John 5
Jesus Heals A Paralyzed Man & Declares His Deity
5:1-8
Jesus Heals A Paralyzed Man
Sometime after the events of chapter 4, Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the feasts. (1) John did not say how long it had been or which feast it was. That is probably because the events of the story are not thematically tied to the theme of whichever feast it was. In other words, the name was not important to the story.
So, Jesus came to Jerusalem and went to enter the city by way of the Sheep Gate. The Sheep Gate was built by Eliashib the high priest along with other priests, during Nehemiah’s rebuilding of the city. (Nehemiah 3:1) It was in the north wall of the city and Jesus was coming from the north. Since the gate opened near the Temple, it may have been named the Sheep Gate because sheep were brought into the temple court there for sacrifices.
There by the gate, in the time of Jesus, was a pool called Bethesda in Aramaic. Bethesda means “house of mercy”.
John wrote that the pool had five roofed colonnades, or rows of columns that were covered. We might call them patios. These were probably built by Herod. There were a multitude of invalids lying there which included the blind, the lame, and the paralyzed. (3) These were all people who could not help themselves. Friends and relatives brought them to the fountain to beg from those who came to visit the Temple.
If you have a modern translation of the Bible, you will notice there is no verse 4. That is because the oldest manuscripts do not have that verse. If you have an old translation, though, it might be there. For example, the King James Version states:
For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.
At the pool, Jesus saw a man who had been an invalid for 38 years. He evidently could not walk. Jesus knew he had been there a long time. This again shows us his divine knowledge, his omniscience.
Jesus asked him if he wanted to be healed. (6) The man obviously did not know Jesus and was not aware of the healings he had performed at the Passover feast. Instead of asking Jesus to heal him, he referred to the idea that he had no one to put him in the pool when the water was troubled, and he was so slow that others got into the water before him. (7) We see from his response that he believed the idea of an angel troubling the water as set out in the missing verse 4.
Jesus took the man’s response to be yes, and said “Get up, take up your bed, and walk”. And the man was immediately healed and walked away. (9)
5:9-17
The Sabbath Controversy
That sounds marvelous, doesn’t it? Jesus ended 38 years of suffering by healing the man. Everyone should have been rejoicing because of the miracle and because of the new life the man was experiencing.
But the leaders of the Jews did not find it to be marvelous, but rather to be a violation of the Sabbath. When they saw him, they did not say “it is so wonderful that you are healed” or “praise God for healing you”. Instead, they told him it was not lawful for him to carry his bed. (10)
The Sabbath was very important to the Jews, especially the Pharisees, who strictly obeyed the Old Testament law. It’s observance is required by the 4th commandment, found in Exodus 20:8-11, which says:
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do no work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within you gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
These last words reflected the story of God’s creation of the world. At the end of the creation account, it says:
“And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So, God blessed the seventh day and may it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation”. (Genesis 2:2-3)”
That commandment was very specific. It meant to cease from the work you normally do for a living for one day. Still, the Pharisees added many requirements to it, saying what was considered work that could not be done on the Sabbath. There were 39 classes of work defined by the time of Jesus’ ministry. Many of them had nothing to do with resting from the work you did for a living.
This formerly paralyzed man did not carry mats for a living. He just needed to take his mat with him so he could sleep on it that night.
This is a good example of how legalism takes the joy out of salvation. We certainly are called to be holy and to obey God. But when we add rules and elevate them over the gospel, we tend to focus on those rules more than the gospel. Here, the legalism of the Jewish leaders robbed both themselves and the man who was healed of the joy of seeing God work.
The man who was healed does not come off very well in the story either. He did not thank Jesus for healing him. He did not even ask his name. Then, when confronted by the Jews for carrying his mat, or bed, he blamed it on Jesus. He said the guy who healed me told me to do it. (11) He later meets Jesus, then goes and tells the Jews it was Jesus who healed him. (15)
So now, the focus of the Jews is not the man who was healed, but the healer. They wanted to find that man. Although healing did not violate the commandment, it violated their rules. And someone instructing others to violate the rules is more dangerous than the person who obeys him.
Verse 14 is an interesting insertion into the story. Jesus found the man and told him, now that you are healed, sin no more so that nothing worse may happen to you. Although other passages in the gospels teach us that sickness or suffering is not necessarily tied to sin, Jesus’ words here indicate that this man’s sickness was tied to his sin. Therefore, Jesus tells him to stop sinning so nothing worse will happen to him. We all know there are consequences to sin and especially to continual sinning. Jesus was both instructing and warning the man to take advantage of his new life of health by living a holy life.
Once the Jews found out it was Jesus who healed the man, the stage was set for two of the great controversies between the Jews and Jesus: the meaning of the Sabbath and the deity of Christ.
Although John did not record the words of the Jews spoken to Jesus, he gave us an explanatory note in verse 16, saying this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he did things on the Sabbath they did not think were allowed. He was working on the Sabbath.
In response, Jesus did not deny that he was working on the Sabbath. He did not even argue about their definition of work. Instead, he asserted his authority to work on the Sabbath. His reply to them was “My Father is working until now, and I am working”. (17) This statement set off a firestorm.
God the Father stopped, or rested, from his work of creation on the seventh day, but he did not stop working. He continued to uphold the universe, to give life to people, and to provide for them the things they needed to survive. Most of the Jews recognized this, but believed working on the Sabbath was God’s prerogative and no one else’s.
But Jesus claimed to have the same right to work on the Sabbath. He was working as his Father was working. Not only did Jesus claim the right to work on the Sabbath, he called God his Father, making himself equal to God, calling himself divine.
5:18
John’s Summary
John made Jesus’ claim clear to his readers in verse 18. Not only did Jesus break the Sabbath, he make himself equal to God, or claimed deity for himself, by calling God his own Father.
Although people will argue with you today that Jesus never claimed to be God, it is clear from this passage that he did and that the Jews understood that he did, and were outrage. John quoted Jesus’ words so we would know he did claim to be divine, and gave an explanation in verse 18 to make sure his readers understood this fact.
The deity of Christ is an important doctrine. Only as God can Jesus forgive sins and give us eternal life.
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