John 5
Jesus criticizes his critics
Jesus Practices Medicine on the Sabbath
1Jesus later went back to Jerusalem for another religious holiday celebration. [1] 2Near the Sheep Gate entrance into the walled city of Jerusalem there was a five-sided pool called Bethesda. Outside of the pool, there were five shaded areas with open-air roofs supported by columns.3Sick and disabled people would lay there in the shade—people who were blind, lame, and suffering from paralysis. {They would watch the water and wait for it to suddenly stir. 4From time to time, an angel would go down and stir the water. When that happened, whoever jumped in first got healed.} [2]
5One man by the pool had been disabled for 38 years. 6Jesus saw the man lying there. And when he found out how long the man had been sick, he asked him, “Would you like to be healed?”
7The sick man said, “Sir, I don’t have anyone helping me get into the pool. When the water is stirred, someone else always beats me into the pool.”
8Jesus told the man, “Stand up. Pick up that mat of yours and walk.” 9That’s all it took. Instantly the man was healed. He picked up his mat and started walking. But it happened on the Sabbath. [3]
Jews Criticize the Healed Man
10Some Jews saw the man Jesus healed. They said, “Hey, what do you think you’re doing? It’s the Sabbath. It’s against the Law for you to carry your mat.”11He replied, “The man who made me well told me to do it. He said, ‘Pick up that mat of yours and walk.’”
12They started to interrogate him. “Who told you, ‘Pick up that map of yours and walk’?”
13The man didn’t know who healed him. He didn’t know who Jesus was. After the healing, Jesus slipped back into the crowd.
14Later, Jesus saw the man in the Temple. Jesus called out to him, “Look at that! You’ve been healed! Don’t sin anymore. If you do, it could make life even worse for you.”
15The man went to the Jews and told them that it was Jesus who healed him. 16That’s why Jews started criticizing Jesus. He was healing people on the Sabbath, when he should have been taking the day off.
17Jesus told his critics, “My Father isn’t taking time off. He’s always working. I’m working too.” 18For that remark, Jews started exploring ways to kill him. He not only broke the Sabbath but also called God his own Father. That would make him equal to God.
19Jesus said to them, “I’m going to tell you the truest truth. [4] The Son can’t do a thing on his own. All he can do is follow his Father’s lead and do what he does. Whatever the Father does, the Son does. 20The Father loves the Son and lets him see everything he’s doing. I’m telling you, he’s going to show the Son bigger things than you’ve seen before. Get ready to be amazed. 21The Father brings the dead back to life. The Son is going to do it too. And he’ll do it to whomever he wants.
22“Another thing, you should know that the Father doesn’t judge anyone. He delegated all judgment to the Son. 23He did this so everyone would honor the Son like they honor the Father. Anyone who dishonors the Son dishonors the Father who sent him.
24“I’m going to tell you another truest truth. [5] I’ve got good news for anyone who hears me and believes in the God who sent me. That person gets to bypass judgment and go straight to eternal life. Everyone else goes from life to death.
The Dead Will Come Alive
25“I’ll tell you another truest truth. The time is coming—and it has already come—when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and they’ll come back to life. 26The Father has the power of life. It’s part of who he is. He has given that same power of life to his Son. 27He also gave his Son the full authority to judge and sentence people because the Son of God is also the Son of Humans.28“Don’t be shocked by any of this. The time is coming when everyone lying dead in the grave will hear his voice. 29When they do, they’re coming back. The good ones get resurrected into a new life. The bad ones get resurrected for punishment. 30I can’t do a thing on my own. I make the same judgment calls that I hear my Father making. So, the judgment calls I make are fair and just. That’s because I’m doing what the Father wants. He sent me.
Court-style Witnesses for Jesus
31“Imagine me testifying for myself. If I’m the only one talking about me, who’s going to believe it? 32But I’m not the only one talking. There’s another one who’s talking about me. And I know he’ll tell the truth.Witness: John the Baptist
33“You sent messengers to John the Baptist to check on me. What he told you was the truth. 34Who I am doesn’t depend on the perception of some human being. But I’m telling you this so you’ll accept John’s testimony and be saved. 35John was a light in the darkness. For a while, you gathered in the light and loved being there. 36But I’m counting on a witness far more convincing than John. That witness is the work the Father gave me to do, which I’m doing now.Witness: God the Father
37“The Father is a witness for me too, even though you’ve never heard his voice or seen what he looks like. 38In fact, his word hasn’t found a home in your heart. His teachings aren’t there. That much is clear because you don’t recognize the one he sent to you.The Bible Won’t Save Anyone
39“You immerse yourself in the Bible because you think it will save you. You think that’s the way to eternal life. It only points the way. It points to me. 40But you won’t come to me and live forever. 41Listen, I don’t need people coming to me and saying good things about me. That’s not what I’m asking for. I wouldn’t accept it anyhow. 42I know you. And I know God’s love when I see it. I don’t see it in you. 43I come here on behalf of my Father, yet you don’t want anything to do with me. But if someone else comes along simply because he wants to, you’ll welcome him, no doubt. 44Well, why should anyone expect you to believe in me? You want approval and compliments from other people. You don’t bother with approval and praise from the only God there is.Moses Will Condemn You
45“Just so you know, I won’t be the one accusing you when it comes time to stand in front of the Father. Moses will. It’s appropriate since he’s the one you hope will save you. [6] 46If you really believed Moses, you’d believe me because he wrote about me. [7] 47But if you don’t even believe in what Moses wrote, how on earth could you possibly believe my words?”Footnotes
John doesn’t identify which festival he’s talking about. He doesn’t seem to give any clues either. Some scholars guess John was referring to another Passover Festival, possibly the one mentioned in John 6:4.
The oldest and most reliable copies of the Gospel of John don’t include the bracketed section (5:3b-4). Possibly, some well-meaning editor inserted the story to explain how the water got stirred, as mentioned in John 5:7. Some scholars say there’s no reason to doubt what may have been an ancient legend about the angel. Yet some scholars speculate that if the water stirred, it would have been because of bubbles or something from the spring that fed the pool. There is currently no spring where archaeologists have identified the ruins of the pool.
One of the most basic Jewish laws, among the Ten Commandments, was the law to honor the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Jewish people were supposed to rest and worship on the Sabbath. They weren’t supposed to work. The Bible doesn’t go into detail identifying what is work and what isn’t. But the Pharisees did. One of their Sabbath rules prohibited practicing medicine, which they considered work. People were not supposed to do that unless someone was about to die. Pharisees would have suggested that Jesus wait another day to heal the man. But Jesus didn’t seem to care much about human-made rules, especially those that got in the way of helping people.
Some Bible scholars describe this as the “solemn truth,” “absolute truth,” or simply the “truth.” But in Greek it’s the “amen amen.” It’s the “truth truth.” Can I get an amen?
See the footnote for John 5:19.
Moses gave the Jews hundreds of laws that organized them as a nation of people devoted to God. Jewish leaders through the centuries that followed taught that the Jewish people should obey those laws if they expected God to keep them safe and prosperous (Deuteronomy 28:9-14).
Some scholars say it’s unclear if Jesus had any specific Bible passages in mind. If he did, one possibility: “Moses continued, ‘The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him’” (Deuteronomy 18:15, New Living Translation). Or maybe Jesus was thinking of himself as finishing the work Moses started. “Don’t think for one second that I came to repeal and replace our Bible—erasing the laws of Moses or the books of the prophets. I didn’t come to finish them off. I came to finish what they started” (Matthew 5:17).
Discussion Questions
- 1
There’s a questionable Bible verse in the miracle of Jesus healing the disabled man at the pool of Bethesda. The oldest copies of John’s Gospel do not have the description of sick people rushing to jump into the pool after an angel comes down to “stir the water” (John 5:4). Yet the context seems to imply that’s what was going on. That context may be why an editor penciled in the detail, if that’s what happened. If that’s what was going on, and people believed an angel was doing this, why wouldn’t Jesus call that out as crazy talk?
- 2
Whoa, Nellie. Jesus says that the person who believes God sent him “gets to bypass judgment and go straight to eternal life. Everyone else goes from life to death” (John 5:24). The apostle Paul said this: “Someday, we’ll all find ourselves standing in front of Christ. He’ll judge us. He’ll give us what we deserve, for better or worse, based on how we lived our life” (2 Corinthians 5:10). Who’s right? Jesus or Paul?
- 3
There’s a shock factor to this chapter. Jesus has a few jarring things to say. Scan down the verses. Can you find anything that sounds like something you didn’t think Jesus would say?
- 4
LIFE APPLICATION. It sounds like a Jewish joke. A man is miraculously healed after being disabled for 38 years. He picks up the mat he has been laying on, and for the first time in as long as he can remember he walks on his own power. Rabbis spot him and say, “Hey, what do you think you’re doing? It’s the Sabbath. It’s against the law for you to carry your mat” (John 5:10). Do Christians get legalistic like that in any way?
- 5
LIFE APPLICATION. Which of the following statements of Jesus from John 5 do you think Christians today would find most unsettling if Jesus said it to them? Also, which statement do you think would describe the most Christians?
- “You immerse yourself in the Bible because you think it will save you” (5:39).
- “I know God’s love when I see it. I don’t see it in you” (5:42).
- “You want approval and compliments from other people. You don’t bother with approval and praise from the only God there is” (5:44).
Maps/Guides
