What does John 5:7 mean?

Jesus has approached this crippled man, among "a multitude" of invalids laying by the Pool of Bethesda (John 5:3). Perhaps Jesus chose him because of the length of time he'd been suffering. A man crippled for nearly forty years would have made quite a dramatic example of healing. There would have been no doubt that the cure was supernatural. And, there is a better chance that the man was well-known in the area, and so even more a magnet for attention.

In the prior verse, Jesus asked a question: "Do you want to be healed?" This may have been a fairly simple request, or it might have been a challenge: "Do you want to be healed" (emphasis added)? One reason the second option seems likely is the answer given by the man here in verse 7.

Rather than saying, "Yes, I want to be healed," the man offers a complaint that there is nobody to help him into the water. The disputed text of John 5:4 indicated an angel agitated the water, healing only the first person who entered the pool. The man might have been trying to get into the pool for healing, or he might have been content to simply sit and take in the charity of others.