John 5:1-29

Lesson Focus

Jesus gets in trouble for healing a man on the sabbath, but the episode allows Jesus to more clearly reveal himself as the one who brings light, life, and healing.

Lesson Outcomes

Through this lesson, students should:

Understand the significance of Jesus healing someone on the Sabbath.
Understand why the religious leaders were so upset at Jesus making himself equal to God.
Begin to discover who Jesus is, his relationship to the Father, and what he’s come to do.

Catching Up on the Story

As we’ve made our way through John’s gospel, we’ve had the privilege of listening in on Jesus' conversations with others. Most of these conversations eventually reveal to Jesus’ conversation partner who Jesus truly is. Who is Jesus? Jesus is the Word who was there at the beginning of all things. Jesus is the light shining in the deep darkness. Jesus is the Son of God, with whom the Father is well pleased. Jesus is powerful in word and in deed, turning water into wine and healing a boy from a life-threatening sickness from afar. Jesus is the one who gives a new birth and a new life to those who step into the light. Jesus is the one lifted up so that salvation can be found. Jesus is the giver of the water of life, and whoever drinks the water of life will no longer be thirsty. Jesus is the “I am,” the Messiah, the one for which Israel has waited such a long time.

Bit by bit, the author of John’s gospel crafts his narrative so that you and I can develop a fuller picture of who Jesus is, why he’s here, what he’s doing, and our place in God’s ongoing mission in the world. Some, however, are threatened by Jesus’ revelation about God and God’s work in the world. At this point in the narrative, those threatened by the authority Jesus holds have not yet begun to persecute him. All of that changes with this week’s passage.

The Text

This week’s passage can roughly be divided into three sections. The first section is the inciting incident. Jesus heals on the sabbath, which gets him in trouble. The aftermath of Jesus’ sabbath healing leads to two subsequent encounters with the man Jesus healed. First, the religious leaders question the man about why he is carrying his mat on the Sabbath. The healed man doesn’t know who healed him, though. A little later, the man runs into Jesus again, finally learning the identity of the man who has dramatically changed his life. Presumably, not knowing that informing the religious leaders of who healed him would land Jesus in trouble, the man goes to the religious leaders.

Consequently, the leaders question Jesus about his behavior, only to have Jesus tell them he’s only doing his Father’s work. For the Jewish religious leaders, this is blaspheme, as Jesus has claimed equality with God. The final section contains Jesus’ response to the religious leaders. The monologue serves as a proclamation of Jesus’ divinity and his authority in this world.

The Inciting Incident: Jesus Heals on the Sabbath - 5:1-9

After Jesus heals the sick boy from afar, John changes the scene, which is at once vague and detailed. The setting is vague because Jesus is in Jerusalem for “a festival of the Jews.” By this time, the Jews had several important festivals for which a person, especially a teacher, would want to travel to Jerusalem. However, John doesn’t tell us what festival Jesus came to Jerusalem to celebrate. The story is detailed because it provides geographic makers with information about where exactly the scene unfolds. The Sheep Gate was located near the Temple. Near this gate, there was a pool where those who were sick or disabled would gather to be healed. Again, John is vague in explaining how those healings took place. We know this pool is named Bethzatha and has five porticoes nearby, but we aren’t told what special power resides in the water that makes it efficacious for healing.

Among the many congregating around the pool was a man who had been ill for thirty-eight years. Upon entering the area, Jesus spies this disabled man and approaches him. We aren’t told why Jesus was drawn to this specific man other than that he had been there a rather long time. It’s safe to assume that others had also been there for an extended time. Drawing close to the man, Jesus asks what seems to be a rather stupid question whose answer is obvious. “Do you want to be made well?” I long to be healed from the common cold by which I will be afflicted for a week at the longest; how much more so does this man crave healing after suffering for thirty-eight years?

One commentator muses about the nature of the question, “Some connection has to be made, and one can hear in Jesus’ question an invitation to friendship, almost a promise, definitely some kindness, and not just a clinically technical inquiry” (Bruner, 298). I wonder if, in our attempts to keep Jesus’ deity in focus, we miss how Jesus is deeply moved by human suffering. I imagine Jesus wanders to the man and squats down to address him. While Jesus’ physical position is standing above and over the man, we can safely assume that a posture of dominance or superiority is not Jesus’ intention. I imagine that Jesus approached the man from behind, and to get the man’s attention, he reached out and gently tapped the man’s shoulder. Startled by the sudden and unexpected touch, the man awkwardly twists to see who his guest is. Finally, the man’s eyes meet Jesus’ face, locking onto Jesus’ bright yet kind eyes.

The disabled man isn’t content with a simple “yes.” Perhaps because he has languished there for so many years, he feels he needs to justify his lack of healing. Patiently, Jesus hears the man’s response. Jesus does not press the man for more details and doesn’t chastise him for not trying harder. Jesus isn’t nearly as interested in why the man is there as he is in restoring him to a wholeness he has not known for so long. “Stand up, take your mat and walk.”

John tells us that “at once,” the man was healed. Whatever the ailment (we often assume it’s paralyzation), the man does as he is told. Surely motivated by a desire to proclaim to all that he knew, his family and friends, if he had any, that he had been healed, the man walks off, and the scene shifts to follow the man as he makes his way to wherever he’s going. Before he can get too far, however, he’s spotted by some Jewish religious leaders who are more than a little put out that this man is carrying his mat.

The Aftermath: The Religious Leaders Get Upset - 5:10-14

The day the man was healed happened to be the Sabbath. One of their God-given rules, observing the sabbath, was rather important. To disregard the sabbath was to minimize the entire Jewish law. While there were exceptions for performing life-saving work, carrying your mat was expressly forbidden. The man knew or should have, at least, that carrying his mat would have drawn the attention of the religious leaders. The leaders want to know who gave this man permission to carry his mat. They do not yet know the man has just been healed.

The healed man responds the way that children often do when one parent catches them doing something for which they need permission, “Why are you watching a movie?” the child responds, “Mom said I could.” The response indicates that the healed man is appealing to a higher power than the religious leaders seem to posses, only the man doesn’t know the identity of the one who miraculously healed him.

Later, John doesn’t tell us how long later, the healed man and Jesus have another encounter. With the same compassionate face and kind eyes, Jesus proclaims, “See, you have been made well! Do not sin anymore so that nothing worse happens to you.” We might be tempted to hear Jesus’ statement with a twinge of judgmentalism. As in, the man’s condition was caused by some great sin and his lack of repentance dragged on for thirty-eight years. Now that he’s been healed, will he be able to avoid his past sins so as not to end up right where he started?

There’s a long discussion to be had concerning the connection between sins and things like sickness, loss of property, or life, but that’s not the point that Jesus (or John) is trying to make. There are two things we need to highlight in Jesus’ proclamation. First, Jesus invites the man to recognize his healing. To a certain extent, the man has already done so. That Jesus finds the healed man in the Temple is telling. Throughout the Old Testament, praise and worship are the only appropriate response to God’s miraculous intervention in people's lives. It appears that the healed man is responding appropriately to this sudden gift of grace he has received.

Second, Jesus invites the man to continue to live in a way that reflects the wholeness he now experiences. Amid or after a brush with death, sickness, or some other major calamity, it’s common to declare one’s commitment to living life in Christ-like and holy ways. The temptation, however, is that the further one gets away from the salvation they receive, the more prone they are to forget how they had been so miraculously saved. By admonishing the man to stay away from sin, Jesus encourages him to live in grateful response to the new life he has been given.

The Response: Jesus Declares his Divinity and Authority - 5:15-29

The healed man leaves his conversation with Jesus and heads straight to the Jewish religious leaders. We don’t know what the man’s intentions were in doing so. Perhaps he thought the religious leaders needed to know who among them was so powerful as to heal a man. Perhaps the man thought the religious leaders would want to team up with Jesus.

A gap between verses 16 and 17 leads us to imagine what transpires next. We’re told that this episode begins the persecution Jesus will face. The reason the religious leaders begin to persecute Jesus? We’re told it’s because he was working on the Sabbath. In between verses 16 and 17, the religious leaders question Jesus regarding the legitimacy of his authority to do things like healing on the Sabbath. Jesus responds, “My Father is still working, and I also am working.”

Jesus’ statement landed him in deeper trouble. Not only is he breaking the sabbath law, he’s calling God his father. That might not seem strange to us today, as we’re comfortable referring to God as our Father, and evening addressing God that way in prayers like the Lord’s Prayer. For the Jews, however, by calling God his father, Jesus places himself on equal footing with God. Again, this isn’t strange for us. Confessing that God exists as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in a relationship of mutuality and love is an orthodox position upon which all who call themselves Christians can agree. For the Jewish religious leaders, however, claiming equality with God was punishable by death. The trajectory of Jesus’ life has now been set, but it will be a while until the religious leaders succeed in ridding themselves (or so they think) of Jesus.

If we stop at verse 18, it would be easy to assume that Jesus’ interaction with the Jewish religious leaders has concluded. What follows, however, is a monologue Jesus gives in his defense. Instead of backtracking or softening his rhetoric to mitigate the trouble he’s in, Jesus doubles down on his divine identity, his equality with God, and their work in the world.

John’s prose can seem a bit wordy and hard to follow. Let’s break down Jesus’ response to the religious leader into easily digestible nuggets. Verses 19-29 can roughly be split into three sections.

Jesus and the Father

Jesus can’t do anything without the Father. He can only do what he sees the Father doing.
The relationship between Jesus and the Father is one of love and inclusion in God’s mission.
Jesus will do more things that point to his divinity, things at which the leaders will be astonished.

Life and Judgement

The Son gives life, just like the Father gives life.
The Father doesn’t judge; that’s Jesus’ job. (It’s not our job, either!)
The way you honor Jesus is the way you honor God.

From Death to Life

Those who simply trust in God and the words Jesus speaks pass from death to life.
The time is already here, but not yet fully here, when the dead (metaphorically?) will hear Jesus’ voice and live.
The time is coming when the dead in their graves will hear Jesus’ voice and experience resurrection.
The good will be raised to life, while the bad will experience the resurrection of condemnation.