Chapter BY Chapter

John 5:1-30

 

“Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals.  Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades.  Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed.  And they waited for the moving of the waters.  From time to time an angel of the Lord would come down and stir up the waters. The first one into the pool after each such disturbance would be cured of whatever disease they had.  One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.  When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

 

“Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”

 

Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.”  At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.

 

The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”

 

But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”

 

So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?”

 

The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.

 

Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.”  The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.”

 

“So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him.  In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.”  For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.”

 

“Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.  For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed.  For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it.  Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.”

 

“Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.  Very truly I tell you, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.  For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.  And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.”

 

“Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice  and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned.  By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.”

 

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Jesus nonchalantly heals a man at the pool.  He tells him to pick up his mat and walk.  The man is immediately healed and walks away with his mat. 

 

Now, according to Jeremiah 17:19-27, carrying a load through the city gates was breaking the Sabbath.   The idea of carrying a load through the city gates applies to several items and carrying them through the city gates applies to the idea of commerce.  The Jews here apply this to the man who carried his mat.  The Sabbath was a rest from the day to day work.  It was not a prohibition from taking care of your personal needs.  Carrying your mat would be a function of taking care of personal needs.  Jesus already disrupted their illegal commerce in the Temple.  Many people were following Jesus because of the miracles.  The Pharisees were not in favor with the common man at this point, while Jesus was in favor with them.  The Pharisees go out of their way here to find something wrong with Jesus.  The Pharisees have a score to settle. 

 

The Pharisees begin to persecute Jesus.  It appears they start questioning him.  The man that was healed at the pool just told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus that healed him, so they must have asked him why he healed on the Sabbath. 

 

Did Jesus say, “Oh, sorry.  I shouldn’t have healed on the Sabbath?”

 

What Jesus says makes the situation even worse, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.”

 

So, Jesus is admitting to working on the Sabbath.  He is getting himself into even more trouble with the Jewish leaders.  It seems like he could have said, “Carrying one’s mat is not really working on the Sabbath, and healing on the Sabbath is not really work either.  All I did was say something.”

 

But NOOOOOOOOOOO!  Now they wanted to kill him even more.  Not only did he admit to working on the Sabbath, but he made himself equal with God. 

 

Let’s see if Jesus can get himself out of this mess.  Jesus explains further, “The Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.”  Okay so now Jesus is saying that he can only do what he sees God doing because what God does, he also does.  This is claiming to be the same as God. 

 

Maybe the next thing Jesus says will get him out of trouble, “For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed.  For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it.”  So, now he is claiming to give life to whoever he pleases and will do even greater works.  That got him into more trouble with the Pharisees. 

 

One last chance for Jesus to get out of trouble with the Pharisees.  He says, “Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.”  Okay, now Jesus is saying he has all the judgement of God and that everyone must honor him just as they honor God. 

 

Some people will claim that Jesus never claimed to be God.  There are several times here where Jesus claims to be God.  Some of these people that say Jesus never claimed to be God will quote “the Son can do nothing by himself.” Unquote.  Then they will say, “Jesus can’t even do anything by himself. How can he be God. Haha.”

 

I tell them to stop cherry picking phrases and read the whole sentence.  “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.”  Then I ask them, “When you wake up in the morning do you put your left or right shoe on first because that is what you see the Father doing?”  God can only do what God wills.  In the same way, Jesus can only do what God wills. 

 

Now, Jesus claims that God has given all judgement to him.  The highest level of being God is his judgement upon good and evil.  This is surely not getting in good with the Pharisees. 

 

Finally, Jesus says that everyone must honor the Son just as they honor the Father.  This means that we must worship Jesus as we worship God. 

 

In John 1:35-51, we learned that Jesus essentially said, ”I am God. Worship me.”  Again here in John 5:1-30, Jesus says once again, “I am God. Worship me.”