lame

I've been studying John's gospel lately and there's one miracle that continues to baffle me in Chapter 5, especially as it follows the healing of the official's son. The incident I'm speaking of is Jesus's interaction with the lame man by the pool who cannot reach the water in time. He has been sitting there for years, waiting for his turn but always being beaten to the punch when the water begins to churn. Jesus comes by and sees the man sitting there, he knows how long the man has been waiting, and so he sparks up a conversation with him.

“Do you want to be healed?” What else is there to ask a man in this position? So Jesus poses the question, I imagine kind of casually and offhanded. The man does not mind the company and I gather he has had to answer similar questions from nosy children and annoying passersby before. So he responds mechanically by explaining the situation, which of course Jesus already knows. From what we are told, it never really crosses the man's mind that Jesus can help him, either by way of carrying him to the water or just simply by healing him.

This is what puzzles me. In every other miracle account that we have in the Gospels, the healing takes place as a result of the faith of that individual who is being healed or the faith of someone related to that person. Here, however, there is no indication of faith on anyone's account. In this story right before this, the official had so much faith that Jesus even comment on it with commemoration before healing the man's son. In the synoptic gospels, we have the account of the woman with the issue of blood who reached out and touched hem of Jesus's coat and was healed because of her faith. We also read of the lame man whose friends found Jesus in a house and lowered their friend through the roof and order that he may see Jesus and be healed, and so he was because of their faith. But here there is no one around to have faith for the man, and the man himself does not express the faith typically associated with being healed.

This makes me wonder then what prompted Jesus to heal the man, if not due to his faith. It could have been in order to further evolution himself as the Messiah, yet another sign for the people in hopes of glorifying his heavenly father. But then again, when the man was healed Jesus had slipped away without any recognition or introduction so the man did not know who he was. Only a little earlier in scripture do we have the account of the Samaritan woman whom Jesus met by the well. In a similar way, the woman did not express any faith and not understand who it was she was speaking with, but Jesus still offered healing (of the heart) to her.

Ultimately, I don't think there is any great mystery to this nor any rhyme or reason either. The conclusion I have come to is simply that Jesus saw someone in need and decided to help them, not for any reason of their doing but just because he loved them.