In the Northwest corner of Jerusalem was a gate named the "sheep gate." This gate was built to provide an entrance for the sheep which were brought for sacrifice. Near that gate was a pool used to bathe the sheep in preparation for entrance into the temple. This pool was called the "Pool of Bethesda." Actually there were two pools, side by side. There were five roof like structures at the pools supported by equally spaced columns.
Legend has it that an angel would come and stir the water of the pool and the first one to enter the water when that happened would be healed. It is important to acknowledge the Bible does not support the legend that such healing ever happened or endorse the legend as truth.
Around the pools within the covered areas were crowds of blind, sick, lame, and paralyzed people. It was the Sabbath Day when Jesus entered the area and He noticed a man lying there. Jesus being who He was, knew the man had been there for 38 years waiting to be healed. This picture of so many sick and lame people waiting to be healed by placing their hope in a magical moment shows how lost, sick, hopeless and desperate the world had become. Just like today, some of those there may have wanted to be healed while others may have been content in their misery while gaining pity from others.
Jesus asked him if he wanted to be healed. We can be sure Jesus knew the answer to His question but asked it perhaps so the man could hear himself express his inner desires. The man told Jesus he did, BUT because he was lame, he could not get there in time when the water was stirred. He had no one to carry him there so someone else would always get there before him. I don't know why this thought won't leave me but I wonder why the man didn't get moved right near the pool so when the water was stirred he could roll in. Rather than endure the sun and traffic around the pool, he stayed under the roofed area in the shade. Perhaps it was a rule they had to be there or perhaps he was not willing to experience great discomfort to be healed. Again, it was their belief, not truth, that healing would take place.
Jesus said to him, "Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!" I always take notice of Jesus speaking with an exclamation point as He did here. I pondered that instruction and the exclamation point for a bit. He, of course, had all the authority and power to command such action and bring that healing. For me, it seems to say that anyone could lay in a state of suffering for an entire lifetime hoping for some superstition, legend, or magical moment to change their life, or they could seek out Jesus, put their faith in Him who is God, and experience an immediate change in their present life and their future.
Jesus spoke the words to get up and walk, but as we have read many times, faith had to be present for it to happen. The man would hale to believe he could walk. He would have to believe he had been healed. This entire encounter screams to me about the fact that we have to believe Jesus is who He is, we have to believe He can heal us of our impurities and sins. We have to believe He is Lord to have our present life change as well as our entire future and to gain the promise of eternity. In John 6:29, Jesus said, "This is the only work God wants from you. Believe in the one He has sent."
In the midst of a miraculous moment, the religious leaders interrupt and lay the rules and laws all over the situation. Rather than acknowledging what had happened they express "their" power and rule and get all upset about the man carrying his mat on the Sabbath. They said, "You can't work on the Sabbath!" The man told them the one who healed him told him to. Of course the leaders demanded to be told who he was but Jesus had quietly slipped into the crowd.
It is great to know the man later went to the Temple which is where Jesus saw him next. He spoke to the man and said, "Now you are well; so stop sinning or something even worse may happen to you." Jesus was reminding him how he had a horrible life with a horrible body but now he was healed. He used that in a way to alert him to the fact that as bad as that was, he would experience much worse if he continued to sin. (He was not implying that sin caused his physical condition.) I imagine that would also include the fact that 38 years of suffering would be nothing compared to an eternity of suffering. It was also clear that the pain he lived with before would be nothing compared to the suffering in eternity that a sinful life without Christ would bring.
The man told the leaders who healed him and they went after Jesus about breaking the Sabbath. Jesus made a habit of healing people on the Sabbath such as healing the blind man, healing a shriveled hand, a woman who was crippled for many years, and a man with dropsy. Jesus' action continued to agitate the leaders and they wanted to kill Him. This time they tossed accusations at Him and He replied, "My Father is always working, and so am I." Jesus called God His Father and told them that God never stops working and neither does He. Not only had he dishonored the Sabbath but now He claimed thatGod was His Father. Naming Himself as the Son of God, Jesus was saying He was equal with God. The leaders were always loooking for a way to kill Jesus and now they had more fuel to make that happen.
Jesus went on to explain that He cannot do anything in opposition to or against God. Jesus does only what the Father reveals to Him and shows Him to do. All is done together and in love. Jesus basically told them that healing this man was nothing compared to what the Father will show Him to do. Again He was saying if you think that was great, wait until you see what I will do, then you will be astonished. What might those more amazing things be? Well, Jesus told them just as the Father gives life to those He raises from the dead, so He, Jesus, gives life to anyone He wants. Another thing He talked of is that the Father judges no one but has given absolute authority to the Son to judge. These things are done so that people honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Conversely, if people do not honor the Son, then they are not honoring the Father who sent Him.
Jesus continued by saying, "I tell you the truth, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life." That is a very clear message that those who believe in Jesus' message that He is the Messiah and has life giving power and believe in the God that sent Him, have already been given the promise of life beyond the grave.
Jesus told of His power to bring people from the grave to life. He said the time is here that the dead will hear His voice. That also caused me to think of the spiritually dead and that they will also hear His voice and if they listen, they will live. He continued explaining, the Father has life giving power and has given that same power to Jesus. The Father, again, has also given Jesus the authority to judge because He is the Son. (The term used here is used by Jesus about Himself. He refers to Himself as the Son of Man.) He warned them not to be surprised when those who are dead in the grave will rise to the call of His voice. The ones who have done good by obeying and believing Him will rise to eternal life. Those who have tried to gain eternity from good works or "worthless things," or continue in evil and not believing in Him, will be judged. Here Jesus again declares that He does none of this on His own. He does it in union with the Father but as the Father tells Him. He judges as is the will of the Father, He does not judge of His own will.
Jesus went on to tell them that if He was to give witness of who He is, it would be worthless. Anyone could brag, boast, or declare anything about themselves and by that manner who would know if any of it were true. But, He talked of John the Baptist who had been testifying about Him, He said what John says of Him is true. Jesus reminded them they had even interrogated John and that what they heard from him was true. He mentioned that He had no need of any human witness but was telling them all this so that they would be saved. It sounds to me as if He was telling them He had brought human witnesses in to help convince them that He was God so they would believe and be saved. Jesus added, more or less that John is a great witness, but His own words, teachings, and miracles speak even louder than John's words.
Again explaining He does none of these things on His own but by the Father, He said the Father gave Him those works to do and they are the proof that He is sent from the Father. Jesus told them that even the Father who sent Him testifies about Him through John the Baptist. The Father testified about Jesus not only through John the Baptist but also when Jesus was baptized. Here are couple other times we can look to. (Matthew 3:17) And a voice from Heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased." Also at the transfiguration when Jesus went up on the mountain with Peter, James and John. Jesus was then transfigured, His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became white as the light. Jesus was then joined by Elijah and Moses. (Matthew 17:5)"Then a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased. Listen to Him." Jesus stated that the leaders had never heard or seen God nor did they have His message in their hearts. They did not have His message because they did not believe in Jesus and they did not believe the Father sent Him.
Rather than believe all the information that was in front of them; the witness of John, Jesus' miracles and teachings, the other moments God spoke out about Jesus, and so on, they search the Scriptures thinking they would find salvation there. I imagine He could have been frustrated because they studied the Scripture "BUT the Scriptures point to me." Even with all these things, they refused to believe in Him as the One sent by God.
Jesus told them their approval meant nothing to Him "because" they didn't have the love of God in them. Jesus had come in the name of the Father with all these things pointing to Him as God's Son, yet they rejected Him. They believed others who came in their own name, promoting themselves and they welcomed and honored them but then refused to believe Jesus who had all types of witnesses to who He was. They wasted their honor on others without regard to the honor that came from and only God.
Chapter five ends with a final devastating blow to the religious leaders for they are quoters of the words and teachings of Moses. They revered Moses and followed his teachings and laws. They tried to honor him with their lives. With that in mind, Jesus told them, He didn't really need to judge them because the teachings and writings of the one they honored so deeply would convict them. While they revered Moses and his teachings they still were not obedient to them. Moses gave them the Law which they broke. Moses writings pointed them to Jesus yet they did not believe what he wrote about Him. The teachings of Moses, which they thought would show them to be righteous, actually convicted them in their failiure to follow them. It was commonly known that they placed their hope of salvation in Moses who could not save them. Moses could only point them in the direction of Jesus and they were getting it wrong. Jesus closed with the point that if they did not believe what Moses, the man they revered, wrote, they would never believe in Jesus or what He said. If they really believed Moses' writings and teachings, they they would have no other choice but to believe in Jesus as the Messiah.