Bethesda

Sometime after Jesus began His ministry in Galilee, He went up to Jerusalem for another feast of the Jews.

Now, in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate, is a pool with five covered colonnades. In Hebrew, the place is called Bethesda, meaning "house of mercy" or "house of grace". A legend had developed that, at certain times, an angel came down to the pool and stirred up the water, and the first person to enter the water after its stirring would be healed. And so, on the walkways of the colonnades laid a great number of the sick, the blind, the lame, and the paralyzed.

One man there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw the man lying there and realized that he had spent a long time in this condition, Jesus asked the man, "Do you want to be well?"

The man replied, "Sir, I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am coming, someone else steps into the water before me."

Then Jesus said to the man, "Get up, pick up your mat, and walk."

Immediately, the man was made well, and he picked up his mat and walked. 

Now, this happened on the Sabbath day. So, the Jews said to the man who had been healed, "This is the Sabbath! It is not lawful for you to carry your mat." 

But the man answered them, "The man who made me well told me, 'Pick up your mat and walk.'"

Then the Jews asked him, "Who is this man who told you to pick up your mat and walk?"

But the man who was healed did not know who it was because Jesus had slipped away while the crowd was there.

Afterward, Jesus found the man at the temple and said to him, "See! You have been made well. Stop sinning, or something worse may happen to you." 

But the man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.

Now, the Jews began persecuting Jesus because He was doing these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, "My Father is at work to this very day, and I am working, too"

Because Jesus said this, the Jews tried all the harder to kill Him. For not only was Jesus breaking the Sabbath (by telling people to do work), but He was even calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.

So Jesus replied to the Jews, "Truly, truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing by Himself, but does what He sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, the Son also does. The Father loves the Son and shows the Son all that He does. The Father will show the Son greater works than these, and to your amazement. For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so, the Son also gives life to whom He wishes.

Furthermore, the Father judges no one but has assigned all judgment to the Son, so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.

Truly, truly, I tell you, whoever hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life and will not come under judgment. Indeed, he has crossed over from death to life.

Truly, truly, I tell you, the hour is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in Himself, so also has He granted the Son to have life in Himself. And the Father has given the Son authority to execute judgment because the Son is the Son of Man.

Do not be amazed at this, for the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear the Son's voice and come out—those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.

I can do nothing by Myself; I judge only as I hear. And My judgment is just because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.

If I alone testify about Myself, My testimony is not valid. But there is One who testifies about Me, and I know that His testimony about Me is valid.

You sent messengers to John, and John has testified to the truth. Of course, I do not accept human testimony, but I say these things so that you may be saved.

John was a lamp that burned and gave light, and you were willing to bask in John's light for a season. But the testimony that I have is more substantial than that of John. For the works that the Father has given Me to accomplish—the very works I am doing—testify that the Father has sent Me. And the Father who sent Me has testified about Me. But you have never heard His voice nor seen His form, nor does the Father's word abide in you, because you do not believe the One He sent.

You pore over the Scriptures because you think that by the Scriptures you have eternal life. And these are the very words that testify about Me, yet you refuse to come to Me to have life.

I do not accept glory from people, but I know you and recognize that you do not have the love of God within you. I have come in My Father’s name, and you have not received Me; but if someone else comes in their own name, you receive them. How can you believe when you accept glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?

Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, the one in whom you have put your hope. If you had believed Moses, you would believe Me, because Moses wrote about Me. But since you do not believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?”

(See John 5:1-47)

(Editor's Note: 

1. Deuteronomy 16:16 instructs all Jews to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem three times a year: in spring for the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Passover), in summer for the Feast of Weeks (Shavuot), and in the fall for the Feast of Tabernacles or Feast of Booths (Sukkot). Biblical scholars differ in opinion as to whether John 5:1 is a reference to Passover, Shavuot, or Sukkot.

2. It is not certain why Jesus told the healed paralytic not to sin and risk something worse happening to him. It is possible that the man's prior disability was the result of personal choices. It could also be that Jesus was reminding the man that there are worse things than being crippled, including the penalties of sin (Luke 12:4-5)

3. John the Baptist was imprisoned by Herod Antipas about the time that Jesus began His ministry in Galilee. According to the historian Josephus, John was imprisoned in the fortress palace at Machaerus, located about 33 miles southwest of ancient Philadelphia. It overlooked the Dead Sea from the east, about 9 miles inland.)

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