John - Chapter 5
THE SABBATH HEALING
JOHN 5
As we open this chapter which is filled with wisdom, we see that Jesus is in Jerusalem for a feast time and He finds one lame man among many afflicted and heals him. We see the wisdom that results as Jesus is challenged not as to what He had done, but when He had done it. After this opening episode we are granted one of John's finest teachings which provide the evidence of the deity of Jesus and the teaching from the lips of Jesus as to His relationship with the Father.
John sets the scene for us at the pool of Bethesda in the temple in the area of the five porches. (verse 2). It seems likely that this is the gate known as the sheep gate through which sheep were taken for washing before sacrifice in the temple. This is the first gate rebuilt by the efforts of Nehemiah (3:1) and it points us clearly to the cross and Christ as the Lamb of God is found at the spot where so many earlier lambs were slain.
The pool name is translated as “mercy” and gives further symbol to us as it is only by the Lamb of God that mercy is gained.
The porches being five in number also provides an immediate symbol as we remember that five is the number of grace and this graceful number appears more than several times as symbols for us in scripture. It was with five loaves the Lord fed the hungry multitudes. The fifth portion of the Lord's prayer is “give us this day our daily bread” (now come to mean the bread of life). The fifth commandment is the only one with a promise attached. These few examples make our point.
We see now what the Lord saw. Verse 3 says that there were there a great multitude of impotent folks, blind, halt, and withered. How strong is the type here once more of the nation. They are impotent, without power, unable to stand spiritually. They are blind in their understanding and heart. They are halt, meaning unable to walk, or to spiritually walk with their Lord among them. They are withered, no longer in strength for God.
Verse 5 begins the initial message of the chapter. A certain man was there who had suffered his infirmity 38 years. While he believed the water of the pool was stirred by an angel, and others may have been healed, he cannot arrange to be the first one in the pool when the waters are stirred with healing properties for he has no MAN to help him.
Why should the Holy Spirit be so specific as to the term of his illness? The length of his suffering was exactly the length of time that the nation of Israel was afflicted by the wilderness wandering from the time they came under law until their entry into the promised land. (Deut 2:14)
Jesus asks the afflicted man one small question, “Wilt thou be made whole?” After a sad answer Jesus heals him and says, “Rise, take up thy bed and walk”.
Notice carefully that there were a great multitude of those there who suffered. This man showed no faith, made no calling out to the Lord, no evidence is given that he crawled toward Jesus in hope. The Lord picked him out of the crowd and healed him and even after healing we have no verse that allows he showed new faith. Here is one of the Bible's strongest teaching on the elect of the Lord. It shines the strongest light upon our firm foundation that our healing (physical & spiritual) comes from grace. There is NOTHING we may do ourselves to bring it or to deserve it.
Jesus asks His question that might be viewed in paraphrase as “Are you willing, just as you are, to put yourself in my hands and are you willing to have me do for you what you cannot do for yourself?”
Verse 9 provides the evidence that the man was healed but it also provides the evidence that the healing day was the sabbath. The man is obedient in that he picks up his bed and walks away. The Jews see him carrying the bed and challenge him that he is breaking the law. Jesus was not ignorant of what day it was. He knew the consequences to come. The man evades the challenge by telling the Jews that the man who healed him told him to carry the bed. Here is a good lesson for us still today, obey and stand upon the command of the Lord!
The pitiful portion of this part of the message is that the man broke no law. The Jewish temple writings of the hundreds of rules taught the Jews that it is okay to carry a bed on the sabbath if there is a man in it, but not if it is empty. Might we see here one more example of the emptiness of the logic of these Jewish leaders as they were more concerned about their ceremonial law than whether one lame for so long was now well.
Later Jesus meets the man once more and gives him strong advice (verse 14):
“Behold, thou are made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee”. After grace came the truth to this man. Now that he is whole, he should take the word into his conscience as he is reminded that he is still subject to the government of God. Now as the man departs he tells the Jews it was Jesus who made him whole.
Now in verses 16-30 we will open up wide the door of John's wisdom for us as we begin to see the proof that comes upon the Jews of the divinity of Jesus. He will grant them His nature by revealing the testimony of the Father.
Verse 16 shows the iniquity of the Jews as now that the healer has been named, they seek to kill Jesus for healing on the sabbath.
Here we are granted from the holy lips of Christ himself the truth of His nature and He sets forth the equality of the Son with the Father.
He is equal in the following ways:
In Service (16-18)
In Will (19)
In Intelligence (20)
In Sovereign Rights (21)
In Divine Honor (22-23)
In Giving Life (24-26)
In Judgment Power & Authority (27-30)
The truth and foundation of these few verses open our understanding of the mystery of the Son. Here in 15 verses is formed the solid rock of all we believe and in these rests our comfort forever that we know the truth, accept it and mold our lives to it.
The sum of this wisdom seems to be that the love of the Father, and of the Son, is manifested in the perfect knowledge which the Son has and in the purpose and manner of this love, Divine power, equally held by both is put forth.
The Father has life, and gives life to the Son, and all those who believe on the Son HATH eternal life (not to be obtained at some future day, but have it upon believing, meaning NOW.
Now in the last 17 verses Jesus provides the witnesses to the facts that he has revealed. These witnesses for the defense of His true nature are noted as:
Christ's witness is not independent of the Father (31-32)
The Witness of John the Baptist (33-34)
Christ's Witness to John (35)
The Witness of the Works of Christ (36)
The Witness of the Father (37-38)
The Witness of the Scriptures (39)
Christ's Witness Against the Jews (40-47)
Several lessons come to our study from these witness verses.
Verse 39 is near to the final witness and has great meaning for us. The Apostle John is long dead. The voice of the Word from the lips of Jesus ended with His ascension. The testimony of the scriptures abides forever, confirming all He has taught.
Christ was not deceived by these self righteous Jews. He knew they had no love of God within them and this is exactly why they refused to come to Him for life. The lesson is surely the same today. There are those who have ears but do not hear and have eyes and do not see. Mankind is no better today than they were that day on the porch of the temple. Notice the strong words of condemnation Jesus now speaks:
“I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive”. (43)
“How can ye believe, which receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that cometh from God only”? (44)
Honor may be thought of as praise. While these Jews have high opinions of one another, they are indifferent to the approval of God. To come to Jesus they will have to humble themselves, and that they are unwilling to do. Does this lesson still apply today?
Finally in verse 45 Jesus once and for all hammers down into the hearts of these who claim to hold the law and its rituals & ceremonies above worship of the living God.
If there is one thing these Jews held close to their hearts it was Moses and his writings. They held Moses above almost all others in their hearts, perhaps only Abraham or David came close to the love they claimed for Moses.
Now here is the Son of God declaring that these Jews did NOT believe in Moses, for if they had they would remember Moses wrote of the One who stood in their midst.
Verse 45 is the hammer verse. “Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust”. Moses, whom they hold so high, will himself judge these Jews.
How powerfully Jesus exerts His Sonship over these men who wallow in their unbelief.
Our lesson here is that the OT scripture carries just as much weight to convey the authority and position of Jesus Christ as does the NT scripture. They are bookends of mutual wisdom to reveal to all men the authority of the Son and the fact that belief in Him is not optional for eternal life. It is essential.
