On this day the Church remembers the man who lay by the Sheep’s Pool in Jerusalem for thirty-eight years, waiting for someone to put him into the pool. The first one to enter the pool after an angel troubled the water would be healed of his infirmities, but someone always entered the pool before him.
Seeing the man, the Lord felt compassion for him and healed him.
The Kontakion for this Fourth Sunday of Pascha asks Christ to raise up our souls, “paralyzed by sins and thoughtless acts.”