44 – Healing an Invalid on the Sabbath, John 5:1-15

John 5:1 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda[a] and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. [4] [b] 5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 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?”

7 “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.”

8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.

The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 10 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.”

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

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

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

14 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.” 15 The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.

Footnotes

a. John 5:2 Some manuscripts Bethzatha; other manuscripts Bethsaida

b. John 5:4 Some manuscripts include here, wholly or in part, paralyzed—and they waited for the moving of the waters. ⁴ 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.

Commentary

The setting for this miracle is Jerusalem, where Jesus has gone for a festival. Jewish tradition observes many feasts, but if this were the Feast of Passover, the original script would have employed the grammatical use of the definite article. Some scholars believe this feast may rather have been the Feast of Tabernacles (Nelson KJV Bible Commentary pg. 1306). Since Jesus was last in Jerusalem in John chapter 2 for Passover (which is in the spring), this festival may be later in the same year, since the Feast of Tabernacles is in the fall.

As Jesus was moving about the temple with His disciples, He made His way to the healing pool near the Sheep Gate. The Sheep Gate “is usually where sheep were sold for sacrifice in the Temple (Neh 3:32; 12:39). It was located on the NE side of the city near the Temple” (Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, Vol 1 pg. 551). Remember Jesus drove out the merchants in the temple court the last time He was there (https://onthepath.online/2019/05/31/first-temple-cleansing/), so I wonder if He was checking on the state of things since His last visit.

He instead discovers a different type of heresy, a legend about an angel stirring the water and imparting healing properties. The reason verse 4 is omitted in the main text and rather included in the footnotes is that “all the oldest manuscripts were copied without the latter part of verse 3 and all of verse 4” (Nelson KJV Bible Commentary pg. 1306). In 1880, a “painting depicting an angel troubling the water was discovered on the wall of the Church of St. Anne in Jerusalem” where many now believe the pool at Bethesda was located (Nelson KJV Bible Commentary pg. 1306). It’s clear, since some translations assert an angel stirred the water, that many people believed angelic activity to be the cause of the water’s healing property. Most scholars attribute this to superstition, and we can look at some of the Biblical context to support that assertion.

Ironically, the paralyzed man was still committed to the healing of the pool, even in the presence of Jesus. Through the verses that follow, we see the man didn’t know who Jesus was, but based on verse 14, it seems Jesus thought the man should have known better than to spend his entire existence chasing a myth, anyway. Rather than interpreting Jesus’s question in verse 6 as an offer to help and course correct, he interprets it as an affront against his lack of effort to get into the pool. Jesus heals him, anyway, demonstrating His supremacy over superstition and sickness and overshadowing the man’s mystical fascination with the pool. He further tells the man to carry his load and move on from that place.

Verse 9 foreshadows the controversy ahead (see Jeremiah 17:21). Notice the Pharisees who question the man in verse 10 do not ask in verse 12, “Who healed you”, but “Who told you to do this thing on the Sabbath?” Practically speaking, if Jesus had healed the paralytic, and he couldn’t have taken his mat with him, what would his options have been? Stay there by the pool as a captive for yet another day, not able to take advantage of his healing? Leave all his worldly possessions behind to be stolen or litter the ground? Also, what is the point of the Sabbath? Rest. The disabled man had spent 38 years in an incapacitated state. He did not have need of rest in the same prescriptive manner that able-bodied people need to rest every 7 days. This is the difference between observing the spirit of the law and the letter of the law. The Pharisees had enforced dictates for the entire Jewish population, without regard to the purpose of the law. “He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life” 2 Corinthians 3:6. Jesus had given the paralytic new life, through both physical healing and the commission to stop sinning.

After the initial inquiry by the Pharisees, the healed man sees Jesus again and finds out who He is. During this exchange, Jesus tells him to stop sinning lest something worse should befall him. When I first read this statement, I found myself rereading the beginning of the passage, trying to discern what sins the man had committed. The sin is unnamed by Jesus and could have been any number of things Jesus saw in the man’s heart. However, there may be some lessons for us through the actions and statements John recorded. The first, of course, was that the man placed his faith entirely in folklore, rather than God, but we also read notes of self-pity and self-justification in the dialogue. This lifestyle of sin was surely part of Jesus’s urgency in telling the man to leave the pool area, even on the Sabbath. We are to flee from sin, no matter the cost. “If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into hell” Matthew 5:29-30.

See the next post here https://onthepath.online/2019/12/27/the-equality-of-the-father-and-the-son/

Scripture References

Verse 1

Deuteronomy 16:1 Observe the month of Abib and celebrate the Passover to the LORD your God, because in the month of Abib the LORD your God brought you out of Egypt by night.

John 2:13 When the Jewish Passover was near, Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

Verse 2

Nehemiah 3:1 At the Sheep Gate, Eliashib the high priest and his fellow priests began rebuilding. They dedicated it and installed its doors. After building as far as the Tower of the Hundred and the Tower of Hananel, they dedicated the wall.

Nehemiah 3:32 And between the upper room above the corner and the Sheep Gate, the goldsmiths and merchants made repairs.

Nehemiah 12:39 over the Gate of Ephraim, the Jeshanah Gate, the Fish Gate, the Tower of Hananel, and the Tower of the Hundred, as far as the Sheep Gate. And they stopped at the Gate of the Guard.

John 7:21 Jesus answered them, “I did one miracle, and you are all astonished.

John 19:13 When Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat on the judgment seat at a place called the Stone Pavement, which in Aramaic is Gabbatha.

John 19:17 Carrying His own cross, He went out to The Place of the Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha.

John 20:16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to Him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher).

Acts 21:40 Having received permission, Paul stood on the steps and motioned to the crowd. A great hush came over the crowd, and he addressed them in Aramaic:

Revelation 9:11 They were ruled by a king, the angel of the Abyss. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek it is Apollyon.

Revelation 16:16 And they assembled the kings in the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.

Verse 3

Matthew 4:24 News about Him spread all over Syria, and people brought to Him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering acute pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed–and He healed them.

Verse 8

Isaiah 35:6 Then the lame will leap like a deer and the mute tongue will shout for joy. For waters will gush forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert.

Matthew 9:6 But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins…” Then He said to the paralytic, “Get up, pick up your mat, and go home.”

Mark 2:11 “I tell you, get up, pick up your mat, and go home.”

Luke 5:24 But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on the earth to forgive sins…” He said to the paralytic, “I tell you, get up, pick up your mat, and go home.”

Verse 9

Isaiah 35:6 Then the lame will leap like a deer and the mute tongue will shout for joy. For waters will gush forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert.

Jeremiah 17:21 This is what the LORD says: Take heed for yourselves; do not carry a load or bring it through the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day.

John 7:23 If a boy can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the Law of Moses will not be broken, why are you angry with Me for making the whole man well on the Sabbath?

John 9:14 Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened his eyes was a Sabbath.

Verse 10

Nehemiah 13:19 When the evening shadows began to fall on the gates of Jerusalem, just before the Sabbath, I ordered that the gates be shut and not opened until after the Sabbath. I posted some of my servants at the gates, so that no goods could enter on the Sabbath day.

Jeremiah 17:21 This is what the LORD says: Take heed for yourselves; do not carry a load or bring it through the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day.

Matthew 12:2 When the Pharisees saw this, they said to Him, “Look, Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.”

Matthew 12:10 and a man with a withered hand was there. In order to accuse Jesus, they asked Him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”

Luke 6:2 But some of the Pharisees asked, “Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?”

John 1:19 And this was John’s testimony when the Jews of Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him, “Who are you?”

John 5:16 Now because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews began to persecute Him.

John 7:23 If a boy can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the Law of Moses will not be broken, why are you angry with Me for making the whole man well on the Sabbath?

John 9:16 Because of this, some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for He does not keep the Sabbath.” But others said, “How can a sinful man perform such signs?” And there was division among them.

Verse 14

Ezra 9:14 shall we again break Your commandments and intermarry with the peoples who commit these abominations? Would You not become so angry with us as to wipe us out, leaving no remnant or survivor?

Mark 2:5 When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

John 8:11 “No one, Lord,” she answered. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Now go and sin no more.”

Verse 15

John 1:19 And this was John’s testimony when the Jews of Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him, “Who are you?”

John 5:16 Now because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews began to persecute Him.

John 5:18 Because of this, the Jews tried all the harder to kill Him. Not only was He breaking the Sabbath, but He was even calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.

Commentary

Neh 3:32 and between the room above the corner and the Sheep Gate the goldsmiths and merchants made repairs.

Neh 12:39 over the Gate of Ephraim, the Jeshanah Gate, the Fish Gate, the Tower of Hananel and the Tower of the Hundred, as far as the Sheep Gate. At the Gate of the Guard they stopped.