Or, Provoking Opposition on Purpose
Scripture: John 5:1-15
Date: March 18, 2012
Speaker: Sean Higgins
In the world God made, and especially ever since Adam’s fall in Genesis 3 when God established enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, we learn a lot about someone by the sort of enemies they make.
In the Gospel of John, Jesus drew certain people to Himself with irresistible attraction. Early disciples recognized Him as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world and followed Him (John 1:35-51). The woman at the well was overcome by His gracious pursuit of her and witnessed to a whole city (John 4:1-42). The Capernaum official sought him out and trusted His healing word (4:46-54). Some received Him (per John 1:12).
But what has been a small refrain in the first four chapters now becomes the dominant theme for the next three to eight chapters: rejection of Jesus (per John 1:10-11). As His ministry grew so did the opposition to Him. We come to the beginning of chapter five and find Jesus going out of His way to upset the powers that be. The entire chapter relates one incident, most of which is an extended Christological clarification by Jesus in verses 19-47 on what He’s doing and why. Verses 16-18 tell us what brought the need for clarification. And verses 1-15 set the stage. Verses 1-9a are a miraculous healing and then verses 9b-15 are a mounting hostility.
This is a miraculous sign, another healing story where Jesus demonstrated His divine power as the Son of God. It’s not impossible that the apostle John simply wanted to heap up proof upon proof, but we know that John only selected some of Jesus’ signs (John 20:30). Maybe John wanted to show that Jesus had authority over fevers (4:46-54) and paralysis. But as true as those things are, there is more going on here.
After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty- eight years. 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?” 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.” Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. (5:1-9a, ESV)
John tracks Jesus’ movements in his gospel according to feasts (see Passover 2:13; unnamed 5:1; Passover 6:4; Tabernacle 7:2; Dedication 10:22; Passover 11:55). He just completed the Cana ministry cycle (2:11-4:54, Cana, Galilee - Jerusalem, Judea - Sychar, Samaria - Cana, Galilee) and heads back to Jerusalem for this unnamed feast, probably the feast of Tabernacles around October.
Of all the places in Jerusalem, Jesus went to a pool by the Sheep Gate called Bethesda . If this translation is correct, the location was near the Temple where the sacrificial sheep were kept and washed before entering the Temple. This pool had five roofed colonnades (rows of covered columns as over a porch or walkway) that offered protection from the weather. In that place lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed . In other words, this was a place full of sick people.
We meet the primary patient in verse 5. This man was ἀσθενείᾳ, he was “without strength,” having some sort of debilitating, incapacitating weakness. Based on what he says (in verse 7) and what Jesus does for him (in verse 8), this man was unable to walk and move himself around. He had been in this paralyzed condition for thirty-eight years , though we aren’t told how it happened or how old he was when it happened. 38 years is a long time, a hopeless situation, which Jesus knew.
Also, we aren’t told how Jesus knew. I can’t think of any reason that Jesus didn’t know supernaturally. Just as He knew supernaturally about the Sycharian woman (4:17) and what was in men (2:23-25). What Jesus knew because He was God, others knew from experience, especially the multitude of invalids who came and laid day after day around the pool. Out of the many, Jesus approached this one and asked, “Do you want to be healed?”
Giving the disabled man benefit of the doubt, we can assume that he means “Yes” by what he answers because he does not answer straightforwardly to Jesus’ yes or no question. Instead he says,
Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going down another steps down before me.
There are two ways to read his response: with sympathy or without. Note a few things about his answer. First, he assumes that his presence at the pool means that he wanted to be healed. It’s hard to tell if he’s just sad or if he thinks Jesus’ question is just stupid.
Second, he can’t see past the solution he thinks can heal him. His beliefs limited his perspective and hope.
Third, he believes a superstition. Apparently the water would occasionally become “troubled” (KJV) or stirred up . To explain this, later manuscripts added what early translations (like the KJV) have as verse 4 (and is probably seen as a footnote in your ESV or NASB): “an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred the water: whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was healed of whatever disease he had.” More than likely, these additions came from notes in the margins that some scribe added into the text. Though it’s right not to recognize verse 4 as part of the original text, there’s little reason for doubting that some believed it.
Fourth, and this sticks out, the disabled man’s answer to Jesus is infected with complaint and bitterness.
Imagine the scene again. A multitude of sick people, dependent on superstition, fighting with each other to get into the pool first when the waters moved. Think about the chaos. No appointments. No lines. First come first serve medicare. Our health care system is better than this.
This guy is so weak that he can’t get into the water and has no one to help him. He’s always late. He’s desperate, but it comes out in a self-centered way that kept others away. They knew he had problems. 38 years and they had no desire to help him or give up their “turn” for him. No one felt pity on him, even the other sick people. lame
Jesus chose this weak, selfish, superstitious, bitter invalid. He chose this well-known and much disliked man. Jesus didn’t argue with, correct, or challenge the man. He said “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” Paralysis leads to atrophy, yet the man “at once” was healed and took up his bed and walked. The miracle demonstrates Jesus’ divine knowledge, grace, and power.
Jesus could have made it a lot easier on Himself. If He just wanted to show grace and sovereign power in another healing, He could have. But He included “Take up your bed.” John says the man took up his bed which would have been a cheap, thin mat that could be rolled up and carried by one person on his shoulder. This is what caused the problem.
Not only did Jesus go where and address whom He wanted, He also went when He wanted. He chose the location, the person, and the timing. The 38 years of disabled could have waited another day or two. Now that day was the Sabbath … cue the ominous music.
Now that day was the Sabbath. 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.” But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk. ’” They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” 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. 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.” The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. (5:9b-15, ESV)
The Jews refers to the Jewish leaders (for example, John 1:19) since almost everyone in Jerusalem, including the invalids laying around the pool, were Israelites. These are the religious authorities and they are offended. They miss the miracle. The man is walking! He’s been healed but they are huffy. “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.”
Do you know the verse that prohibited bed-carrying on the Sabbath? There isn’t one. There are numerous passages, such as Exodus 31:12-17 especially verses 14 and 15, that prohibit work on the Sabbath, but the Jews added 39 descriptions of “work” which included carrying something from one place to another (see Carson, 244). Perhaps if a man worked for a moving company and he carried a client’s bed that would be wrong, but this healed man was not breaking God’s law. He was breaking the extra additions of men.
Again, the problem was the bed-transporting. The man “took up his bed” (v.8). They said “it is not lawful to take up your bed” (v.10). The man answered the his healer said, “take up your bed” (v.11). And they asked who said, “take up your bed” (v.12). The whole thing could have been avoided without this simple part. It’s as if Jesus said, “Take up your offense.” Jesus knew what would happen, how others would respond, including the man who was healed. I suspect one of the reasons that Jesus chose this man from among the many was because he had a bed. Picking up the bed was perfect for provoking the petty fault-finders.
When confronted by the Jewish leaders the healed man distanced himself from his healer. He continues his pattern of blaming other people. The absence of gratitude from the healed man is glaring. Unlike the healed man in John 9, if this man believed in Jesus or glorified God because of Jesus, it isn’t recorded. That could be because 1) he didn’t believe and/or 2) the healing itself isn’t the point of the story. The point is how Jesus provoked His opposition on purpose.
It appears that the leaders knew who did the healing. Jesus did many healings in Jerusalem a year and a half earlier. They were looking to secure the man’s testimony against Jesus in order to take legal action (see Lenski, 369).
Verses 16 and 18 spell out their irritation: “this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath” (verse 16) and “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” (verse 18).
The healed man says that he doesn’t know who healed him nor does he look for Him. Later, Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See that you sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.” (v.14) What is “worse”? Is Jesus talking about another temporal paralysis or is He referring to eternal punishment? I think it’s the final judgment mentioned in verse 29.
Though it isn’t the point, Jesus demonstrated moral authority as well as divine ability. He warns the man that nothing worse may happen to you which implies that his disability was a result of sin.
Of course, this is the mistake that Job’s “friends” made, assuming that physical problems necessarily result from personal sin. Even in John 9, the disciples assumed that someone’s sin brought on the blindness (9:2). But we know from Job and from Jesus’ response to the disciples (9:3) that all sickness and suffering isn’t directly the effect caused by someone’s sin.
Yet, sometimes it is. That’s what Jesus tells this man. We don’t know what it was. Soul sin does affect bodily sickness, at times, though we should be careful to pronounce that on others.
Jesus initiated with the man twice, healing him and exhorting him. The man doesn’t respond to Jesus. Instead, he went and told the Jews that he knew who healed him. That provoked their rage and the rest of the chapter. We don’t know what happened to the healed man, as we didn’t find out what happened to Nicodemus. Some of that is because that’s obviously not why John includes the story.
So, based on the purpose of this Gospel and John’s selectivity of stories, what about John 5 helps us to believe for life? We’ll learn more from the rest of the chapter as the hostility increases, but for verses 1-15, not only do they set up Jesus’ explanation, they show a couple things.
Jesus broke certain rules on purpose without sin because we learn a lot about a person by seeing what makes their enemies upset. This passage teaches us more about Jesus through His enemies than through His abilities.