The Heart of the Matter

Jesus truly is the Word who was with God and who was God. As such, He is not subject to man’s laws. All things occur in His due time.

Digging Deeper

After healing the official’s son, Jesus proceeds to Jerusalem to a feast.

John 5:1–4:

¹After these things there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

²Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porticoes.

³In these lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered, [waiting for the moving of the waters;

⁴for 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 disease with which he was afflicted.]

In this passage, we are not told what specific feast Jesus went up to, only that He was going to one. The feast itself isn’t as important as who would have been there, a large gathering of Jews including the religious elite. We shall see why this is important later.

Jesus was walking past the pool at the sheep gate in Jerusalem. At this pool there were five porticoes or covered patios. In these porticoes were a great number of people (i.e., a multitude as it states in the text) who were sick or afflicted with infirmities such as blindness or lameness.

Now verses 3b through 4 do not appear in the most preserved copies of the ancient manuscripts for the gospel of John. They may have been inserted at a later date. This is the reason that you will sometimes see verses such as these identified by surrounding square brackets as in the NASB (in some translations they are simply removed as with the ESV). These verses basically add a little more information to verse 7 (below). However, it is not necessary to include these words in order to understand this passage.

John 5:5–9a:

⁵A man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years.

⁶When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had already been a long time in that condition, He said to him, “Do you wish to get well?”

⁷The 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.”

⁸Jesus said to him, “Get up, pick up your pallet and walk.”

^9aImmediately the man became well, and picked up his pallet and began to walk. …

Here’s where Jesus encounters a man who had been ill (some translations use the word disabled or an invalid) for 38 years. Maybe “encounters” is the wrong word to use here as this was no mere chance encounter. Jesus did everything with a specific purpose; nothing was wasted effort nor just a coincidence. Jesus saw this man and perceived that he had been in this state a very long time. As Jesus was both God and man he knew all about this man and his plight.

But why pick out this man from so many others that were possibly equally or even worse off? The answer may be in the way that Jesus asked the next question, “Do you wish to get well?” The Greek word for “wish” is thelies. This word translates to a strong desire or wish for something. In this case the man strongly desired to be healed. Possibly, this man had been there longer than anyone else (for why else would John have told us the amount of time he had been there). His desire to be healed, to be whole again, was probably stronger than others’.

In verse 7 we see the struggle that he has gone through to be healed on his own accord and the frustration it has lead to. You see, when the water was stirred up people would walk into the water and the first to walk in was healed. Since this man was unable to walk on his own into the water he had to rely on others to carry him into the water. Seeing as how this man was still not healed, we can only assume those that “helped” him weren’t very good at getting him to the front of the line.

Now we don’t know what was going on at this pool, if it was just a superstition or real. However, one commentator that I read indicated that this would have been a very strange way for God to work. Plus, why only heal the first one that can step into the pool? God could have healed all of them or perhaps just the most diseased or crippled. Either way this is not an important part of John’s narrative here.

This man, like many others, was looking for healing from what he could see, feel, and touch as being real. He believed these pools had the power to heal (could this man have seen a real miracle take place here or perhaps a charlatan only using the superstition surrounding this pool to their advantage, we just don’t know). Regardless, Jesus brings to this man (and us) something new, something more powerful. We don’t need to be the fastest or the first in line in order to receive healing (salvation). It is there as a free gift that only needs acceptance on faith.

Jesus was about to ask the question that all unbelievers have been waiting to hear. If you do not yet believe, this is the most important question Jesus will ask of you. If you already believe, then you answered this question with an exuberant, “Yes!” What is that question? It is, “Do you wish to get well?” Some translations say, “Do you want to be healed?” Or “Do you want to be made well?” It is the same question…”Do you want only the best and most eternal healing that Jesus can offer…salvation?”

But look at this man’s response. He doesn’t understand the full meaning of Jesus’ question. He responds with his plight and with his frustration. He states that no one is able to get him into the pool quick enough. The one means of healing that he knows of is so far away from him it’s as if he is miles away from it. However, now salvation is standing right in front of him mere inches away. But we also need to look at how this man says these words. He begins by saying that, “I have no man to put me into the pool…”. In the Greek an emphasis is placed on “I have”. This man is still focused on himself and what he has available to him.

In verse 8 Jesus shows the man that he hasn’t been waiting all these years just for a physical healing but for a full physical and spiritual healing. Jesus commands the crippled man to get up and walk. The use of the present tense when Jesus commands the man to “get up” and “walk” along with the word “immediately” in the next verse indicates that this was an instantaneous act. The man was lying on the ground unable to walk and in the blink of an eye he got up, picked up his mat, and began walking. All this happened because Jesus spoke it.

Consider the atrophied limbs of this man. He needed others to pick him up and move him so neither his legs nor arms were strong enough to move him. Yet, in the blink of an eye, Jesus’ words changed this man physically so that he could easily support himself and walk unaided. That is a full and complete physical healing. (Hmmm, but what about the spiritual healing…did you see it?)

John 5:9b–13:

^9b… Now it was the Sabbath on that day.

¹⁰So the Jews were saying to the man who was cured, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not permissible for you to carry your pallet.”

¹¹But he answered them, “He who made me well was the one who said to me, ‘Pick up your pallet and walk.’ ”

¹²They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Pick up your pallet and walk’?”

¹³But the man who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away while there was a crowd in that place.

Uh oh! The second half of verse 9 introduces the conflict (and it’s a doozie…well, for the religious elite at least). Jesus healed on the Sabbath day. Now the Sabbath was supposed to be a day of rest that God commanded us to keep holy as God says in Ex 20:8:

Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

However, the Jewish religious party added many rules of their own making as to what it meant to adhere to the Sabbath day. Of course, one rule was that you could not carry anything from one location to another. According to the Jewish law (not the Old Testament law) this healed man was carrying his mat from the pool where he had just met Christ. This was a clear violation of their man-made laws.

 

So these Jews confronted the man who was healed and chastised him for carrying his mat on the Sabbath day. In response to this, the healed man answered that the One who made him well was the very same One who told him to carry his mat and walk. Notice the Jew’s response. They didn’t ask him anything about his healing; rather, they focused on their own man-made law that was broken in their sight. Who cares that this man was healed; he broke one of our laws! Interestingly, the ire of these Jews was now directed towards that One who told this man to pick up his mat and walk. This was untenable in their eyes. No one could tell someone to break one of their own laws!

Now Jesus had slipped away while a crowd gathered at that place by the pool. Most likely everyone around this crippled man had seen this miracle and word spread fast as to what had happened. This would have drawn a crowd, probably consisting of some religious leaders as well. But Jesus’ time had not yet come for Him to directly confront the religious leaders.

(Note the fact that Jesus did attend the Jewish feasts, but He did not observe the Jewish, man-made, laws. This shows Jesus’ delight to worship the Father through the feasts but His disdain for anything that worshiped man. Those man-made laws were only useful for drawing attention to the ones enforcing that law.)

John 5:14-15:

¹⁴Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “Behold, you have become well; do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you.”

¹⁵The man went away, and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.

Whoa, wait just a minute. Was I wrong about this man’s salvation? All along I’ve been writing as if this man had been saved during this miracle. I mean, we’ve seen Nicodemus who came to Jesus and later became a believer, the Samaritan woman who was saved, the multitude of Samaritans that came to a saving faith (after the woman), and the official and his household. They all were saved. But was this crippled man who was now physically healed also saved?

These two verses stick out like the proverbial sore thumb. They made me go back and reassess the spiritual state of this man. Indeed he had been healed of his physical infirmities, but had his spiritual state also been made whole or was he just happy that he could walk around again not having to lean on anyone else?

In these verses John says nothing of whether the crippled man came to a saving belief (trust) in Jesus. When Jesus healed him, John simply states that he got up and walked away. Was there more to that story? Surely the man at least thanked Jesus. But in the previous narratives John leaves us with no uncertainty of the main character’s state of salvation (well, except Nicodemus, who we know later came to a saving belief). But we do know that this man never gave it a second thought to ask Jesus His name, for in verse 11 we see that this man does not know who Jesus is. It seems like everyone else in the previous narrations knew who Jesus was…Messiah, Prophet, Savior of the world.

Now in verse 14 Jesus finds this man in the temple, probably worshiping God for his healing miracle. This man still did not know that the path to God was through Jesus. This man was still going straight to God and not to Jesus (the irony being that God the Son was right there beside him). Also in this verse Jesus states that this man has become well (hygies in the Greek) which means to have a healthy body and become free of disease or infirmities. It doesn’t say anything about his spiritual state. However, Jesus does warn him not to sin anymore lest something even worse happens to him. This implies that his infirmity was due to some ongoing sin in his life. Of course, we know that it isn’t always the case that a person becomes sick just because of a sin in their life. There can be other reasons. But this statement that Jesus makes in verse 14 seems to indicate that it is on the man to obey and not to sin. We know that we have the Holy Spirit to convict us of sin and a Savior who covers us in grace when we do fall prey to sin. Was Jesus leaving it up to this man to keep the law under his own strength?

Then we get to verse 15 which shows the man going straight to the Jews that he had met back in verses 10-13. Here he tells the Jews exactly who it was that healed him. I greatly doubt that the man was telling these Jews in order to present his testimony to them thereby glorifying God; rather, it seems like he was trying to get the blame off of himself and put it on Jesus so he wouldn’t have the Jews also persecuting him.

As I read this I wondered if this was the “sin” Jesus referred to in verse 14. Was there a sin of selfishness, pride, or something else in him that he just couldn’t let go of. If so, we can infer that something worse did indeed happen to him. But John does not tell us anymore about this man.

Certainly, this man’s story has ended, but why? To what end? If we try to understand if the man was saved or not (perhaps he was saved later during the Acts timeframe when many came to believe in Christ, maybe not) then we lose sight of why this story exists in John. We need to read on…

John 5:16–18:

¹⁶For this reason the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because He was doing these things on the Sabbath.

¹⁷But He answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.”

¹⁸For this reason therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.

Ah-ha! Verse 16 is the reasoning behind this story. You see, the very act of breaking the man-made Sabbath laws was inciting the Jews against Jesus as Jesus was basically saying that their laws were not God’s laws and therefore useless. If we look at the Greek verbs “persecuting” and “was doing” in this verse, we see that they are in the imperfect tense indicating an ongoing action that had begun in the past. Therefore, we can read this as the Jews were continually persecuting Jesus because He was continually healing and breaking the man-made laws on the Sabbath.

John doesn’t want us to focus exclusively on the healed man, although we can learn some lessons there. Rather, John is showing Jesus directly confronting the hypocrisy of the Jews. Matthew eloquently expresses this confrontation in his gospel in Mt 23:1-7:

Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to His disciples, saying: “The scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses; therefore all that they tell you, do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds; for they say things and do not do them. “They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger. “But they do all their deeds to be noticed by men; for they broaden their phylacteries and lengthen the tassels of their garments. “They love the place of honor at banquets and the chief seats in the synagogues, and respectful greetings in the market places, and being called Rabbi by men.

 

In verse 17 Jesus goes a step further and reveals that not only has the Father continued to work up til now, but Jesus also has continued to work. There are two important things that this verse reveals that will inform us as to why the Jews became even more enraged in verse 18 (and indeed, verse 18 does a good job of explaining verse 17). First, Jesus says that God the Father has been working and adds “until now”. The Father has continued to work throughout each and every day of history. God did rest on that seventh day in Genesis but as an example as to how we should uphold the Sabbath day as holy, dedicated to the Lord. But since our Lord holds all things together at all times, wouldn’t that mean He has to do work on the Sabbath? What about answered prayer on the Sabbath or a child that is born on the Sabbath? God intervenes daily in our lives as He does not need or wish to rest from His Holy work. We, on the other hand, are finite and weak and need that weekly rest in our Lord to revitalize us.

So God the Father is at work on the Sabbath day. But Jesus adds to this statement. Jesus uses a word here that is translated as “and” in the English in verse 17. The typical Greek word for “and” is usually kai (a connective conjunction), but in this case the word is kago. This word kago is translated a little differently as: “and I Myself” or “and I too”. Examining this word in a Bible dictionary shows that this word can mean “I likewise” or “in like manner I”. This word gives a little more indication as to the connection between the Father’s work and Jesus’ work, essentially saying that both are doing the same work and their work continues in unison.

Now how does Jesus equating His work with the Father’s work relate to the Sabbath? Well, if God is all powerful and needs no rest on the Sabbath and Jesus is saying the same, then Jesus is saying that He too, like the Father, is all powerful and does not need to rest on the Sabbath. God was Jesus’ Father and their work was equal, just as Jesus was equal to the Father. Just as we read back in John 1:1, Jesus is God.

Now at this public statement of His equality with His Father, the Jews were much more enraged and continued to more fervently seek to kill Him. True, Jesus had broken the Sabbath, but more importantly Jesus had declared Himself God. This was a heresy that would have immediate retribution (death) for any other person making such a claim. However, as Jesus truly is the Word who was with God and who was God, no one laid a hand on Him. Notice that this narrative only shows the Jews more and more angry but, as under God’s sovereignty, unable to do anything to Jesus as it was not yet His time.

Let us remember that Jesus always obeyed the Father out of a deep love and trust. So to should we take Jesus’ example and let our light shine into the world as we are the salt left to preserve others for eternal life through Jesus. No matter what the world says or does, we can be assured, as Jesus was, that the Father is sovereign over all and knows right where we are at all times. He won’t overlook us or forget about us. He works each and every day (even through each Sabbath) to sanctify us and bring glory to His name!