"
Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porticoes. In these lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered, [waiting for the moving of the waters; for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water; whoever then first, after the stirring up of the water, stepped in was made well from whatever sickness with which he was afflicted.]

And a man was there who had been sick for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been sick a long time, He said to him, “Do you wish to get well?”

The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I am coming, another steps down before me.”

Jesus said to him, “Get up, pick up your mat and walk.”
"

(John 5.2-8 LSB)

You would think that such story of an angel stirring up the pool to heal is just an unfounded "legend". But the man waited there anyway. Why? Did he, or someone he knew, know someone who was healed?

How did people know it was an angel who stirred the pool, not some random unknown? If I see for sure an angel, what would I ask? Assuming the angel hangs around after touching the water.

Notice Jesus did not chide the man for believing in the "legend". Maybe it indeed happened. Maybe not. Jesus looked beyond that and saw the man's potential for faith.

The man was desperate but he believed when Jesus said "get up" and acted on it. To go into the pool, the man needed someone else to help him. To believe Jesus, he could do it by himself and he believed and he got up.

He "stirred up the water" for himself.