John 5:5 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

And a certain man was there,— Among the crowds who lay in the porticos of Bethesda, there was one, who had an infirmity,— ασθενεια,— most probably a paralytic disorder, which hardly ever gives way to medicine, though recently contracted: how much less curable must it have been, after having continued 38 years! The inveteracy of this man's disorder must have been known to many in the course of so long a time; and the reality of his indisposition, which was even prior to the birth of Christ, must have been equally notorious, and shewn the impossibility of any collusion between them. The lengthand greatness of the man's affliction, well known to Jesus, (as appears from John 5:6.) together with his poverty, (John 5:7.) were sufficient reasons for our Lord's making choice of him, to experience the mercy of his healing power; a power infinitely superior to the virtue of the waters. Had our Lord at this time restored none of these impotent folk to health, he would not have acted contrary to the general account which the evangelists give of his goodness on other occasions, namely, that he healed all who came to him; for such diseased persons as left their habitations with a persuasion of his power and dignity, were fit objects of his mercy; while the sick at Bethesda were no more so than the other sick throughout the country, whom he could have cured barely by willing it, had he so pleased. They had no knowledge of him, or if they knew ought about him, they had no just idea of his power, and were expecting relief from another quarter.