John 5:1-18ex

JMAC Summary - 5:1–16 Although opposition to Jesus smoldered beneath the surface (e.g., 2:13–20), the story of Jesus’ healing at the Pool of Bethesda highlights the beginning of open hostility toward Him in Jerusalem in the southern parts of Palestine. The passage may be divided into 3 parts: 1) the miracle performed (vv. 1–9); 2) the Master persecuted (vv. 10–16); and 3) the murder planned (vv. 16–18).

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

V1 - Feast = Passover (John 6:4)

LARGE

2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades.

Sheep Gate - A gate in the northern wall surrounding the temple compound. The pool is located outside this gate.

Colonnade = Porch, Portico

NARROW

3 In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed.

Invalids = Sick and weak people, blind, lame and paralyzed.

V3 - 5:3a lay. It was a custom at that time for people with infirmities to gather at this pool. Intermittent springs may have fed the pool and caused the disturbance of the water (v. 7). Some ancient witnesses indicate that the waters of the pool were red with minerals, and thus thought to have medicinal value.

LARGE

5 One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.

This one invalid’s exact disease is unknown and not specified, but context offers a conclusion that he was unable to walk for 38 years.

NARROW

6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?”

V6 - Healed = sound, healthy, having or indicating good health in body or mind, free from infirmity or disease.

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 going another steps down before me.”

This man who had suffered for 38 years was satisfied with a life of looking for reprieve through physical means…Jesus has come to bring living water, nothing on earth can provide what Jesus can.

8 Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.”

BT V8 - 5:10 take up your bed. Jeremiah protested against loading and unloading on the Sabbath (Jer. 17:21, 22). Jewish tradition interpreted the Sabbath prohibition against work to forbid carrying almost all burdens, but this went well beyond what the OT forbids.

V8 - 5:8 Get up, pick up … walk. In the same way that He spoke the world into being at creation, (Ge 1:3), Jesus’ spoken words had the power to cure (cf. 1:3; 8:58; Ge 1:1; Col 1:16; Heb 1:2).

9 And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.

Now that day was the Sabbath.

10 So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.”

V10 - 5:10, 11 The OT had forbidden work on the Sabbath but did not stipulate what “work” was specifically indicated (Ex 20:8–11). The assumption in Scripture seems to be that “work” was one’s customary employment, but rabbinical opinion had developed oral tradition beyond the OT which stipulated 39 activities forbidden (Mishnah Shabbath 7:2; 10:5), including carrying anything from one domain to another. Thus, the man had broken oral tradition, not OT law (see notes on v. 16).

11 But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’ ”

12 They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?”

13 Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place.

14 Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.”

SPROUL - The point of the admonition is not necessarily that the man brought his illness on himself by some specific sin. Some sins can provoke God to physical and temporal judgment (1 Cor. 11:28–32), but illness is not necessarily related to particular sins (9:1–3). If the man had not responded to God’s kindness with repentance and grateful obedience (Rom. 2:4), the mercy he had received would have compounded his guilt (Luke 10:13–15; Heb. 6:4–6).

V14 - The basic thrust of Jesus’ comments here indicates that sin has its inevitable consequences (cf. Gal 6:7, 8). Although Scripture makes clear that not all disease is a consequence of sin (cf. 9:1–3; Lk 13:1–5), illness at times may be directly tied into one’s moral turpitude (cf. 1Co 11:29, 30; Jas 5:15). Jesus may specifically have chosen this man in order to highlight this point.

15 The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him.

16 And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath.

V16 - 5:16 persecuting. The verb tense means that the Jews repeatedly persecuted Jesus, i.e., continued hostile activity. This was not an isolated incident of their hatred toward Him because of His healings on the Sabbath (cf. Mk 3:1–6). on the Sabbath. Jesus did not break God’s law since in it there was no prohibition of doing good on that day (Mk 2:27). However, Jesus disregarded the oral law of the Jews that had developed, i.e., “the tradition of the elders” (cf. also Mt 15:1–9). Most likely, Jesus deliberately practiced such healing on the Sabbath to provoke a confrontation with their religious hypocrisy that blinded them to the true worship of God (see vv. 17–47 for the main reason for Jesus’ confrontation; see notes on vv. 10, 11).

John F. MacArthur Jr., The MacArthur Study Bible: New American Standard Bible. (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2006), Jn 5:16.

17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”