John 5:1-18. Not Religious Laws but Jesus

1 After this 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, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. 3 In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. 5 One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.

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?” 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.” 8 Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” 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.” 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said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” 13 Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. 14 Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well!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.” 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. 17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.” 18 This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

John 5:1-18

In chapter 4 Jesus had claimed to be the Messiah, and proclaimed the true way of worship to the woman of Samaria. Now in chapter 5 He will make those same claims before the Jews at one of the great feasts in Jerusalem. The first of these statements was made by upsetting the religious leaders’ rules of what could and couldn’t be done on the Sabbath. Jesus healed this man who had been ill for such a long time.

The Jewish leaders found this man carrying his mat and they told him their laws for the Sabbath did not allow him to carry his mat. When they finally found Jesus, the leaders demanded to know why He disobeyed their rules. He answered He was working just as His Father had been working all along. The Jews persecuted Jesus because He did these things on the Sabbath. But when He called God His Father, making Himself equal to God, they wanted to kill Him for blasphemy. It is important to realize that Jesus is claiming divinity here. (More about Jesus’ claims in the next lesson.)

*Ask God to reveal any religious rules you may be following that are not based on His Word.