John 5:1-18--The Healing at the Pool on the Sabbath

John 5:1-18
English Standard Version
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The Healing at the Pool on the Sabbath
5 After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. 3 In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. 5 One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” 7 The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” 8 Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” 9 And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.

Now that day was the Sabbath. 10 So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.” 11 But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’” 12 They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” 13 Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. 14 Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.” 15 The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. 16 And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. 17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”

Jesus Is Equal with God
18 This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

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"After this" is an ambiguous term.  We don't know exactly how much time had passed, but we know that it's time for another pilgrimage feast where all the Jews are required to go to Jerusalem.  Jesus attends and He intentionally goes to the Pool at Bethesda (interestingly enough, "Bethesda" means "House of Mercy" or "House of Kindness," and God's mercy is about to be poured out here).

Jesus picks the spot, the day and the man on purpose.  Out of the huge crowd of people that were there looking for healing on that day, we only see Jesus talk to that one man.  Why didn't Jesus heal everyone?  Why this man that He knew was going to throw Him under the bus and tattle on Him later?  This man seemed to even have a larger issue according to Jesus later in that passage that seems to indicate that the man has unrepentant sin in his life and that he was in danger of hellfire and damnation.  So why would Jesus pick such a person to heal?  We don't see the end of the story to even know if this man was eternally saved later, but we would like to think that to be the case.

Jesus looks on this man and has compassion.  That's the same word as "mercy" in Hebrew and it's why it is fitting that this event happens at the place called "House of Mercy."  Jesus askes the man a simple question, "Do you want to be well?"  The obvious answer is, "Of course!  Why else would I be here?!?"  But the man doesn't answer that way.  Instead he breaks out into a pity-party of all the reasons about how everyone else is more privileged than him to get to the waters before him when they are stirred up (for he and the others believed that the waters there were stirred up by an angel and had healing properties when they were stirred up).  Jesus doesn't argue with the man and He doesn't make the man answer the question that he was asked, Jesus just simply speaks and commands the man to be healed and to immediately take action based on that healing--"Get up, take up your bed, and walk."  This should sound familiar to us who are familiar with the story of the paralytic let down through the roof by his friends.  Jesus says the same thing to that man and there are similar conversations there about the need for the forgiveness of sins and the indignation of the religious leaders that Jesus claimed to be God--in that passage because He said He had the power to forgive sins and in this passage because He claimed to be Lord of the Sabbath, said that He was always about doing His Fathers work, and in so doing claimed equality with God the Father by saying "My Father" (meaning that He would have to be the Son of God).  The Jews understood this clearly if we look at their reactions.  It seems strange to us that they would make such a big deal out of Jesus saying "My Father," but the Jews did not say that.  They would say "Our Father," just like Jesus said when He taught the disciples how to pray.  The Jews would never say "My Father," because that would mean they were claiming to be directly descended from God.  Remember, that's one of the main things that John wants us to see about Jesus in his gospel--that Jesus is the Son of God!

Jesus is in complete control of the situation here.  He could have just walked away after healing the man and the man would have never known His identity, but then Jesus wouldn't have addressed the real issue--the man's heart.  We see that the man was physically healed and was once again able to enter the Temple for the first time in 38 years, but Jesus finds the man, even after the man has thrown Jesus under the bus, saying that Jesus commanded him to break the Sabbath, because Jesus wants him to realize he has an even greater disability--his sin nature--that needs to be dealt with.  It's a disability the man has had since birth and that has very serious consequences--more serious than being cut off from God in the Temple, as he could be cut off from God for all eternity.  Jesus went back to this man at the pool and went back to the man in the Temple knowing that it would set off the chain of events where the Jews would have their mind set of killing Him.  Watch for how Jesus is keenly aware of the "time" and knows not only the day, but the hour of when His time has come.  Jesus is in complete control.

One other thing of note that we see in this passage is that Jesus seems to answer the thoughts of the Pharisees in verse 17, showing that He is omniscient.  We'll see Him do this several times (one of the other examples will be the case of the paralytic man that I mentioned earlier).  In many ways Jesus said with His mouth and His actions in this passage, "I am God, and you are not."