Article July 10, 1978 Issue

A misconception is always curable

ROBERT A. MOSS

In the fifth chapter of John's Gospel there is a meaningful account of Jesus' healing of a man who had suffered from an infirmity for thirty-eight years. A great number of sick, disabled, and blind people were in the habit of lying in the five porches that gave access to the pool of Bethesda to wait for the "troubling" of the water. For they believed the water would cure whoever managed to get in first after it was disturbed. Because of his infirmity the poor man had never succeeded in being first in, and it was in this sad situation that Jesus came upon him.

To the Master's compassionate question, "Wilt thou be made whole?" the sick man explained that someone else always got into the pool before him. Scorning the long history of the man's condition and the superstitions associated with the pool, Jesus said, "Rise, take up thy bed, and walk." And the man did just that.

Perhaps we may see the five porches that supported the sick multitude as symbolizing the five material senses, which, as Christian Science reveals, support—and, in fact, originate—all of mankind's ills. These senses are the sources of the general belief that matter is substance. They are the instruments through which matter claims to hear, taste, touch, see, and smell. Christian Science shows them to be counterfeits of man's real senses, which are spiritual. These true senses testify to the wholly spiritual nature, the goodness, and the unchangeable harmony of everything in God's creation, the only creation there is.

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