‘And a certain man was there who had been an invalid for thirty eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had now been like that a long time, he says to him, “Do you want to be made whole?”.'
We are not told how Jesus knew that he had been there a long time and it is possibly intended to signify divine discernment. Alternately Jesus may have asked someone about the man and been informed of his situation, or it may be that someone accompanying Jesus, who knew of the man, drew His attention to him. Jesus could, of course, have healed him without recourse to him, but always His purpose in healing was to reach the heart so He involves the man in conversation.
‘For thirty eight years.' The main point is that he had been disabled for a long time, but there may be intended here a reminder of Israel's thirty eight years of disfavour as a result of their unwillingness to obey God (Deuteronomy 2:14) hinting at the fact that the man's disablement is due to his too having disobeyed God in some way. Like Israel he was under God's disfavour and was about to be given a new beginning. ‘Thirty eight years' would immediately remind a Jew of that period, and the story would then indicate to him that in the coming of Jesus a ‘lame' Israel was to be made to walk.
‘Do you want to be made whole?' The question did not need to be asked. Everyone knew that the man was carried there because of a slim hope of healing. But Jesus' idea was not to obtain information but to make the man think about his position and bring him into a condition where he can receive healing and benefit by it spiritually.
In the end Jesus' concern was for the man's spiritual state. This is brought out more in the case of the paralytic where He actually began by offering him forgiveness (Mark 2:1-12). Healing, while important in what it revealed, and while desperately sought by the sick person, was secondary. This is the opposite view to that of the world. They would in most cases consider the healing more important and the spiritual aspect second. But Jesus knew that the world's deepest need was spiritual. This was the part of man that would be affected eternally. It affected his final destiny. Here was where the world really needed to be healed, but few sought it. Yet Jesus did not hurry the man into considering such aspects of the case. He knew that the seed must be sown and then be left to germinate. All was in the Father's hands.
This incident is remarkable because it is one of only two cases we know of where Jesus healed without being asked. The other is the blind man in chapter 9. And in both cases He had a special lesson to teach, and was brought into conflict with the Pharisees. That is not to say that He did not perform other such miracles, for these incidents were described precisely because of their wider context, but it is surely significant that the other Gospels never draw attention to such activity (except perhaps Peter's wife's mother - Mark 1:29-31).
There were so many sick people in Palestine that Jesus could have spent all His time healing, and we never know of Him turning someone away. But He would sometimes have to conceal Himself from such crowds because He was finding the physical strain too much, and so as to be able to restore His strength by spending time in prayer with His Father. At such a time He pointed out that He had not come to heal but to proclaim to them the Kingly Rule of God (Mark 1:35-38), although healing was of course part of that proclamation (Isaiah 35:6; Isaiah 61:1-2). Thus He wanted men to know that He had come, not as a healer, but as a proclaimer of God's Kingly Rule.
It is significant that Jesus did not deliberately practise mass healing. He healed each person individually, usually as they came to Him. It draws attention to the fact that there was a purpose for sickness and disease in the world, and that to heal on such a broad scale without being asked would actually have thwarted God's purposes.
There were indeed many sick people around that pool that day, and yet as far as we know He only healed this one (compare Luke 4:25-27). The incident gains in importance from this fact.