THE HOPE IN JESUS CHRIST’s HEALINGS
What to Know
What It Is – Jesus’ Healings at the Pools - Two of Jesus Christ’s most significant miracles — the healing of the man lame for 38 years (John 5) and the healing of the man blind from birth (John 9) — take place at or involving ancient pools. Recent archaeological discoveries confirm that both Bethesda and Siloam were mikveh pools, ritual baths used for purification and associated with hope and healing in Jewish tradition.
Why These Miracles Are Uniquely Important - John tells us that Jesus performed countless miracles, far more than could be written (John 21:25). Therefore, the ones preserved in Scripture are intentionally chosen. The miracles at Bethesda and Siloam are recorded not only because of the healings themselves but because of the symbolic setting — these were not ordinary pools, but mikvoth deeply tied to Jewish expectations of cleansing, restoration, and spiritual hope.
Pools as Symbols of Hope — and Jesus as the True Source - In John 5, the lame man places his faith in the pool to heal him, waiting decades for the water to be stirred. Jesus corrects this misplaced hope by healing him instantly, showing that no pool— no ritual — holds the power to save. Only Christ does. In John 9, Jesus instructs the blind man to wash in the Pool of Siloam, requiring him to take action. Even then, the pool is only symbolic — the healing still comes from Christ. In both cases, the pools serve as visual lessons: Jesus is the true Mikveh, the true Hope, and the true Healer.
The Archaeological Link to Mikveh Pools - Modern archaeological work — including findings published by the Biblical Archaeology Society — confirms that both pools tied to these miracles were mikvoth. Once seen as places where purity and hope could be found, these ritual baths now become the settings for Christ to reveal that He Himself is the fulfillment of what mikveh represents: cleansing, hope, renewal, and salvation.
From “Waters” to “Hope” — Fulfilled in Christ - In the Old Testament, mikveh originally meant “a collection of waters,” but later prophets — especially Jeremiah — used it to mean “hope” and even applied it directly to God (Jeremiah 14:8; 17:13). Jesus’ miracles at the mikveh pools make this symbolism unmistakable. The pools represented the hope of healing;
Jesus is the true Hope of Israel who actually heals; the physical mikvoth pointed toward cleansing and renewal; Jesus is the One who cleanses spiritually and restores fully.
The True Mikveh of Israel - These miracles reveal that Jesus Christ — “the Lord who heals you” (Exodus 15:26)— is the fulfillment of everything the mikveh symbolized. The lame man and blind man encountered not just water, but the living Mikveh, the Hope of Israel, the Savior who brings complete healing and spiritual renewal.
With this background of mikvoth and their importance to Judaism, some passages in the New Testament begin to take on new meaning and can be seen from a different perspective.
During Jesus Christ’s ministry, He healed many lame, blind, and deaf people. In fact, there are so many of these healings that John tells us:
“Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose the world itself could not contain the books that would be written (John 21:25).”
If Jesus Christ performed this many miracles as John wrote, then the ones recorded for us in the New Testament have been included for specific reasons.
Two examples of these healings, and Jesus Christ’s most well-known, are found in the book of John when He heals a man who could not walk for 38 years (John 5:1-8) and a blind man from birth (John 9:7). In reading both of these accounts, notice we are told both of these healings happened at pools, and those pools were directly involved in the healing or mentioned by Jesus. In the first healing, the man who could not walk says to Jesus,
“Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me (John 5:6).”
The man is placing his faith in the pool to heal him, but Jesus’ response is direct. The pool will not provide the hope or healing the man seeks, but only the One the man is talking to can do so. Unlike the pool the man is putting his hope into, Jesus Christ only needs to tell the man, “Rise, take up your bed and walk” (John 5:8), and immediately he can. In the second healing, the blind man is not around a pool. Jesus Christ is the one who references the pool in this healing when He tells the blind man, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam (John 9:7).” Notice in the first healing, Jesus says the pool is not needed for healing and performs the healing Himself; however, in the second healing He asks the blind man to take action by washing and uses the pool in the healing. Even though the pool is directly used in the second healing, the healing the blind man experiences still ultimately comes from Jesus.
Why is it significant that these two healings were performed near pools? Recently, according to Biblical Archaeology Society and other archaeological finds, it has been discovered that both pools mentioned in the healing accounts in John (Bethesda and Siloam) were mikvoth (or mikveh pools). Immediately, the symbolism of what Jesus Christ conveyed in these healings and miracles should become striking. The man who could not walk had been waiting at one of these mikveh most of his life, putting his hope there. Jesus Christ came and became that mikveh for him. The blind man from birth had to take action and use a mikveh to complete his healing in the thing that represented the hope of Jesus Christ. In both of these instances, we begin to see how and why the word initially used as “a collection [of waters]” was inspired by God to be used as “hope” later when the prophets wrote. Eventually these mikvoth would become prevalent around Israel, with their roots based in the hope of physical healing for chronic conditions, representing the future Messiah. Now these mikveh pools had become the places of Jesus Christ’s first public miracles of healing, showing that He was the Mikveh and Savior that Israel had been waiting for as Jeremiah stated,
“O you Hope of Israel, its Savior in time of trouble… (Jeremiah 14:8).”
Jesus Christ, the God of the Old Testament, was Israel’s and is our true “Lord who heals you (Exodus 15:27).”
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Discover the Deeper Meaning Behind Baptism and the Hope We Have in Christ
1. Baptism: Where Our Hope Begins - Discover why Jesus Christ’s baptism is recorded in all four gospels and how baptism becomes the starting point of the believer’s transformation, symbolizing repentance, cleansing, and new life in Christ.
2. Ritual Cleansing in the Old Testament - Explore how ancient Israel used water for purification — from Sinai preparation to priestly consecration — and how these rituals foreshadowed the spiritual cleansing God desires for His people.
3. The Meaning of Mikveh — From Water to Hope - Learn how the Hebrew word mikveh evolves from “a collection of waters” to “hope,” and how prophets like Jeremiah reveal that God Himself is our Mikveh — the true Hope of Israel.
4. Mikveh Pools & Jewish Life Before Christ - Archaeology uncovers hundreds of ancient mikveh pools across Israel. See how mikvoth shaped Jewish purification practices and prepared the world for the Messiah and His message.
5. Jesus’ Miracles at the Mikveh Pools - The healings at Bethesda and Siloam were not random — both pools were mikvoth. Understand how Jesus showed that He, not the water, is the source of healing and hope.
6. Did Jesus Simply Turn Water Into Wine? - A deeper look at His first miracle reveals the entire plan of God: the transformation of Old Covenant purification water into wine representing Christ’s blood, the New Covenant, and the hope of eternal life.
7. The Fulfillment of Mikveh — Jesus Christ as Our Living Hope - Trace how the apostles understood Jesus as the fulfillment of mikveh and the One through whom God’s promise of eternal life is made possible.