The time of year had come for the Jews to celebrate the Feast of the Lord. Jesus went up to Jerusalem on the Sabbath Day. When He arrived, He went to the sheep gate where there is a pool called Bethesda.
The pool had five covered porches, where many sick, blind, lame and infirmed stayed waiting for the waters in the pool to be stirred by an angel that appeared periodically.
Once the water had been stirred up, the first one to step in the pool was healed of whatever disease or infirmity they had.
One man had been there 38 years.
When Jesus saw him lying there, He said to the man,
“Do you want to be healed?”
The sick man said,
“Sir, I don’t have anyone to put me into the pool when the waters are stirred. Someone always goes in ahead of me.”
Jesus said,
“Stand up, take up your bed and walk.”
The man was immediately healed.
When the Jews saw the man carrying his bed, they stopped him and told him that it was not lawful for him to carry his bed on the Sabbath.
But the man retorted,
“The man who healed me told me to take up my bed and walk.”
“Who is this man who told you to take up your bed and walk,”
They asked.
The healed man did not know because Jesus had left the area.
Afterwards, Jesus found the man in the temple and said to him,
“Look, you are healed; do not sin anymore or else a worse thing will happen to you.”
The man went away and found the Jews. He told them that it was Jesus who had healed him.
After learning this, the Jews began to persecute Jesus because He did this work on the Sabbath.
Jesus told them,
“My Father is working even up until this moment, and I will work also.”
The Jews took great offense at what Jesus said and that is when they first became determined to kill Him. They were angry – not just that He had healed a man on the Sabbath, but because He made himself equal to God.
Jesus responded to the Jews and said,
“Listen carefully to the truth I am going to declare to you: The Son can do nothing by himself, but only what he sees the Father doing.
Whatever the Father does, the Son will do the same. The Father loves the Son and shows him all the things that he does, and even greater works than what you have already seen will be done so that you will marvel.
Just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, in the same way the Son will also give life to whoever he will.
The Father is not going to judge any man, he has given the authority to judge to the Son, so that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father.
The person that does not honor the Son, does not honor the Father who sent him.
Listen carefully to the truth I am going to declare to you. Whoever hears my word and believes in the Father who sent me has eternal life.
This person does not come into judgment but has been passed from death to life.”
