Jesus Over the Sabbath Day (John 5:9–16)

Series: John: Life in Christ’s NameText: John 5:9–16

By: Shaun Marksbury Date: March 17, 2023

Venue: Living Water Baptist ChurchOccasion: AM Service

Introduction

There was a certain story I heard years ago that I came across again. It comes from a certain doctor’s report of his exchange at a university:

During the afternoon, I asked Dr. Klausner (professor in the Hebrew University in Jerusalem) if he would sign my autograph album to which he replied, “No, I am sorry; but it is the Sabbath.” I did not know until I made inquiry that night that the Talmud asserts that writing two words in succession is work, and if a man even signs his name on the Sabbath he has broken the Law.

As those of us gathered in his study discussing one subject after another, Dr. Klausner would climb a little stepladder and bring down some heavy tome from his shelves, open it, point to some relevant passage, then return the book and soon take down another. The Talmud says nothing about bringing down books from shelves as work — to write two words would be labor, but to develop a perspiration by reaching up for volumes and vigorously discussing them is not work!

This is a perfect illustration of what our Lord meant when he talked about his contemporaries “holding the tradition of the elders” (Mark 7:3).

There are many such inconsistencies regarding the Sabbath day which have cropped up over the past 2,000 or so years. The question is how Jesus would have us view them. We’ll be considering a bit of this today.

Before we get to that, though, let’s re-establish the context for this passage. We’re continuing the account of Jesus healing the lame man. We’re not entirely sure what the attitude of this man was, but we can say somethings for certain. First, he was trusting in the water to heal him, not the Lord, and may have even been in his frail state as the result of sin. He was also unaware of who Jesus was and therefore never requests healing from Him, even seeming to have a complaining response to Jesus’s question. He also fails to give any indication of faith or even gratitude after the healing, but reports Jesus to His enemies. While it may be that this is a simple soul who doesn’t think deeply about himself or the Lord, it seems just as likely that this is a man hardened in his sin who isn’t transformed by his time with Jesus. Lest you think him unworthy of the Lord’s attention, however, remember that we are all unworthy sinners!

Yet, beyond this man, Jesus, and the enemies of Christ, we have something else happening in this account. That something else is the Sabbath day. How should we think about this? We note several aspects about Jesus’s interaction with the Sabbath in this passage: Jesus heals and commands on the Sabbath, He finds and warns on the Sabbath. We even note in v. 17 that He works with the Father on the Sabbath, but we’ll cover that next time. The Sabbath commands were that there was to be no work done on the Sabbath, so was Jesus disregarding the Sabbath? No, and well see that as we go along.

First, Jesus Heals and Commands on the Sabbath (vv. 9–13)

Immediately the man became well, and picked up his pallet and began to walk. Now it was the Sabbath on that day. So the Jews were saying to the man who was cured, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not permissible for you to carry your pallet.” But he answered them, “He who made me well was the one who said to me, ‘Pick up your pallet and walk.’ ” They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Pick up your pallet and walk’?” 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.

We read this verse last time and noted how completely Jesus had healed this man. Formerly unable to move well, this man was able to stand at Christ’s command, bend and pick up his pallet, and then walk. This was a total miracle, one which is unexplainable by natural processes. Jesus supplied this man with everything he needed to fulfill the command.

Yet, the verse ends by foreshadowing trouble — “Now it was the Sabbath on that day.” Any Jewish reader would immediately see the problem here and anticipate what is coming. I note that because Jesus also obviously knew He healed the man on the Sabbath and was telling him to do something the Jewish leaders would not like.

Let’s back up for a moment and consider what the Sabbath is. The Hebrew term is shabbat, and it “is thought to be derived from the verb שָׁבַת (shavath), meaning ‘to rest.’ ” The first hint of the Sabbath comes right after the creation week; we read in Genesis 2:1–3, “Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.” This becomes the foundation for what comes later.

Let’s fast forward to when Moses gives the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20. He points back to creation, saying that He “blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.” Note the complete command in vv. 8–11,

Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.

Positioned in the Law during commandments centered around worshiping God (the first three commandments are to have no gods before the Lord, to not make an idol, and to not take God’s name in vain), Sabbath-keeping is related to worship. It is to be one day in seven, which, incidentally, only makes sense if the creation week of Genesis is describing what we would understand to be the normal definition of days; the people can, like God, devote six days to getting their work done and, as is implied here, rest on the seventh. Based on these facts, the explicit command is not to work on the Sabbath, and implicitly, the Sabbath is for worship and for rest.

That latter point is explicit in the second telling of the commandment in Deuteronomy 5:12–15. There is much similarity between the wording here, with only minor differences. For instance, likewise implicit here is the idea of reflecting upon God and His work on the Sabbath. Moreover, v. 12 begins with “observe” instead of “remember,” but it continues with similarity between the household requirements. Note the next verses, though: “Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant or your ox or your donkey or any of your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you, so that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you.” The implicit “rest” of Exodus 20 becomes explicit here.

The concept of rest adds an interesting layer to v. 15, which says, “You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to observe the sabbath day.” While this obviously refers to the Lord’s right to command them because He delivered them from slavery, this also highlights the one thing they were never allowed in their Egyptian bondage: a Sabbath rest. Now, they have rest and are commanded to partake of it!

There is much more that Scripture has to say about the Sabbath, but there are two instances that seem important to this passage. The first is in Jeremiah 17:21–22, which says, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Take heed for yourselves, and do not carry any load on the sabbath day or bring anything in through the gates of Jerusalem. 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 forefathers.’ ” In that moment, we see the people neither resting nor considering the things of God; they were in complete disregard for the Sabbath as they engaged in work like it was any other day of the week.

Post-exile, it looks like the people again disregarded Sabbath observance. Nehemiah saw the people bringing loads into the gates on the Sabbath, so, in Nehemiah 13:19, he says, “It came about that just as it grew dark at the gates of Jerusalem before the sabbath, I commanded that the doors should be shut and that they should not open them until after the sabbath. Then I stationed some of my servants at the gates so that no load would enter on the sabbath day.” He put a stop to the commerce that corrupted the Sabbath.

Now, this has been a short overview, but there really are two ways to walk away from these passages. The first is to see that Sabbath observance is a blessing — it’s a command to rest from one’s labors and to do literally nothing. The second way, however, is to see this as a command to expand upon, to consider all the manner of activities which God might forbid and focus on avoidance.

Unfortunately, most of the Jewish elders opted for the latter, seeing this command as one of burden. During the intertestamental period, laws and regulations grew in regard to the Sabbath — what you could and could not carry in your hands, how far you could walk, and even private enjoyments were restricted, such as marital concourse. One commentary notes that “dominant rabbinic opinion had analysed the prohibition into thirty-nine classes of work, including taking or carrying anything from one domain to another.” Another resource notes “Rabbi Johanan and Rabbi Simeon ben Lakish worked out the number of regulations imposed by the law of Sabbath observance, and arrived at a grand total of 1,521.” The promised “blessedness” of Sabbath rest had become an arduous command to keep.

In other words, the oral tradition seemed to be in conflict here more than the actual Sabbath command. As such, it’s no surprise that the next verse says, “So the Jews were saying to the man who was cured, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not permissible for you to carry your pallet.” They might have seen themselves as Jeremiah or Nehemiah in that moment, though this man obviously isn’t preparing for the market with his personal pallet. Yet, all they saw was work being done, and they exercised no grace in the matter.

Now, if this man had been an observant Jew like his contemporaries, he might have already anticipated this. So, caught red-handed, as it were, this man wants to foist blame on another — “He who made me well was the one who said to me, ‘Pick up your pallet and walk.’ ” Some have tried to read this as the man defending Jesus, but that is a strained interpretation. It is far more likely he tries to avoid bearing the blame for a Sabbath violation, and he was quick to blame Jesus to shift attention away from him.

They ask him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Pick up your pallet and walk’?” (v. 12). They almost speak with contempt — “Who is the fellow?” — and even repeat the words of healing, bringing condemnation on themselves. They could have asked, “Who was the man who made you whole?” Interesting that they focus on the words which would require the man to break the Sabbath in their estimation.

Sadly, this man seems more interested in avoiding additional suffering. We read in the next verse that he “did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away while there was a crowd in that place.” Perhaps the man was looking around him to identify Jesus, but he couldn’t locate him due to the crowd. He also didn’t know Jesus’s name to be able to identify Him.

Jesus was not afraid to heal on the Sabbath, even if it involved what the Jews considered work. For instance, He will later made mud on the Sabbath (a violation of the traditions of the elders) to heal the blind man (John 9:14). He would not be held to an unbiblical, legalistic standard, and He does not expect that His people would, either. He is the Lord of the Sabbath, after all.

Is this man ready to understand that? Jesus slipped away at just the right moment, and then He returns at just the right moment to address this man. That’s where we turn next.

Second, Jesus Finds and Warns on the Sabbath (vv. 14–16)

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.” The man went away, and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. For this reason the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because He was doing these things on the Sabbath.

The man couldn’t find Jesus, but now Jesus finds him. Jesus didn’t just stumble upon this man again, either. The term means that Jesus sought this man, just as He found Philip in John 1:43.

Why was the man in the temple? I only found in Matthew Henry a possible reason: “Because he had, by carrying his bed, seemed to put a contempt on the sabbath, he would thus show that he had an honour for it, and made conscience of sabbath-sanctification.” We don’t know if that is the exact reason, but we could see some attempt now at true religion, self-righteous as it may have been, and Jesus comes at that very moment.

Jesus begins with the physical and then moves on to the spiritual. He says, “Behold, you have become well; do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you.” He tells Him to “no longer go on sinning” or there would be dire consequences.

What was the man doing that was so wrong? We aren’t told, but the question leaves “a clear implication that disease was due to personal sin as is so often the case. … All sickness is not due to personal sin (9:3), but much is and nature is a hard paymaster.” We know he responded to his initial sickness by laying at the pool, putting his faith in an angel or some kind of superstition to make him well. Jesus calls this man to turn from sin and self.

Some believe the Gospel of John to be devoid of teaching on repentance, but this is clearly what we see here, along with the warning that something worse may come. The many may have been handicapped in some way, but he has his life and is not suffering eternal torment. All the lame will walk one day, and all the blind will be able to see. However, many a whole person will spend an eternity in hell paying for their sins. In this man’s case, though, he had not exercised faith in the Lord and had been putting his hope in sources other than God.

Jesus has the right to forgive sins and to condemn them (Mark 2:5; John 8:11), so He calls this man to turn from sin. To be clear, this is not a promise that sinlessness can cause good health. Nor is this a promise that healing from sickness and infirmity comes through being in God’s will. However, we need to see temporary sickness balanced against the glories or condemnations of eternity.

So, how does this man respond? We read, “The man went away, and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.” Now, a few theologians we respect have thought that he may have been trying to honor Jesus, just without any wisdom as to how the Jewish leadership would react. However, it’s just as likely that this was an act of self-preservation, to finally get the blame for a Sabbath violation off his back, which could have ultimately resulted in a flogging or even a stoning. We don’t read of any praise for Jesus on this man’s part, so it seems that this man is unchanged by Jesus’s words. As one commentary notes, “The man’s response suggests that he failed to heed Jesus’ warning. … 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.” So, either this man was naïve, not too bright, or he was temporally-minded, fearing the Jewish leaders more than the Lord.

As for the Jewish leaders, it’s possible that a few of them were worried about the number of times God had to condemn Israel for its complete disregard for the Sabbath. The Jewish Mishnah not only placed a high value on Sabbath keeping, as one commentary notes, “Sabbath obedience became in fact an eschatological issue because it was thought at least minimally that the coming of the Messiah was linked to the perfect keeping of one Sabbath.” Ironically, to some, it looked like Jesus was taking them backward, away from the Messiah (and God’s judgment would be to let them remain in their ironic blindness).

Whether it was this or a love for their current power, they had already grown distrustful of Jesus, especially with His prior cleansing of the temple they allowed to be defiled. They demanded to know what sign of authority He had (2:18). They knew He had become more popular than John the Baptist (4:1), so this made Him more of a threat to their authority. Now, it appears that He has flagrant disregard for their Sabbath rules, which they equate with Sabbath faithfulness.

So, we read that they “were persecuting Jesus.” This isn’t just one instance, just as this wouldn’t be the only time when Jesus appears to them to break the Sabbath. This is a repeated persecution, which includes harassment as well as a desire to put Jesus to death.

Yet, He proves He is the Messiah based on what He’s doing. Isaiah 35:5–6 predicts, “Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. Then the lame will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will shout for joy.” These men appear uninterested in the healings in light of Sabbath violations, but as Jesus says later in Matthew 12:8, He is “Lord of the Sabbath.”

The Sabbath points to Christ. In Colossians 2:16–17, we read that Sabbaths “a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.” He would do all the work necessary and provide the true rest to the soul. In Hebrews 4:9–10, “So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.” Those who trust in Christ can know that they will have the final rest promised to all the people of God, for He fulfilled the righteous requirement of the Law on the behalf of all who believe. Sadly, though, here we have the account of people trusting in themselves.

Conclusion

It’s interesting seeing the lame man and the Jewish leadership juxtaposed in this account. They both represent two different approaches to theology. The lame man doesn’t seem too concerned with spiritual matters at all. While we don’t have enough information to say for certain, he seems more lackadaisical about theology, libertine about ethics, thus in need to hear the message “do not sin anymore.”

On the other hand, the Pharisees and elders, erred in the opposite direction. If this man was lax, they were legalistic. They succeeded in turning the only command to do nothing into one of the most complex commandments, turning a blessing into a burden. Theirs was a pietistic approach to the faith, seeking to create false self-righteousness.

These are two approaches people have today. Understand, however, that God is not honored by taking away from the Law or adding to it. He will not save you because you plead ignorance to His Law nor because you have meticulously kept it. The Law is good and just and right, but it points us to Christ. Do you trust in Him for salvation, finding your Sabbath rest in His finished work?

If so, obey Him in gratitude and love, not adding to His Word or taking away from it.