Session 7 John 5:5-16
JOHN 5:5-16
MEMORY VERSE: JOHN 5:21
Pity usually involves our response to a situation. We define a person by what he or she is experiencing. Compassion usually involves our response to a person. We define the experience by how the person is impacted. Compassion tends to move us toward acting because our focus is on the person and not the situation. We see Jesus showing both pity and compassion as he interacted with an unnamed lame man.
(In PSG, p. 64)
Why does God choose to heal some people and not others? Only in His divine providence can we rest in the knowledge that His love for everyone does not eliminate anyone from His care. In John 5, the apostle highlighted Christ’s compassion and His unconditional love.
On His way into Jerusalem for an unspecified festival, Jesus found a large number of people gathered as usual around the Pool of Bethesda. Located just inside the northeastern wall of the city, the pool offered respite for Jesus and other travelers coming through the Sheep Gate. Possibly the gate’s name came from its being the place where sheep were brought for sacrifice or for the marketplace. Bethesda was one of several large water reservoirs for Jerusalem. The pool rested on two levels with porches, or colonnades, surrounding the four sides. Another wall divided the upper and lower levels.
In addition to pilgrims who stopped to wash and rest, many sick and injured people gathered on the porches. They believed that an angel occasionally stirred the water and the first person into the pool would be healed. Among those needing help, Jesus focused on one lame man. After healing the man, Jesus told him to take his mat and go home. When inquiring Jews—probably religious leaders—began to question him about Sabbath violations, the man pointed them toward Jesus, though he didn’t know His identity at the time. This set up the first of many confrontations between Jesus and the leaders recorded in John’s Gospel.
Jesus used the conflict as an opportunity to declare Himself to be the Messiah, God’s Son. In an extended discourse Jesus described His relationship with the Father. The Jewish leaders denounced His “work” on the Sabbath, but Jesus worked just as the Father worked. He was in out of line timately aware of the Father’s desires and did only what He saw the Father doing. As the Father had power to bestow life, the Son offered eternal life to all who believed in Him. Jesus prophesied of the coming day when people would hear and respond to the Son’s voice and live.
As Jesus continued to demonstrate His divine nature and power, He declared ways the Father had validated the Son. Evidence of His authority came from the Father. His works (such as this healing), His judgment, and His power derived not from human sources but from His deity.
EXPLORE THE TEXT
5 One man was there who had been disabled for thirty-eight years.
If someone with a short-term illness finds healing, the recovery could be attributed to natural processes or medical treatment. When Jesus healed people with long-term problems, though, He never hesitated to identify the Source. In Scripture, He healed a man blind since birth (John 9:1-34) and a woman who suffered a blood disease for twelve years (Mark 5:25-34). He also healed the man in this story, who had been disabled for thirty-eight years. Perhaps Jesus chose him because he had been lame for so long. Since doctors could obviously do nothing for him, God the Son chose to intervene.
John did not describe how the man got to Bethesda. Likely, some friends or family members carried him back and forth to the pool. The fact that he remained without anyone to help him suggests that they did not believe in the curative miracles attributed to the pool.
6 When Jesus saw him lying there and realized he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to get well?” 7 “Sir,” the disabled man answered, “I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I’m coming, someone goes down ahead of me.”$ $
The phrase when Jesus saw him lying there could mean Jesus met the man accidentally. However, Jesus never did anything by happenstance. We must envision the scene John painted in the earlier verses. This pool was the destination for many infirm people who came in desperation. Among the mass of sick and injured souls, Jesus saw this single man. Nothing about him commanded Jesus’s favor. Solely based on His purpose and compassion, Jesus approached this individual.
Realized suggests possessing knowledge. Jesus did not suddenly surmise that the man had been at the pool a long time. In His divine omniscience, He knew exactly how long the man had been disabled and how many times he had come to Bethesda hoping for help. Jesus understood the condition of his body and his heart. His words addressed both.
Remarkably, Jesus asked a question that seems unnecessary: “Do you want to get well?” The Lord knew the answer before He asked it, but He wanted the man to confront his need. Would he be willing to act on faith to receive healing? Unfortunately, many people fail to seek God’s help with their problems. Because of their unbelief and inaction, they miss opportunities to experience the Lord’s mercy.
John did not name the subject of Jesus’s question. He simply identified him as the disabled man. After so many years, that is likely how the man viewed himself. Others, too, probably did not consider other aspects of his life. His disability defined him.
The man could have responded indignantly to Jesus’s question. However, helplessness often begets humility. He addressed Jesus with a term that could be rendered lord or master, but in this context, it is best translated as Sir, an acknowledgment of respect. As evidenced by the man’s later reply to the Jewish religious leaders, he did not know who Jesus was. He would not know about Jesus’s previous miracles.
The man blamed his lack of wellness on the absence of anyone to help him. His condition prevented his getting into the pool when the water was stirred up. This superstition concerning the healing powers of the pool and the presence of an angel was not affirmed by Jesus. Some scholars believe the water moved because of a spring which fed the pool.
The man’s statement while I’m coming indicates that he had tried to act. His infirmity hindered his movement, and someone always went down ahead of him. Others brought him to the pool each day, but no one stayed to help him. Perhaps the man was left at Bethesda for days at a time, begging for food and depending on others to survive.
In any case, he had no one except Jesus to care for him.
8 “Get up,” Jesus told him, “pick up your mat and walk.” 9a Instantly the man got well, picked up his mat, and started to walk.
Jesus did not debate the man’s condition or join him in bemoaning his lack of aid. Instead, He commanded the man: “Get up.” Jesus often demanded personal action as evidence of belief. He rarely healed anyone without requiring some step of faith (see Matt. 13:58). The man had to act solely on Christ’s word.
In the same sentence, Jesus added to the instructions. Having risen, the man was to pick up your mat and walk. Someone who had been lame for so long would have experienced severe atrophy of the leg muscles. Yet, Jesus expected him not only to stand up on his own, but also to lift the mat on which he had been lying and carry it. Anyone standing nearby and watching this interaction would have been astonished.
The man’s response and healing were immediate. Instantly, he got well. Jesus does not command us without giving us the ability to carry out His instructions. The man perceived strength entering his broken body. Limbs that had lain lifeless began to move.
Recognizing what had happened, the man obeyed the second part of Jesus’s directions. He picked up his mat and started to walk. The tense of this verb describes an ongoing act of walking. His obedience in picking up his bed was as much an act of faith as standing up. Imagine the amazement of people nearby who had watched him lie in this place for many years! The context is silent about who might have heard Jesus speak to the man, but others undeniably witnessed the result.
Believers should offer compassion to all people. Like the man in this story, many needy people have no one to help them. God puts us in their paths so we can be His channel of blessing.
(In PSG, p. 67)
9b Now that day was the Sabbath, 10 and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “This is the Sabbath. The law prohibits you from picking up your mat.” 11 He replied, “The man who made me well told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’”
The term translated now connects two important elements of the story: the healing and the day it occurred. John made it clear that Jesus was fully aware that He had healed on the Sabbath. He also knew that the religious leaders would object to anything that resembled their traditional view of work. However, Jesus never allowed legalism to hinder His compassion.
Understanding Jewish rituals around the Sabbath is key to understanding the significance of both Jesus’s actions and His commands. Through the years, scribes and other teachers had added to the biblical law with an unbiblical result. Through that lens, Jesus violated the Sabbath by healing the man because that was considered work. Likewise, the man was breaking the rules because he was not allowed to carry anything on the Sabbath. So, as the man walked home with his mat, he was confronted by the Jews. John used this phrase to designate the religious leaders who upheld the Sabbath laws and opposed Jesus.
Over time, though, religious leaders had expanded the definitions of what the law prohibited. In fact, by the first century, Jewish rabbis had identified thirty-nine types of “work” forbidden on the Sabbath. One of these prohibitions was carrying a load from one place to another. They thought they could protect the law by building a wall around it, but they ended up replacing God’s intentions with their own traditions.
In this scenario, the accusers’ attitudes betrayed their hypocrisy. They viewed the man’s act as violating the Sabbath, but they did not see the more profound issues of their own pride, hostility, and lack of compassion. They were guilty of profaning the spirit of the Sabbath.
Probably frightened, the man tried to defend himself by deflecting responsibility to Jesus. He did not know Jesus’s name, so he simply referred to Him as the man who made me well. Rather than giving God glory, the man focused on the Jews’ accusations. He acknowledged he had been healed by this unknown benefactor, whom he also blamed for telling him to carry his mat. He should have been grateful after suffering for nearly four decades. Instead, his fear caused him to shift responsibility.
12 “Who is this man who told you, ‘Pick up your mat and walk’?” they asked.
Naturally, the Jews wanted to know who is this man. Their tone implied more than a request for information. They believed no religiously responsible Jew would tell someone to violate the Sabbath. These accusers were not concerned that the man was made whole, and they were not impressed that someone else had healed him. The Jews focused their indignation on whoever told the man to pick up his mat and walk. Failing to show compassion, they used religious practices as a weapon.
This action set the stage for a confrontation between Jesus and the leaders. The Sabbath was set aside as a day to glorify God by following His example of resting. To give this man physical rest through healing exemplified God’s intention for the day. The Jews were so obsessed with their definitions of Sabbath laws that they forgot the purpose behind the law. Legalism negates the spirit of God’s law by magnifying ritual and human tradition to the exclusion of love and compassion.
(In PSG, p. 68)
13 But the man who was healed did not know who it was, because Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.
After healing the man, Jesus had slipped away into the crowd. He knew the conflict was coming and wanted to speak to the man privately later on. He was not afraid of confrontation, but He would deal with the hypocrisy of these Jews in His own timing.
Consequently, the man did not know who it was. He never asked Jesus’s name either before or after his healing. Amazement at his new condition diverted his attention from the Healer to the healing.
Believers can affirm Jesus’s work in the lives of others. Sometimes God chooses to heal supernaturally. Other times, He uses doctors, medicine, and other human methods. Still, behind all healing, whether medical or miracle, stands the Great Physician. In His divine providence, God determines who and how to heal. We are called to recognize His work.
14 After this, Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well. Do not sin anymore, so that something worse doesn’t happen to you.”
Later on, Jesus deliberately sought the man out and found him in the temple. Perhaps the man simply came to pray, or he may have come to present an offering for his healing (Lev. 22:29). After all, for the first time in thirty-eight years, he could actually enter the house of God and worship there. However, the man still failed to look for the One who had healed him. Jesus, however, came looking for him.
Interestingly, Jesus cautioned the man, even though he was now well. Having been blessed with restoration of his limbs, the man should have been grateful. Instead, Jesus warned him that he should not sin anymore. The word anymore does not mean that his disability was the result of sin, but that he had maintained a sinful attitude in the past. While not all sin carries physical consequences, Jesus told him something worse than disability could happen if he continued to sin.
Too often, people experience God’s grace, only to forget their changed circumstances and return to their old lifestyle. We should remember how God demonstrates His grace in our lives and reflect gratitude for His work going forward.
15 The man went and reported to the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. 16 Therefore, the Jews be-gan persecuting Jesus because he was doing these things on the Sabbath.
The man did not use this opportunity to thank Jesus or seek further spiritual counsel. Instead, he reported to the Jews. Earlier, he found himself confronted by the Jewish leaders because he apparently broke their Sabbath traditions. He could have simply avoided them, but he deliberately went to tell them it was Jesus who had made him well. The man must have known they would be angry with Jesus. Nevertheless, he betrayed the One to whom he owed everything to gain the favor of those he owed nothing.
The Jews began persecuting Jesus as a result of His actions on the Sabbath. Following His discussion with them, He explained His right to heal on the Sabbath came from His relationship with the Father. His words demonstrated that everything He did and said came directly from the Father, who repeatedly approved of the Son. Because He not only had profaned (in their opinion) the Sabbath, but also claimed equality with God, these leaders became enraged and sought Jesus’s life.
Believers can celebrate the works of Jesus. Instead of being timid when it comes to testifying about Christ, we should proclaim His glory to everyone. People need to know why we follow Jesus. They also need His saving work in their lives. By glorifying Him, we can be His witnesses.
(In PSG, p. 71)
W should work to provide for the orphaned, the needy, the abused, the aged, the helpless, and the sick. (See Deuteronomy 10:18; James 1:27.)
Use a Bible dictionary to gain deeper insight.
Read an article about the Sabbath in a Bible dictionary. Note Bible passages cited in the article, reading selected passages. How do the Old Testament and New Testament teachings on the Sabbath complement each other? How did Jesus’s actions in John 5 demonstrate respect for the Sabbath and the rightness of acting on that day?