Paralyzed John 5:1-17

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

There is an unspecified amount of time between the healing of the official’s Son and this point where Jesus went back to Jerusalem. The term ‘after this’ indicates this. We know it is approximately 100 miles between Cana and Jerusalem, we know it was a rocky walk, with change in elevation (up to Jerusalem) so it is likely four days to a week passed. Jesus went where the Father led Him, for the purposes of fulfilling the mission that God sent Him for. We do not know what feast this was, but there were lots of people in Jerusalem during the feasts, and with them were lots of religious types. Jesus made quite an impact on these religious types during this particular feast.

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. 

John goes to great detail here in his writing as to where this sign took place. In His day, you could walk back and investigate this very specific location. Today, as with many places in the Holy Land, there was a place of worship built over this location called a basilica. Many early people who practiced Christianity thought that different locations were holy or sacred and would build over and around these sites. This is helpful in showing where these geographic locations are, but it was also a form of idolatry and mythology that surrounded the institutional and state churches such as Roman Catholicism.

The actual pool, called Bethesda, was rumored to be visited by an angel. The first in the pool after the angel visited was to be healed by touching the waters. This is why it was called Bethesda, for in Aramaic, Bethesda means house of Mercy. Friends or relatives in hopes that they would be healed would carry these invalids who surrounded the pool there. The man who will become the focus of the miracle was an invalid for 38 years. This is longer than most people of Jesus’ day lived. The Greek (asthenia) for invalid is a general term for a disabled condition; likely it’s meaning here is paralyzed, lame, or extremely weak. What John is attempting to emphasize here is that this is a man who had no hope of a cure outside of a miraculous intervention.

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.”

John demonstrates again Jesus’ omniscience by mentioning that Jesus saw the man lying there and that he knew the man had been there a long time. He asked a simple question that may be deeper than we realized. One of the aspects of Jewish religion and culture at this time was giving of alms for the poor and the disabled. A good Jew, to demonstrate his righteousness, would give alms for the poor and disabled. On the other hand, the disabled specifically could make a pretty good living depending on their location. John did not mention this fact, but obviously Jesus asked this question for a reason. I am not sure, but the obvious answer would be yes! But again, there is a point where faith meets God’s power. This man had put his faith for a number of years into a specific and narrow cure. By his answer, we can see a level of frustration with his feeble attempts to get well by his own power. So his answer is sort of like yes, I would love to be cured, but I can’t because nobody will help me. He was asking Jesus in a round about way to help him into the pool. He was asking Jesus to heal him the only way he thought he could be healed. He didn’t know whom he was talking to.

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. 

Jesus spoke with the authority of God here; he commanded the man to get up and walk. The scripture does not tell us specifically how this all worked, but on the command, we see that the man was healed at once- that is instantly upon the hearing of the command. He knew it; or did he have faith in the words- we do not know. But John tells us that he followed the command of Jesus- and he got up took up his bed, and he walked. We do not see the man arguing with Jesus that this was an impossibility for him to walk, or even a moment of doubt. We see the man doing just what Jesus commanded Him to do. This is a real demonstration of faith; for the man had not walked or carried anything for at least 38 years.

This is a picture of us before Salvation in Christ Jesus. We are invalid, unable to save ourselves. He is there, seeking after us, drawing us to Himself, asking us if we desire to be saved. We have no real desire to be saved; for the scripture is very clear in the fact that there is no one that seeks after God. We are laying by the pool, trying everything humanly possible to reach out to God of our own understanding, a god we create. When we finally understand that there is nothing we can do, when we come to an end of ourselves realizing that sin has paralyzed us and death has us in its grip, we can finally call out to Jesus. This man did not even do that; he still had this belief that it would be the pool that would heal him, if only some kind person would come along and place him in the pool. Jesus, in His infinite mercy, and by his grace takes us before we have a full understanding of what has happened and converts us. We do not understand the process, but we can see the result. We are free from the paralysis, we can walk, and we can do the work the Lord commands us to do.

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.

The man was simply doing as Jesus had commanded him; and likely he was enjoying this newfound freedom. But there were the Jews, the leaders, religious people, who noted that this man was breaking their man-made codes of conduct. You see, God had given the command regarding the Sabbath being a day of rest; the Jewish lawmakers added to this basic code and made it far more confusing and strict. They were not going by the Spirit of the law, which was to remind the Jews of the creation and that God rested, and a day to thank and to worship God, to take the focus off of them. They changed the law so that they could seem ultra-righteous in the eyes of man because they did not do what others did. It was perfectly lawful, according to the perfect law.
What was worse in their eyes was there was a man more powerful than them, clearly, because he could heal one so miraculously. Think about it; this man had been an invalid for 38 years. These Jews likely knew the paralytic, and his former condition. This healer had told this former paralytic to break their code, their law. The Bible does not tell us their emotion or their motive, but I think it is clear they were angry and wanted to go after this healer. But the man, in his excitement, did not know where Jesus had gone off to, and there was a crowd in the area.

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.

The man went to the temple, probably to give thanks to God that he had been healed. Jesus found him there, I do not believe by chance. He had a message for this man who was basking in his new found healing: Do not sin any more. Many people look at this verse and make a theology out of it that somehow to say that it is sin that causes people to get sick. That is true some of the time, and certainly, the Jews associated sickness with sin. Indeed, when sin entered into the world, sickness and death entered with it. In this case, it was definitely the cause of this man’s paralysis. If you are sick, infirmed, laid up, born with a birth defect and on down the line, it does not mean that you have sinned and caused the disease. If you have not been healed, it also is not necessarily a result of a lack of faith. The point in this story is that this man had sinned, and Christ by His mercy and His grace healed this man, before he could even repent, before he could even do a good work! When Christ saves us it is the same way. It is not by our own merit, or even by the effectiveness of our repentance. It is by grace, through faith, and even that is not of ourselves. And when he heals us, when he saves us, it is for the glory of God! Even though we get the joy, He gets the glory. And with His power, we can walk in repentance on the narrow road through the narrow door, which we cannot even find without Him.

The man then left Jesus and told the Jews who it was that healed him. I do not think that he was trying to do any thing to harm Jesus, however, the Jewish religious leaders made it clear that they wanted to meet this healer. The next verse gives insight to why the Jews really wanted to meet Jesus:

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

Healings and a level of work were never restricted on the Sabbath; again it was the Pharisees and the other religious sects of Judaism that added to the law so that they could look more pious and moral before men. They were putting their religious rules above genuine compassion and love towards others, which the Old Testament commanded, indeed, it was the foundation of the law (loving God first, neighbor as self). There are many examples of legalism today in the modern church, which are truly ridiculous. For example, God’s law never says anything about drinking wine, or other alcoholic beverages. God’s law does talk about how we ought to be self-controlled in all that we do, the principle being that nothing except the Holy Spirit ought to be in control in our lives. However, there are many unwritten laws and rules concerning alcohol consumption and Christians. We hold one another to these unwritten rules, and place unnecessary burdens on others, while trying to make ourselves look more spiritual. This is what the Pharisees were doing here. And it made them downright angry with Jesus, who exemplified the very purpose and right practice of the law of God. Here was a man, clearly righteous, clearly in authority, clearly having the power of God demonstrated by this miraculous healing, and they wanted to persecute him because he broke their human rule. It was Jesus, not these self-righteous Jews that fulfilled the law. He made their righteousness look filthy; so they wanted to get back on top by persecuting him according to their law.

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

Obviously, these Pharisees missed something. If God did not work on the Sabbath, then how was this man healed? In other words, if God did not approve of Jesus’ ministry of healing on the Sabbath, why would He allow this good deed, this miracle to happen? He is claiming two things here: First, that God is His Father. This claim to deity is the first direct public proclamation Jesus makes that God is His Father. He also claims that God, his Father, is lord over the Sabbath, and therefore He, as God’s Son, co-equal with God, has the right to do healing or any other work on the Sabbath. The Jewish Rabbis agreed that God upheld the universe continuously, and this without breaking the Sabbath. Jesus was saying that these things that He was doing was his work, but indeed, like God doing His work, was not a transgression of the Sabbath law. He was working, just like God, and hence he is Lord of the Sabbath.

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.