John · chapter 5 of 21
Updated on
John 5 tells how Jesus heals, at the pool of Bethesda, a man who had been paralyzed for thirty-eight years, on a Sabbath. The Jewish leaders persecute him for it and for calling God his Father. Jesus answers with a long discourse about his authority to give life and to judge, and about the witnesses who confirm him: John, his works, the Father and the Scriptures.
So far John has shown signs in Galilee and Samaria. In chapter 5 Jesus goes up to Jerusalem and the open conflict with the religious leaders begins, which will continue through the rest of the Gospel. The Sabbath healing leads to one of Jesus' clearest statements about his relationship with the Father and his authority.
There is a Jewish feast, and Jesus goes up to Jerusalem. By the Sheep Gate there is a pool called Bethesda with five porticoes, where many sick people lie. Jesus sees a man who has been ill for thirty-eight years and asks whether he wants to be well. The man answers that he has no one to put him in the water when it is stirred. Jesus tells him to get up, take his mat and walk, and the man is healed at once. But it was the Sabbath, and the Jews rebuke him for carrying his mat. He says the one who healed him told him to. Later Jesus finds him in the temple, tells him to sin no more so that nothing worse happens to him, and the man informs the Jews that it was Jesus. That is why they persecute him.
Jesus answers that his Father is working until now, and he is working too. The leaders seek to kill him, not only for breaking the Sabbath, but for calling God his own Father and making himself equal with God. Jesus explains that the Son can do nothing by himself but only what he sees the Father doing, that the Father loves the Son and shows him everything. As the Father raises the dead and gives life, so the Son gives life to whom he will, and the Father has given all judgment to him. Whoever hears his word and believes the one who sent him has eternal life and has passed from death to life. An hour is coming when those in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, some to the resurrection of life and others to the resurrection of judgment.
Then Jesus lists the witnesses on his behalf: John the Baptist, a burning and shining lamp; the works the Father gave him to do; the Father himself; and the Scriptures, which testify about him. Still, his hearers refuse to come to him for life and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God. Jesus ends by saying that the one who accuses them is Moses, in whom they hope, because Moses wrote about him and they do not believe.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
Jesus asks the man whether he wants to be healed. The question is not cruel: it invites him to put his desire and hope into words, and it shows that Jesus approaches the sick with personal attention.
Answering the Sabbath criticism, Jesus says his Father is working until now and he is working too. In doing so he calls God his Father in a unique way, and the leaders understand it as a claim to equality with God.
Whoever hears Jesus' word and believes the Father who sent him has eternal life, does not come into judgment and has already passed from death to life. Eternal life is a reality that begins now, through faith.
Jesus says his hearers study the Scriptures thinking they have life in them, yet those same Scriptures speak of him, and they refuse to come to him. Studying the Bible should lead us to Christ, not replace meeting him.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: Thirty-eight years. — John 5:5
Answer: Get up, take his mat and walk. — John 5:8
Answer: Because he was carrying his mat on the Sabbath. — John 5:9-10
Answer: For breaking the Sabbath and for saying God was his own Father, making himself equal with God. — John 5:18
Answer: Eternal life; he does not come into judgment but has passed from death to life. — John 5:24
Answer: That they testify about him, yet his hearers refuse to come to him for life. — John 5:39-40
The man at Bethesda had waited almost four decades, and Jesus spoke to him with a simple command: get up. This passage encourages anyone who feels they have been in the same situation too long: Jesus sees, asks and can act with a single word. It also invites us to look at the forgotten, since Jesus noticed one among many.
The leaders' reaction warns of a danger: one can defend tradition and lose the person, or study the Bible without arriving at Christ. In a group you can ask how to keep Scripture and prayer at the center without making them ends in themselves, so that they become a way to know and obey Jesus.
John 5 shows Jesus as the Son who gives life, and many who, even seeing the works and having the Scriptures, do not believe. In John 6, Jesus returns to Galilee, where he feeds a crowd and declares himself the bread of life.
It was a pool in Jerusalem with porticoes where the sick gathered. Some Bibles omit or bracket the reference to an angel stirring the water, because the oldest manuscripts do not include it. The healing does not depend on that detail but on Jesus' word.
The text does not explain the connection between sin and this man's illness. In other passages Jesus refuses to link every illness to a specific sin. Here he warns that there is something worse than physical illness, and he calls the man to a new life before God.
Jesus announces that all who are in the tombs will hear his voice: those who did good will come out to a resurrection of life, and those who did evil to a resurrection of judgment. The passage affirms a final resurrection of all and the Son's authority to judge.