The Sheep Market Pool at Bethesda
John 5:1-15 records an account of a special pool near the sheep market, known as Bethesda. This was evidently a large pool as there were five porches around it. It had special significance because God sent an angel to move the water periodically. Whoever was the first to reach the water after it was moved was healed of any infirmity that they had. For this reason, many who had health issues - whether disease or some body part that was failing - came and stayed around the pool area watching the waters. If there was movement there was a mad rush to be the first. But clearly, those with severe health issues weren't strong enough or quick enough to be the first most times. So they had to go back and wait for the next time the water moved.
One such man had been dealing with a health issue for 38 years. That's a really long time to be suffering. Jesus stopped by, being told by the Spirit that this man had been in his condition for a long time, and He asked the man if he would like to be made whole. The man didn't recognize Jesus, as he had probably been tied to this pool location for a long time. So he explains to Jesus that he doesn't have anyone to help him get down to the pool when the water moves. Someone always beats him to the water.
Jesus tells him to rise up and walk, and the man immediately felt his body change. He stood up and took his bed that he was lying on and walked away. The only problem at all with that was that it was the sabbath. He therefore should not have been doing work, and carrying his bed from one point to another constituted work. So the observant Jews took him to task and asked him what he was doing in acting unlawful on the sabbath. The quick thinking man replied that the man who healed me told me to do it. He looked around, but Jesus had left, so the man couldn't identify him. Later, after he had presumably taken his bed to his home, he went to the temple and Jesus found him there. He told the man to not sin any more now that he had been made whole, lest something else bad happen to him. The man leaves and tells the Jews it was Jesus who made him whole.
Nobody knows much about this man. That he was a sinner was made clear by Jesus. His sins weren't stated. But, like most people who are poor and have had a rough life, he was afraid of authority. I don't know what threats the Jewish leaders had made about him carrying his bed, but whatever they were, he wanted to clear himself of their threat of persecution. So he ratted Jesus out - to use a phrase of my youth. He wanted to pass the buck on to someone else so he was in the clear, regardless of what Jesus had done for him. He'd been an invalid for 38 years, healed instantly, and then turned on the person who had healed him.
I'm not trying to pass judgment. I fail God often and have to get right with Him again. I'm not a perfect man. I try to be better, but I still fail from time to time. And even if I don't sin, there's still that verse about it being sin if you don't do something that you know to be right. So when I neglect writing commentary, am I at risk? It is something I know to be right. So, there's that. I just have to pray for forgiveness like everyone else. And at my age, Jesus has taken on a lot of wrong actions, words, and deeds from my life. As I said, I'm not perfect.
If I had been that man facing the authorities, would I have turned on Jesus, too? I'd like to think not. But not being in that man's shoes, I don't know what would have happened. One thing I do know for sure. After the rapture, any person who was not following Christ, who hadn't accepted Him, and was outside of God's grace will have some big decisions to make. The anti-Christ will be trying to wipe out Christianity. Those who turn to Him will need to make a choice, perhaps at the cost of their own life, to follow and stand up for Christ in the face of adversity. Many Christians face that today, even before the rapture. Many are killed and tortured every year for the cause of Christ. Maybe that isn't happening in your country, yet. But don't think it can't.
God's Work and Relationship to Jesus
In John 5:16-18, the Jewish leaders then seek to persecute Jesus because he had healed on the sabbath. They might have let the person who was healed off the hook, but now they had bigger fish to fry, and a name to go along with it. They wanted Jesus dead, solely because He did a good thing on the sabbath day. Sure, there were other reasons, but this was an easy excuse. In Jesus defense, as they accosted Him, Jesus replied that His Father was working, and so He was working.
If the healing on the sabbath wasn't enough, now Jesus was making Himself equal to God as His Father. This was just too much for their brains to handle. I imagine Wile E. Coyote or some other character with smoke pouring out of their ears and lightning bolts all around at Jesus' statement.
I really don't know what they were thinking. Were they so far divorced from their Old Testament teachings that they thought God needed help in correcting the situation if God was really offended at what Jesus said? I wonder. But defending God's honor isn't something that has disappeared. He's still perfectly capable of taking care of His business. Christians should remember that. Not to say we shouldn't warn people when they are wrong. But trying to kill them? That's well over the top. So are boycotts and picketing, for what it's worth. Speak one on one and let the Holy Spirit deal with their hearts. Violence is never the answer. Jesus called on us to turn the other cheek. He meant it.
Jesus then gives a long answer to them, which I will talk about in the sections below. He makes many important points that should have convicted the Jewish people's hearts. How much good it did is debatable for those people. But at least it gave good insights for us today. Maybe someday, the posts about our government on awmach.com will do some good for someone. It sure didn't make a difference in the last election. Sigh.
In His Work
John 5:19-21 of Jesus introduction is really a right hook to the jaw. He declares that as Jesus, he can't do anything himself. The only thing that Jesus can do is to watch and listen to the Father, through the Spirit, and do what the Father directs Him to do to accomplish the Father's work. Some of my readers need to read that again. "The Son can do nothing of himself". As man, Jesus divested himself of all the power that He had as God. But He did allow Himself to be filled completely with the Holy Spirit. And more importantly, He prayed and fasted, and sought out what the Holy Spirit told Him the Father wanted Him to do in every situation. If the Father wanted a person to be healed, the Holy Spirit filled Jesus in on the Father's intention, and Jesus played His part in the Father's work. In the case of this chapter, it was simply telling the man to "Rise, take up they bed, and walk." Nothing special. No laying on of hands. No theatrics. Just asking the man if he wanted to be healed and then telling the man to get up. And then the Father worked, healing the man.
That's all the Father wants today. He wants His people, full of the Holy Spirit, listening to the Spirit's leading, and helping to show that the Father is, Jesus is, and the Holy Spirit is, and are still working today, just like they were working 2,000 years ago and earlier. Christ goes on to say that the Son is loved by the Father and the Spirit gives Him direction into all of the Father's plans that affect him. And He promises that if they thought this miracle was impressive (healing a man who was an invalid for 38 years), they would see even more impressive things.
Jesus gave the same promise to his disciples, and by extension to his followers throughout time, that because He was going to the Father, and sending the Spirit to the believers, that they would be able to do even greater things than what they had seen while He was with them. Don't doubt the words of Christ. Have faith! Jesus promised that as the Father had raised up the dead in the past, so Christ would quicken anyone He wanted. And this was seen in Lazarus, and many times since. This week we celebrate Easter, the biggest quickening in Christian history as Christ took His life back up again. The fact that Passover was over a week ago, so he was crucified and long risen when we actually celebrated Easter this year isn't all that important. The fact that He rose again is.
In His Judgment
In John 5:22-23, Jesus declares that the Father has turned judgment over to the Son to execute. The Father wants the Son to be lifted up and honored. Jesus says that the Son should be honored in the same way that people honor the Father. He goes on to say that if they didn't honor the Son, then they were dishonoring the Father who sent the Son.
Think for a minute how the Jewish listeners would have heard that. Jesus had just said that He didn't do anything of Himself, but the Father in heaven was working through Him. So by going against Jesus, they were really going against God Himself, as God had done the work of healing they were so upset about. And the Father chose to do it on the sabbath, so get over yourselves. And He then went on to claim here that if they didn't honor Him, they in fact were dishonoring God Himself, because God sent Him. That had to really challenge their hearts, if they actually listened, or gave Satan an easy way to goad their hatred if they were listening to Satan instead.
The were clearly on the wrong side of the argument, and in their hearts they knew they were. But pride is a terrible thing. Admitting they were wrong was so hard for them to do. Hardened hearts have been a thing since long before Pharaoh, and have been a thing all the way up to the present day in leaders, and the rest of us. If we don't honor Christ, we aren't honoring God. And so many today fall in that category, even among the religious of our day.
In His Ability to Save
John 5:24-26 talks about what God has given to Christ in terms of salvation of the world. Jesus calls on them to hear His words and believe that He was sent from the Father. Doing so is a requirement for eternal life. We are free of condemnation and will pass on to eternal life when we die. He then gives a prophesy that soon, the dead would His voice as well, and they would likewise live. Although this isn't a discourse about eternity, before the victory on the cross, the souls of anyone who died went to either the torment or paradise compartment of sheol. There was no moving back and forth between the two places. You relationship to God at death determined your eternal fate. But the righteous dead were stuck until Jesus victory over sin on the cross. At that point, He went to preach salvation to them and lead those in paradise to heaven. Now the paradise compartment is empty. But the torment side is filling further every second.
In His Authority
John 5:27-29, John records Christ's comments on the authority given to Christ by God, and the reality that His judgment will be sure. It's interesting that God's reason for giving judgment to Christ is that now that God had lived as man, He would be a better choice to judge, having been subject to all the temptations and pressures of life as human instead of just living life in the eternal realm. Jesus can fairly judge each life because He knows exactly what it is like to live as us, to be tempted as us, and to have the same tools to win (the Holy Spirit) as He did.
Clearly, the eternal realm isn't free of sin. Lucifer was filled with pride and fell, along with many, many angels who followed him. There is only one God in heaven, although Satan has tried to muddy the waters since man fell with many other gods of his own creation.
Christ challenges us to not marvel at what will happen in the future when all people are bodily resurrected and united with their souls to face the eternity of God's blessing or wrath depending on their own choices and sin. The important thing is to bring people into His kingdom. God and Christ wanted everyone saved. This was the purpose of the miracles God performed through Christ and is the true purpose of every miracle, healing, word of knowledge or wisdom, discerning of spirits, prophecy or ability to converse with those who don't speak your language, all tied together with faith. There may be immediate blessings for those healed or whose situation is changed by act or word or mental thought. But the true purpose is to lead people to Christ and magnify both Christ and God Himself. Focus on God's purpose and see more of His work being done. God doesn't work to bring glory to His people, any more than He sought to bring glory to the disciples. God's purpose is for people to choose Him and reconcile their lives to Him.
In His Witness
John 5:30-37 declares the greatness of Christ's witness by God. Jesus declares again that he can't do anything by himself. All the pastors, missionaries, evangelists (television, internet or otherwise), and other church leaders should get this through their heads. God does everything to make you successful. No matter what you say or do, it is the Holy Spirit that leads people to seek salvation. Sure, the words may be good and edifying, but it is the Holy Spirit that makes people read or listen to the very end and not tune you out. It is the Holy Spirit that directs people to choose God. It isn't anything that a person does. The best we can do is not get in the way of His work. We need to be like Christ, the just judge, who was just because He didn't seek out His own will. He sought the will of the Father which sent Him. All judges should be that good today. Don't seek the favor of the prosecution or the defense. Seek the favor of God who is the righteous judge, and make your ruling conform to what He thinks is the right thing to do.
Jesus then goes on to speak of John the Baptist. He first says that he isn't bearing witness of Himself. He is relying o n others. He tells them that they had accepted John the Baptist for a time, and clearly John the Baptist bore witness of Christ. But Christ then goes on to say that He has a greater witness than John the Baptist, who had gone before Him. Specifically, the works of God were a witness that the Father had sent Him. The Father assigned things for Him to do, and He faithfully executed those tasks. And those miraculous works that were outside of human ability bore direct witness that Christ was in the Father's will, even on a sabbath.
In His Honor
In John 5:37-47, Jesus then goes on to challenge the hearts of the Jewish people around Him. He declared that they had not heard the voice of God nor seen Him at any time. They thought that by following the commands of the Old Testament, they would have salvation, but Jesus declared that those same scriptures bore witness of Him in prophecy. And there are many, many such scriptures which point to Christ, written hundreds and in some cases thousands of years before His birth.
Jesus points out the fact that their hearts were proud and unwilling to accept the Messiah. Jesus wasn't lifted up by man to glory. But He also knew the hearts of those who were against Him, and told them plainly that they didn't have any love of God in them. That's a pretty big condemnation for the religious elite of His day. Would He say the same thing about the religious elite of today? I'll bet He would, at least in some cases.
Just like today, the people there would listen if an important Jewish teacher came who had a reputation that preceded Him. But Christ, who came with miracles direct from God was not received. Jesus said that it wasn't necessary for Him to condemn these listeners to the Father. Moses Himself would accuse them, because they lifted up Moses as important, but wouldn't believe what Moses wrote about Christ. If they wouldn't believe the words of some long dead leader who they revered, then how indeed could they believe Christ's words?