Afterward Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holy days.
After Jesus’ ministry in Galilee had ended, Jesus went to Jerusalem for one of the holy days. There were three feasts that the LORD had given the people of Israel that required all Jewish males to attend (Deuteronomy 16:16; Exodus 23:17; 34:23). The feasts were Passover, Tabernacles, and Pentecost. Since Passover is mentioned by John following the events found in the fifth chapter of his gospel, the Sabbath referenced in these verses could very well be the first day of Passover since the first day of the feast, all the people were called to stop their ordinary work or in other words, observe a Sabbath (Leviticus 23:7). If it isn’t a reference the first day of this particular feast then it is just a regular Sabbath. Still, I believe there is a connection between chapters 5 and 6 in John’s gospel as he continues to reveal Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God (John 20:31).
2 Inside the city, near the Sheep Gate, was the pool of Bethesda, with five covered porches. 3 Crowds of sick people—blind, lame, or paralyzed—lay on the porches.
The Sheep Gate (Nehemiah 3:1, 32; 12:39) was a small entrance to the city of Jerusalem in the northeast segment of the wall near the temple. Bethesda, the town’s name, is the Greek transliteration of a Hebrew or Aramaic word understood to mean “house of outpourings” or the “house of mercy.” Underneath these five porticos (if counting the bridge between the two pools), the lame would receive some mercy as the structures shaded them from nature’s elements. The pool was believed to provide healing effects for the one who could enter the water after an angel stirred it. An article from the Biblical Archeology Society says that the pool was divided into two parts, with a bridge separating the two pools. One side of the pool was a mikveh, used for ceremonial cleansing and rituals. The northern side of the pool served as a reservoir to replenish and repurify the mikveh. No doubt, a stirring of the water resulted from new water from the reservoir making its way into the pool section for ceremonial use. To help us better picture this scene at the pool in our mind, ancient sources describe the water in the pool as having a reddish tint to it because of the minerals in it.
The NLT omits verse four, found in other translations that credit the stirring of the water to an angel’s activity. John Macarthur, in his commentary on the gospel of John concerning this verse, says that despite its brevity, this omitted verse includes more than half a dozen words or phrases that are not used by John in any other of his writings, with three not occurring anywhere else in the New Testament at all. The most reliable Greek manuscripts omit all of verse four and the last phrase of verse 3. These two factors, along with John not mentioning angels again in this passage, leads me to agree with Macarthur in that this was later added to the passage by a later scribe to help explain the stirring of the water and why people believed there was healing power in the pool but not originally part of John’s account.
5 One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, he asked him, “Would you like to get well?”7 “I can’t, sir,” the sick man said, “for I have no one to put me into the pool when the water bubbles up. Someone else always gets there ahead of me.”
Instead of going into the nearby temple, Jesus approached the pool. A place that many avoided, perhaps because it made them uncomfortable to see the sick, lame, and impoverished that close. Others may have avoided the area for fear of coming in contact with one of the infirmed and becoming unclean, especially if the Passover celebration was at hand (John 6:4). Yet the One, Who would spiritually heal us by His stripes (Isaiah 53:5), demonstrated His power to do so by compassionately going to those in need and meeting a physical need of one particular man.
This man had been lying near the pool for thirty-eight seemingly lonely years since he didn’t have anyone help him into the pool once stirred. Jesus, knowing the man’s history and current state, approached him and asked the man if he would like to be whole. The man did not expect that Jesus would heal him. Verses 11 and 13 indicate that the man didn’t know who Jesus was, or if he did, he certainly didn’t recognize that the man questioning him was the great miracle worker he had heard about. From the text, the only chance he thought he had to be made well was for him to be the first in the water; perhaps he was hinting around for Jesus to offer his assistance so that he could finally make it to the waters.
8 Jesus told him, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!” 9 Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up his sleeping mat and began walking!
Without the man asking for Jesus to heal him, Jesus tells him to stand up, pick up his mat, and walk! Jesus’ instructions express the completeness of the man’s healing. Just as Jesus powerfully spoke the world into existence (Genesis 1:3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 20, 24, 26; John 1:3; Colossians 1:16; Hebrews 1:2), His words to this man were powerful enough to create a new body (Matthew 8:16; 9:6; Mark 2:11; Luke 6:10; 13:12). I think it would be fascinating to see what went on inside the man’s body as the words of our Lord went forth to accomplish their work in the man’s body. We see Jesus’ healing of this man be instant and complete without the man demonstrating any faith whatsoever. This instance is an excellent example of the gift of healing in action and Jesus’ grace being poured out over a disabled man who didn’t demonstrate any faith in Him, yet healed him anyway to reveal Himself to the man (John 5:13-15).
But this miracle happened on the Sabbath, 10 so the Jewish leaders objected. They said to the man who was cured, “You can’t work on the Sabbath! The law doesn’t allow you to carry that sleeping mat!” 11 But he replied, “The man who healed me told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’” 12 “Who said such a thing as that?” they demanded. 13 The man didn’t know, for Jesus had disappeared into the crowd. 14 But afterward Jesus found him in the Temple and told him, “Now you are well; so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you.” 15 Then the man went and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had healed him.
Instead of being in awe of the power, mercy, and grace demonstrated by the very One who had created them and the world where they found themselves, the religious leaders were angered at the man for carrying his mat and Jesus for healing on the Sabbath. Jesus could have easily healed the man on the following day. Let’s be honest, the man wasn’t going anywhere, and his illness was not life-threatening. Yet Jesus wanted to manifest His mercy and confront the self-righteousness and unbiblical traditions that pervaded Judaism and the life of its leaders. They had substituted a relationship with God with manmade religious traditions (Matthew 5:19).
The Old Testament did forbid working on the Sabbath (Exodus 31:12-14; 35:2) though it does not explicitly say what kind of work is prohibited. However, one’s customary employment was in view. However, rabbinic tradition went further than that, listing 39 forbidden areas of work, including carrying things or goods. These rabbinic laws were based on passages such as Nehemiah 13:15-18 and Jeremiah 17:21-22. But, these passages were aimed at individuals who conducted their usual work, their occupational work, on the Sabbath. These traditions did not apply to the man healed because he didn’t make a living by carrying his mat.
Since he had broken the traditions of the rabbis, they blasted him for breaking their trivial regulations. Quickly caving under pressure, the man quickly tried to shift his accusers’ attention to the man who had healed him. Despite being able to walk for the first time in thirty-eight years (possibly even in his lifetime), he caves in fear. May we be like the blind man in John who confronted his religious accusers and testified about what Jesus has done for us!
Later, Jesus found the man again, this time not lame on a mat but in the Temple. This time Jesus reveals who He is to the man and then tells him to stop sinning. If the man did not listen to His warning, something worse might happen to him. Sickness is not always tied to our sin (John 9:1-3), but the Bible also teaches that some conditions are related to our sin (Deuteronomy 28:58-61; Leviticus 26:14-16; Psalm 32:3-4; 38:1-8; 1 Corinthians 11:30). There seems to have been a habitual sin that Jesus was instructing the man to abandon. Sin will always take us further than we want to go, keep us longer than we want to stay, and cost us more than we want to pay. This truth seems to be what Jesus was warning this man about. Yet, instead of pledging his devotion to the One who had healed him from almost four decades of immobility, the man told the religious leaders that Jesus had healed him. This report began their open opposition to Jesus, the very One their Scriptures pointed them towards (John 5:39).
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