Jesus did not ask because He doubted the man wanted help. John says Jesus already "knew that he had been now a long time in that case" (John 5:6). Gill says the question was put partly "to raise in the man an expectation of a cure, and attention in the people to it." Matthew Henry calls it a strange question and sees in it Christ's pity, a test of whether he would accept a cure from one the great people were prejudiced against, and a way to help him value the mercy.

The man did not say yes. He explained why he had never been healed: "Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me" (John 5:7). Barnes says the answer "implied that he did wish it" but that he had no friend to help him. Jesus did not send him to the pool. He said, "Rise, take up thy bed, and walk," and "immediately the man was made whole" (John 5:8-9).

Bethesda was a pool in Jerusalem near the sheep market, or sheep gate, with five porches where the sick lay (John 5:2-3). Barnes says the name means "house of mercy" and describes the porches as covered places where people could sit in hot or wet weather. The KJV includes John 5:4, about an angel troubling the water; the ESV places that wording in a footnote because some manuscripts include it and others do not.

Jesus' question in Greek, "Theleis hygiēs genesthai," reads literally "Do you desire to become well?" It asks about the man's will, not only his condition. The healing took place on the sabbath (John 5:9), which set up the conflict that follows.

This question shows that Jesus sees people no one else is helping. The man had "no man" to carry him (John 5:7), but Jesus noticed him in a crowd of sick people and spoke first. Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary observes, "Those long in affliction, may comfort themselves that God keeps account how long."

The man still thought healing depended on the water and on someone helping him. Jesus did not correct his explanation. He simply spoke, and the man was made whole. Jesus would later say, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work" (John 5:17). The healing showed that help had come in a Person, not in a pool.