John 5:1-18 New International Version
The Healing at the Pool
5 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[a] 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. [4] [b]
5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.
6 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”
7 “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”
8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.”
9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
The day on which this took place was a Sabbath,
10 and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”
11 But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”
12 So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?”
13 The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.
14 Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.”
15 The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.
The Authority of the Son
16 So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him.
17 In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.”
18 For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
Footnotes
John 5:2 Some manuscripts Bethzatha; other manuscripts Bethsaida
John 5:4 Some manuscripts include here, wholly or in part, paralyzed—and they waited for the moving of the waters.
4 From time to time an angel of the Lord would come down and stir up the waters. The first one into the pool after each such disturbance would be cured of whatever disease they had.
True Rest and the Essence of Faith
John 5:1-18
The man who wanted to be healed did not know Jesus. He wanted to be healed, but did not know that Jesus was the ultimate source of healing. He wanted to be healed by a superstition, or tradition. He did not realize that the true and complete healing would come from Jesus only.
John 5:6 ESV
[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?"
It is a straightforward yes or no question? The man's response shows he did not know Jesus is.
John 5:7 ESV
[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.”
The man has put his hope in a superstition. He does not go to the creator for healing. Jesus does heal him, but this was done on the day of rest.
The sabbath is day of rest, and the Jewish leaders turned the sabbath into a day of special rules which undermined the true rest that comes from God. When our own interests take precedence over God's interests, we end up with the same problem.
The people waiting by the pool anxiously for the water to be stirred by the angel were not experiencing rest. The people following all the sabbath rules were not experiencing rest because they followed those rules for themselves.
We attend church to remember what Jesus has done for us and worshipping God.
We need to remember that true rest comes from Jesus and not from our worldly achievements.
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