled (Paralytic) (Jn 5:1-18)
Science says that Psychosomatic illnesses are not imaginary; They are physical disorders in which both emotions and thought patterns play a central role. The illness is emotional or mental in origin but has physical symptoms. Medical doctors today heal psychosomatic illnesses by simply removing those emotional or mental causes; then the physical symptoms automatically disappear (see also:
Hypochondria). Medical doctors today are trained to be good persuaders in order to heal those psychosomatic illnesses.
(Jn 5:2) Now there is in Jerusalem at the Sheep [Gate] a pool called in Hebrew Bethesda, with five porticoes. 3 In these lay a large number of ill, blind, lame, and crippled. 5 One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years.
Out of all the sick, the blind, and the lame Jesus did not cure any of them. Jesus cured a man who was sick for so many years and not cured so many people.
7 The sick man answered him ‘Sir, I have no one to put me in the pool when the water is stirred up; while I am on my way, someone else gets down there before me’.
“While I am on my way, someone else gets down there before me” which means that this man could move on his own but moves slower than the others, hence he was not paralyzed. 'John' never said that this man was paralytic, lame, or anything of the kind. But 'John' correctly refers to him as ‘sick man’.
14 After this Jesus found him in the temple area and said to him “Look, you are well, do not sin anymore so that nothing worse may happen to you”.
“Do not sin anymore so that nothing worse may happen to you”, so Jesus knew that this man felt sick not from disease but felt sick due to guilt from sin. But this is a typical Psychosomatic Illness. And Psychosomatic illnesses can be cured by the power of persuasion. Obviously this man had a psychosomatic illness that can be cured by words. Moreover, Jesus knew about him before Jesus approached him:
6 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?” “Do you want to be well?” Son of God is telling you: “Rise, take up your mat, and walk”.
If curing a psychosomatic illness by words is a miracle, then miracles happen everyday.
Christians say that Jesus couldn't have known what a psychosomatic illness is. No, Jesus did not know what we call a psychosomatic illness, but he noticed the effects of persuasion on people. At the time of Jesus, people were not so ignorant as Christians portray them; the Romans built multi-story buildings and even used concrete (it is not a new invention). They knew HOW things worked but did not know WHY they worked.
Jesus simply noticed the power of persuasion. Jesus only needed to be a good persuader in order to cure illnesses due to guilt from sin and claim to do real miracles.
