After this, there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem at the Sheep [Gate] a pool called in Hebrew Bethesda, with five porticoes. 3 In these lay a large number of ill, blind, lame, and crippled. [4] 5 One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been ill for a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be well?” 7 The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; while I am on my way, someone else gets down there before me.” 8 Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your mat, and walk.” 9 Immediately the man became well, took up his mat, and walked. Now that day was a sabbath. 10 So the Jews said to the man who was cured, “It is the sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.” 11 He answered them, “The man who made me well told me, ‘Take up your mat and walk.’” 12 They asked him, “Who is the man who told you, ‘Take it up and walk’?” 13 The man who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away, since there was a crowd there. 14 After this Jesus found him in the temple area and said to him, “Look, you are well; do not sin any more, so that nothing worse may happen to you.” 15 The man went and told the Jews that Jesus was the one who had made him well. 16 Therefore, the Jews began to persecute Jesus because he did this on a sabbath. 17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father is at work until now, so I am at work.” 18 For this reason the Jews tried all the more to kill him, because he not only broke the sabbath but he also called God his own father, making himself equal to God.
Jesus was in Jerusalem for a feast. Those who were ill believed that when the water in the pool by the Sheep gate was stirred up by an angel the first one into the pool would be healed (v. 7). There was a man who was ill for a long time and everyone was accustomed to seeing him lying by the pool. It was a Sabbath, and the Jews were watching to see if Jesus would violate the Sabbath. Jesus asked the man “Do you want to be well (v. 6)?” The man wanted to be cured and thought that Jesus would physically take him down to the pool to be healed because he could not get to the pool on his own. He did not know who Jesus was. Jesus, showing compassion, healed the man who had been ill for thirty-eight years with his word so there could be no doubt about the man’s sickness or the cure. Jesus told the man, “Take up your mat, and walk (v. 8).” This healing by Jesus showed that His word is the source of faith, not the signs that he did, and his word has immediate effect. Jesus disappeared into the crowd.
Jesus subsequently found the man in the temple area and said to him, "Do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse may happen to you (v. 14).” There were many rules pertaining to the Sabbath (Sabbatarian prohibitions) and carrying a mat on the Sabbath was prohibited. The man reported to the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. When Jesus heals, he often forgives the sins of those he healed. The Jews, instead of recognizing that Jesus was the Messiah as foretold in the Scriptures, began to persecute him. Jesus’ response (v. 17) was to make a statement calling God his father and the source of his power thereby giving himself the same status as God which was blasphemy. That incensed the Jews even more, so they plotted to kill him because he had violated the Sabbath and made himself equal to God.
Almighty God, we are all ill and in need of your healing grace. In your compassion increase our faith through the hearing of your word so that we may detest all that offends you and love all that you command. This we pray through Christ our Lord. Amen!
Chiu, José Enrique Aguilar, et al. The Paulist Biblical Commentary. Paulist Press, 2018.
Brown, Raymond Edward, et al. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Upper Saddle River, NJ, United States, Prentice Hall, 1990.
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