#1474 John 5 Part 1 Stirring the Pot

 

After these things 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, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porticoes. 3 In these lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered, [waiting for the moving of the waters; 4 for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water; whoever then first, after the stirring up of the water, stepped in was made well from whatever sickness with which he was afflicted.] 5 And a man was there who had been sick for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been sick a long time, He *said to him, “Do you wish to get well?” 7 The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I am coming, another steps down before me.” 8 Jesus *said to him, “Get up, pick up your mat and walk.” 9 And immediately the man became well, and picked up his mat and began to walk.

Now it was the Sabbath on that day. 10 So the Jews were saying to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.” 11 But he answered them, “He who made me well was the one who said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’” 12 They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Pick up your mat and walk’?” 13 But the man who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away while there was a crowd in that place. 14 Afterward Jesus *found him in the temple and said to him, “Behold, you have become well; do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you.” 15 The man went away, and disclosed to the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. 16 And for this reason the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because He was doing these things on the Sabbath. 17 But He answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.” John 5: 1-17 LSB

John 5: 1-17 LSB

After these things - After the revival in Samaria and the healing of the royal official's son from Capernaum. 

V. 2 By the Sheep gate - This is the entryway where the sheep were brought in for the sacrifices at the temple. These taught that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin. It is also the picture, on a massive scale, of the doctrine of substitutionary atonement. It also teaches that there is only one way, Christ being the temple, the altar and the sacrifice, so they were to pilgrimage to this one place, the temple in Jerusalem. One can quickly see here, in reflecting back upon the Samaritan woman at the well, what Jesus means when He tells her, "you worship what you do not know." Jesus was the fulfillment of all that the temple pointed to, what every lamb without spot pointed to, the total and final culmination of every sacrifice and the only perfect Keeper of the law. 

1At the Sheep Gate, Eliashib the high priest and his fellow priests began rebuilding. They dedicated it and installed its doors. After building as far as the Tower of the Hundred and the Tower of Hananel, they dedicated the wall. 2The men of Jericho built next to Eliashib, and Zaccur son of Imri built next to them. 3The Fish Gate was rebuilt by the sons of Hassenaah. They laid its beams and installed its doors, bolts, and bars.… Nehemiah 3: 1-3

…21“Believe Me, woman,” Jesus replied, “a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22You worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23But a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such as these to worship Him.… John 4: 21-23 

…25Nor did He enter heaven to offer Himself again and again, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. 26Otherwise, Christ would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But now He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of Himself. 27Just as man is appointed to die once, and after that to face judgment,… Hebrews 9: 25-27

V. 2b A pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda - This area has been located during archeological digs at the temple site. Means house of mercy.

Spurgeon's Exposition - This pool of Bethesda was rightly called “the house of mercy”; but it might have just as truly named “the house of misery”: for its “five porches” were the abode of many who were in misery, and who needed mercy.

V. 3 Waiting for the moving of the waters - The sick that came here had a superstitious belief that angels came and stirred the water, and that someone had been healed by climbing into the pool on such an occasion. It was probably just air pockets or the rising of water that seeped into this spring/artesian well after rains ( "certain seasons" ). Whatever the phenomena, these sick and invalid surrounded the pool begging for alms and hoping for a miracle. 

V. 6 Do you wish to get well - In verse 7 the man answers Jesus according to the issue as he sees it. He thinks he needs to get in the well in order to get well. He already knows a way to get well, and the way he sees it is that his problem is that he can't get there fast enough before someone else steals the blessed miracle of the angels stirring the water. It's apparently a race, a competition to see who gets there first. 

V. 8 Get up, pick up your mat and walk - Jesus didn't wait for the waters to be stirred, didn't need a bottle of Evian or some magical, mineral laced water from some remote spring in Florida, no, He just commands the cells He made and they respond. Nature has to obey the Creator. The man, who had been sick for 38 years, gets up well. 

V. 10 It is the Sabbath and it is not lawful for you to carry your mat - The Sabbath laws were written against commerce, against not giving people, animals and even the fields rest. It was to be extended to believers and non believers alike. It was no violation to do good on the Sabbath, and there was room for works of necessity, like pulling your mule out of a ditch, but the Pharisees had added so many ridiculous things to the law that when Jesus kept the law both in Spirit and in truth, yet He was judged as a law breaker. He is the only One to ever keep the law according to the Author's intent. Having been paralyzed here by the pool, it would now be a work of necessity in order for him to leave. Naturally he would have to carry his mat, but this was not engaging in business. They were stuck upon the letter, and much of it was their own traditions. Jesus uses this opportunity to pick a fight with them once again, and once again to clearly defy their erroneous teachings. 

19 Thus Yahweh said to me, “Go and stand in the public gate, through which the kings of Judah come in and go out, as well as in all the gates of Jerusalem, 20 and say to them, ‘Listen to the word of Yahweh, kings of Judah and all Judah and all inhabitants of Jerusalem who come in through these gates: 21 Thus says Yahweh, “Take care of yourselves, and do not carry any load on the sabbath day or bring anything in through the gates of Jerusalem. 22 You shall not bring a load out of your houses on the sabbath day nor do any work, but keep the sabbath day holy, as I commanded your fathers. 23 Yet they did not listen or incline their ears, but stiffened their necks in order not to listen or receive discipline.

24 “But it will be, if you listen carefully to Me,” declares Yahweh, “to bring no load in through the gates of this city on the sabbath day, but to keep the sabbath day holy by doing no work on it, 25 then there will come in through the gates of this city kings and princes sitting on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their princes, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and this city will be inhabited forever. 26 And they will come in from the cities of Judah and from all around Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin, from the Shephelah, from the hill country, and from the Negev, bringing burnt offerings, sacrifices, grain offerings, and frankincense, and bringing sacrifices of thanksgiving to the house of Yahweh. 27 But if you do not listen to Me to keep the sabbath day holy by not carrying a load and coming in through the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire in its gates, and it will devour the palaces of Jerusalem and not be quenched.”’” Jeremiah 17: 19-27

2 But when the Pharisees saw this, they said to Him, “Look, Your disciples do what is not lawful to do on a Sabbath.”

3 But He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he became hungry, he and his companions,

4 how he entered the house of God, and they ate the consecrated bread, which was not lawful for him to eat nor for those with him, but for the priests alone?

5 “Or have you not read in the Law, that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple break the Sabbath and are innocent?

6 “But I say to you that something greater than the temple is here.

7 “But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire compassion, and not a sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.

Lord of the Sabbath

8 “For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” Matthew 12: 2-8

V. 11 He Who made me well was the One Who said to me, "Pick up your mat and walk" - It's an appeal to the possible authority someone would have who could also heal like this. In other words, Jesus made me do it; it's His fault. 

V. 13 Did not know Who it was - He didn't know Jesus, only that this man healed him. He wasn't familiar with Him enough to offer up a name. The Pharisees are quite intimidating to these people though. They are the moral police, the enforcers, and they claim to be about the ways of God, but really just stand in the way since they don't conform to it's sound teaching. They don't even recognize the Messiah that the law and the prophets point to, so they treat Jesus like their father's treated the prophets.

V. 14 Jesus found him in the temple - Christ makes Himself known to the man that the Jewish leaders consider to be a breaker of the law. Jesus also knows what's in the heart of man but chooses to do so anyway. The truth will not always be so well received, but we are told to tell it anyway.

V. 14b Do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you - Here is a call to repent, like He said to the adulterous woman, go and sin no more. So what if you are healthy in this life, or as in her case you skip out on being stoned that day. What is it to live longer if you are not right with God for eternity? We do not understand the need for Jesus until we understand the state we are in, the severity of sin and the Holiness of God. Only someone who knows themselves to be a sinner can ever begin to appreciate the Savior. 

Gotquestions.org - The postscript to the story reveals that the man who was physically healed still needed spiritual healing. “Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, ‘See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you’” (John 5:14). Jesus’ words are a rebuke of an unnamed sin—the man was living contrary to God’s will somehow—and a warning of “something worse.” What could be worse than thirty-eight years of paralysis? How about an eternity in hell (see Mark 9:47+)?

Warren Wiersbe comments that "The Lord's words (John 5:14) suggest that the man's physical plight had been the result of sin; but Jesus did not say that the man's sins had been forgiven as He did in dealing with the sick man lowered through the roof (see Mark 2:1-12). It is possible to experience an exciting miracle and still not be saved and go to heaven! (Bible Exposition Commentary) - Precept Austin

V. 15 Disclosed to the Jews - Maybe this is part of the "do not sin anymore". When Jesus addressed his physical state He did it differently than the man had been hoping all those many years. He made him well, not by way of the spring, but by His word. The man still doesn't seem conscious of his spiritual state, and there is no more dialogue on the matter. He leaves Jesus to go tell the Jewish leaders Who it was now. I would say that this points to a greater trust in the religious rulers as to spiritual matters. 

The man went away - This is a sad description - Note first he fails to ask Jesus what He meant by do not sin. Secondly, he failed to query Him about the something worse he might experience! It is tragic that he leaves the Light of the world to go to the darkness of the Jewish leaders. We cannot discern with certainty his eternal fate, but this decision to walk away from Jesus and seemingly to "turn Jesus in" to the authorities at leasts suggests that spiritual healing did not accompany his physical healing (of course ultimately we have to wait until we get to Heaven as he may have had a subsequent change of heart as he recalled this encounter!)

MacArthur agrees writing "It is astonishing that he would accept this healing after nearly four decades of terrible distress and then walk away from Jesus and show his loyalty to the Jews who hated Him. This has to be one of the great acts of ingratitude and obstinate unbelief in Scripture. He did not intend to praise or worship Jesus for healing him." - Precept Austin

V. 16 For this reason the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because He was doing these things on the Sabbath - They had turned His Father's house into a den of thieves, but this is the way of apostates, that doesn't bother them, but Him not following their misinterpreted rules about the Sabbath, that gives them something to go after Him for. They hate him.

…4And He asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?” But they were silent. 5 Jesus looked around at them with anger and sorrow at their hardness of heart. Then He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out, and it was restored. 6At this, the Pharisees went out and began plotting with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.… Mark 3: 4-6

I like the way W E Vine says it - "They were “up in arms to defend their favorite piece of legalism....Their religious zeal utterly outweighed any consideration of the marvelous deliverance granted to the cripple and his joy and comfort in his healing. Religion is the greatest persecuting force in the world. From the days of Cain onward it is in religion that the innate enmity of the natural mind toward God is particularly manifested, and as each sign disclosed something of what God is in the person of His Son there was a rising tide of opposition to the One thus revealed and the great incomprehensible depths of mercy and grace of God. (Collected Writings of W.E. Vine)

Spurgeon's Exposition - This was a mere pretense, an idle excuse for their enmity. They not only hated Christ; but they must besmear him with their calumnies, and make him out to be an evil-doer although he was goodness itself.

Because (term of explanation) He was doing these things on the Sabbath (sabbaton) - Doing what things? Healing on the Sabbath broke their legalistic man-made rules. Tradition can sometimes be good, but when it counters God's word, the results are never good! - Precept Austin

V. 17 My Father is working until now - He only does what He sees the Father doing, so as our eternal head, the head of the church, the body of Christ, this is the great example of Christian living, of being right with the Father. The Pharisees would try to limit God to their own traditions, teaching a means that does not end in salvation. It directly refuses the only way provided.

…2But in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom He made the universe. 3The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His nature, upholding all things by His powerful word. After He had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. 4So He became as far superior to the angels as the name He has inherited is excellent beyond theirs.… Hebrews 1: 2-4

John MacArthur comments that Jn 5:1-7:52 "evidences the shift from reservation and hesitation about Jesus as Messiah (Jn 3:26; Jn 4:1-3) to outright rejection (Jn 7:52). The opposition started with controversy regarding Jesus' healing on the Sabbath (Jn 5:1-18), intensified in chap. 6 with many of His disciples abandoning Him (Jn 6:66), and finally hardened in chap. 7 into official opposition against Him with the religious authorities' unsuccessful attempt to arrest Him (Jn 7:20-52). Accordingly, the theme of this section is the rejection of Jesus as Messiah. (Borrow The MacArthur Study Bible)

Spurgeon's Exposition - The whole work of nature is continued on Sabbath-days as well as other days. Stars shine through the Sabbath-night, and the sun rises and sets on the Lord’s-day as on all the days of the week. God’s work continues. “My Father worketh,” saith Christ, “and I work.” “My work is my Father’s work, and that goes on whatever the day may be.” - Precept Austin