May 26, 2021
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Reading along with us in John? Here’s today’s reading:
John 5 (NIV)
The Healing at the Pool
1 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed...........Continue Reading
To see a man walk after 38 years of being unable to and the Jewish leaders are immediately worried about their laws and how this may effect them. The reality of Jesus and God as the same and He is walking on earth as one of us was just more than these leaders could handle and begun their mission to see Him stopped.
On a side note….I always read the gospels with such awe of what it must have been like to get to sit and listen to Jesus speak!
John 1-5
John 5
Yes, can you even imagine what it was like to be with Jesus and to hear Him speak and witness His miracles?
He was right there before them healing people and they were concerned about their laws, so concerned they couldn’t see who stood before them.
As Kelly said, isn’t it amazing that the Pharisees see this man who has been crippled for 38 years walking and the thing they point out is that he is carrying his mat? And as the Pharisees come to confront Jesus about what He has done, they get an earful. The Father and the Son are indelibly linked. You cannot know one without the other. And as Jesus does His work, those who know the Father should see His hands upon it. So in questioning Jesus, they are really revealing that they don’t know the Father. So Jesus reveals a few shocking things: He is the Son of God, these Jews really don’t know the Father, and they really don’t know the Scriptures. Because if they really knew Moses, they would then know the Father, know the heart and the work of the Father and therefore know the Son who was standing right in front of them…..
All these things would rock the Jewish leaders world and upset them greatly as they disagreed with Him. This certainly put Jesus at odds with them and them with Him….and it gave them a choice…accept the message, or get rid of the One presenting it……
The people question Jesus’ authority…by what authority does He heal on the Sabbath?
This reminds me of the lack of cognitive dissonance, or outright hypocrisy, that we are seeing today. These people had the evidence in spades right before them, not just the healing of a man lame for 38 years, but all of the work that Jesus has been doing. And, he tells them, John’s testimony, although He doesn’t need man’s testimony, that is just for their benefit. The testimony of God’s word in scripture.
Jesus tells them here that the Father has given Him authority to judge and there will come a day when the dead will rise to be judged. They will be included in that group if they do not believe. He has already discerned their hearts. They do not “have the word abiding” in them and they “do not have the love of God” in them.
I find it interesting that Jesus first asks the man if he wants to be healed. He respects the man by giving him control over his destiny. The man expresses his despair that he cannot get into the water when it is stirred. The Pharisees did not even care about the man and the fact that he was healed. They were more concerned about the law that was broken. Jesus was not afraid to tell truth to these people. It must have been something to listen to him talk to the Jewish leaders this way. He spoke with wisdom, truth and authority. Gave the people something to think about. And he even told them that he was God’s son. Amazing!
21For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it.22Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son,23that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.
24 “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.