Jesus Heals On A Sabbath (Jn. 5:1-18)

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 cured the Royal official’s son in Galilee (Jn. 4:46-54) and the first verse of John chapter 5 states that, “Jesus went up to Jerusalem.”  Geographically, Jerusalem is located south of Galilee.  However, in the biblical context, the city of Jerusalem is of great spiritual and religious significance and is situated on a plateau approximately 2,500 feet above sea level.  A journey to the Jewish sacred center of worship was referred to as going up to Jerusalem despite the actual geographic location from where one was leaving.  

The healing at the Pool of Bethesda is not found in any of the other Gospels.  The Gospel of John includes unique stories and discourses emphasizing different aspects of Jesus' ministry and teachings that differ from those in the synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke).

After Jesus cured the royal official’s son, he went up to Jerusalem for a feast.  There was a pool at the Sheep (Gate) called Bethesda where many people with various illnesses gathered.  There was a belief that when an angel stirred the waters, the first person to enter the pool afterward would be healed.  There was a man who was ill for thirty-eight years 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 if he wanted to be healed.  The man wanted to be healed and thought that Jesus would physically take him down to the pool when the water was stirred up because he could not get to the pool first on his own.  He did not know who Jesus was.  Jesus, showing compassion, commanded the man to, “Rise, take up your mat, and walk (v. 8).”  The healing was immediate, and the man followed Jesus’ instructions.  The man was unaware of Jesus’ identity and Jesus disappeared into the crowd.  

The religious authorities confronted the man who was healed and told him that carrying a mat on the Sabbath was against their interpretation of the Mosaic Law.  The man who was healed explained that he was following the instructions of the man who healed him so the authorities tried to find out who had healed the man.  Jesus subsequently found the healed man in the temple area and warned him to avoid sin to prevent future harm.  This implied that the infirmity might have had something to do with personal sin.  

There were many Sabbath prohibitions and carrying a mat or any material burden 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 religious leaders began to persecute Jesus more instead of recognizing that the signs and wonders done by Jesus indicated that he was the long-awaited Messiah foretold in the Scriptures.  Jesus justified his actions by telling them that he was doing the work of his Father who was the source of his power thereby giving himself the same authority as God which was blasphemy.  That incensed the Jews even more, so they plotted to kill him because not only had he violated the Sabbath, but he also made himself equal to God which was punishable by death (Lev. 24:16).

Almighty God, we are all 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!

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References
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.

                Orchard, Bernard, et al. A Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture. Feb. 1953.