7: Healing on the Sabbath & Jesus’ Claims — John 5:1–47


5After this there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

² Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Bethzatha, which has five porticoes. ³ In these lay many invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. 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 there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be made well?” 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 making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.” ⁸ Jesus said to him, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.” ⁹ At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk.

Now that day was a sabbath. ¹⁰ So the Jews said to the man who had been cured, “It is the sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.” ¹¹ But he answered them, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Take up your mat and walk.’” ¹² They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take it up and walk’?” ¹³ Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had disappeared in the crowd that was there. ¹⁴ Later Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you have been made well! Do not sin any more, so that nothing worse happens to you.” ¹⁵ The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. ¹⁶ Therefore the Jews started persecuting Jesus, because he was doing such things on the sabbath. ¹⁷ But Jesus answered them, “My Father is still working, and I also am working.” ¹⁸ For this reason the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because he was not only breaking the sabbath, but was also calling God his own Father, thereby making himself equal to God.

¹⁹ Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise.
²⁰ The Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing; and he will show him greater works than these, so that you will be astonished. ²¹ Indeed, just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whomever he wishes.
²² The Father judges no one but has given all judgment to the Son, ²³ so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Anyone who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. ²⁴ Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come under judgment, but has passed from death to life.

²⁵ “Very truly, I tell you, the hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. ²⁶ For just as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself; ²⁷ and he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. ²⁸ Do not be astonished at this; for the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice ²⁹ and will come out—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.

³⁰ “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge; and my judgment is just, because I seek to do not my own will but the will of him who sent me.

³¹ “If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true. ³² There is another who testifies on my behalf, and I know that his testimony to me is true. ³³ You sent messengers to John, and he testified to the truth. ³⁴ Not that I accept such human testimony, but I say these things so that you may be saved.
³⁵ He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. ³⁶ But I have a testimony greater than John’s. The works that the Father has given me to complete, the very works that I am doing, testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me. ³⁷ And the Father who sent me has himself testified on my behalf. You have never heard his voice or seen his form,
³⁸ and you do not have his word abiding in you, because you do not believe him whom he has sent.

³⁹ “You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify on my behalf. ⁴⁰ Yet you refuse to come to me to have life. ⁴¹ I do not accept glory from human beings. ⁴² But I know that you do not have the love of God in you. ⁴³ I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; if another comes in his own name, you will accept him. ⁴⁴ How can you believe when you accept glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the one who alone is God? ⁴⁵ Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; your accuser is Moses, on whom you have set your hope. ⁴⁶ If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. ⁴⁷ But if you do not believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?”  NRSV

Get into the Word

1. What is the situation at the beginning of this chapter? What prompts Jesus to question the man? Why did Jesus begin with the question he asked?

2. How does the man first respond to Jesus? What is similar in his answer to the response of the woman at the well [4:11]? 

3. What does Jesus do next? How does the man respond? What problem do the Jews have with this situation? Why did they persecute Jesus? How do you feel about the Jews’ reaction? 

4. How does Jesus respond to the Jews’ accusations about the Sabbath? Do you think this helped the situation or made the Jews more upset? Why?

5. How does Jesus describe the relationship between himself and God the Father? What are the key aspects of this relationship?

6. How does Jesus describe the relationship between himself and those who believe? What makes this so significant to his audience?

7. What claims does Jesus 

make about God? About himself? How did the Jews react? How do you think you would have reacted?

8. How does Jesus verify what he is saying to the Jews? Who does he call as a witness to his truth? Do you think this helped his audience understand and believe?

9. What does Jesus say about the value of studying God’s word? What was wrong with the way the Jews went about studying the Scriptures?

10. Why do you suppose Jesus calls Moses the “accuser” of the Jews? What did Moses say about Jesus?

Get Personal

What is your attitude toward Sunday and worship? How are you looking at “work?” at “worship?” How does your attitude affect your practice of worship or your involvement in other church activities?

5:1. Jewish holy days — John doesn’t specify, but Jewish men were required to celebrate three feasts in Jerusalem: Passover, Pentecost and the Feast of Tabernacles.
5:2. Sheep Gate . . . Bethesda — in northeastern Jerusalem. Bethesda means “house of grace,” which is what the man who had been there 38 years experienced, although not as he expected. (Because of the healing associated with the pool many hospitals use the name, Bethesda.)
5:3-4. some translations include: waiting for a certain movement of the water, for an angel of the Lord came from time to time and stirred up the water. And the first person to step down into it afterward was healed – but this is probably a scribe’s later addition to explain the man’s statement in v. 7.
5:7. Someone else . . . — after 38 years of always being in second place, the man is resigned to his situation – he doesn’t even say “yes, but.”
5:14. See, you have been made well — Jesus confirms the man’s physical healing and warns him of his need for spiritual healing. Jesus’ miracles always have a spiritual purpose in John’s writing.
5:17. My Father — unlike the other three Gospels, John puts Jesus’ claim to equality with God much earlier in his ministry, (such a claim was blasphemy, a sin that called for the death penalty according to the Mosaic Law, [Lev 24:15-16]).
5:19-22. Explained — having just claimed to be equal to God, Jesus now describes the relationship between himself and God, the Father – one of love and shared responsibility and authority.
5:22. Has given all judgment to the Son — the Jews understood the idea of delegated authority or “agency,” in which the agent should be treated as if the principal person were present. Jesus

exercises power that God, the Father has given him, and he should be treated – “honored” – as God is [again
in v. 30].
5:24. Has eternal life — literally “the life of the world to come” – Jesus’ promise is for the present time, not some time in the future (as the Jews believed), because believers “has already passed” into life. Paul put it this way: the old life is gone; a new life has begun! [2 Cor 5:17].
5:27. Son of Man — the title is from the prophet, Daniel: I saw someone like a son of man coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient One and was led into his presence. 14 He was given authority, honor, and sovereignty over all the nations of the world, so that people of every race and nation and language would obey him, [7:13-14].
5:28. All the dead — Jesus is consistent with Jewish teachings that both the righteous and unrighteous will be raised at the last days.
5:31. Testimony — Jewish law required at least two witnesses to establish guilt, [Deut 17:6-7, 19:15]. Jesus sites John the Baptizer, as well as his teaching and his miracles (“signs”) as witnesses to his identity.
5:39. Scriptures — Jews read the Law as a list of the behaviors that led to eternal life; Jesus says the Scriptures depict his life and death as the means to receive “this life,” (a great example of focusing on the “trees” and totally missing the “forest”).
5:45. Moses — Jesus reminds the Jews that their own leader testified about him, yet they are still not believing: I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers; I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him. If anyone does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name, I myself will call him to account, [Deut 18:18-19].