John 5 - Pick Up Your Mat
Notes
Transcript
Introduction - what has happened in John so far?
Early ministry
water into wine
cleansing the temple
encounter with Nicodemus
encounter with the Samaritan Woman
Jesus heals the official’s son
Rising opposition - Jesus continues to teach and work signs, but receives “push back” from his audience - even outright opposition!
1. Compassion Expressed
1. Compassion Expressed
1 After this, a Jewish festival took place, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2 By the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem there is a pool, called Bethesda in Aramaic, which has five colonnades. 3 Within these lay a large number of the disabled—blind, lame, and paralyzed. 5 One man was there who had been disabled for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and realized he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to get well?” 7 “Sir,” the disabled man answered, “I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I’m coming, someone goes down ahead of me.” 8 “Get up,” Jesus told him, “pick up your mat and walk.” 9 Instantly the man got well, picked up his mat, and started to walk. Now that day was the Sabbath,
v. 1 “a Jewish festival” - unnamed.
Three feasts which Jews were required to go up to Jerusalem: Passover, Pentecost (feast of harvest), Tabernacles (final harvest)
v. 2
“Pool of Bethesda”
Due to its location and importance, the Pool of Siloam was renovated and expanded some 2,000 years ago at the end of the Second Temple period. It is believed that the pool was used during this time as a ritual bath by millions of pilgrims who converged at the Pool of Siloam before ascending through the City of David to the Temple (Baptist Standard)
Near the church of St Anne - almost any holy land tour will visit this site
“colonnade” - covered walkway
v. 5 “disabled for 38 years”
A short-term illness is sometimes healed by human means; many of Jesus’ healings were long-term where there was no hope of a human solution - a man blind since birth (John 9); a woman who had a blood disease for 12 years; this man who had been disabled for 38 years
v.6 “realized he had already been there a long time” - supernatural knowledge
“Do you want to get well?” - confronting the man’s need
v. 7 “Sir” - a term of respect
“I have no one to put me into the pool” - a superstition
John’s portrayal is not the most glowing. One commentator:
He tries to avoid difficulties with the authorities by blaming the one who has healed him (v. 11); he is so dull he has not even discovered his benefactor’s name (v. 13); once he finds out he reports Jesus to the authorities (v. 15). In this light, v. 7 reads less as an apt and subtle response to Jesus’ question than as the crotchety grumblings of an old and not very perceptive man who thinks he is answering a stupid question
v. 8 “Get up” - personal action as evidence of belief
v. 9 “Instantly the man got well” - no PT required!
2. Legalism Exposed
2. Legalism Exposed
9 Instantly the man got well, picked up his mat, and started to walk. Now that day was the Sabbath, 10 and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “This is the Sabbath. The law prohibits you from picking up your mat.” 11 He replied, “The man who made me well told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ 12 “Who is this man who told you, ‘Pick up your mat and walk’?” they asked. 13 But the man who was healed did not know who it was, because Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.
v.9 “Now that day was the Sabbath”
Jesus was fully aware of the day
He was also aware that religious leaders would object. Why? “throughout the years, scribes and other teachers had added to biblical law”. Carrying something can be work. So we make a law that says “you can’t carry anything on the Sabbath”. That way you will not violate the Sabbath day as a day of rest.
The Gospel according to John 1. The Healing at the Pool of Bethesda (5:1–15)
The Old Testament had forbidden work on the Sabbath. But what is ‘work’? The assumption in the Scripture seems to be that ‘work’ refers to one’s customary employment; but judging by Mishnah (Shabbath 7:2; 10:5), dominant rabbinic opinion had analysed the prohibition into thirty-nine classes of work, including taking or carrying anything from one domain to another (except for cases of compassion, such as carrying a paralytic). By Old Testament standards, it is not clear the healed man was contravening the law, since he did not normally carry mats around for a living; according to the ‘tradition of the elders’ the man was breaking the law, since he was contravening one of the prohibited thirty-nine categories of work to which the law was understood to refer.
So…you could carry a paralytic on the Sabbath but you couldn’t heal him!?
v.11 “The man defends himself by blaming the one who told him to do it”
v.12 “Who is this man?” The SBI (Sabbath Bureau of Investigation) needs to look into this!
v.13 “Jesus had slipped away” - He determined when and when not to confront the Pharisees
3. Identity Exposed
3. Identity Exposed
14 After this, Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well. Do not sin anymore, so that something worse doesn’t happen to you.” 15 The man went and reported to the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. 16 Therefore, the Jews began persecuting Jesus because he was doing these things on the Sabbath.
v.14 What does this imply? “Some tragedies in Scripture (and this one in particular) are seen as the outcome of specific sin.” The disciples assumed that the man who was blind from birth had as its cause the man’s sin or his parents’. Jesus, with perfect knowledge, knew the exact cause in this circumstance. Other examples:
Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5)
Those who eat of the Lord’s Supper in an unworthy way (1 Cor 11)
Paul blinds Elymas the magician (Acts 13)
If this is the case, then maybe the reason that Jesus chose this man, out of all the many sick assembled there at the pool, was that his illness was the result of his sin.
“so that something worse doesn’t happen to you” - what’s worse than being disabled? the final judgment!
We live in a fallen world. All sickness and disease and death is a result of sin.
Parents - saved in teens, lived a life devoted to God, faithful in the church. They contracted Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.
As Jesus demonstrated his power over death and disease, he showed that as the second Adam He will in time undo that curse. This is just one of the reasons for which Jesus showed his healing power.
v.15 - Why does he report that it is Jesus who healed him? He is already aware of the Jew’s hostility toward Jesus.
v. 16 “the Jews began persecuting Jesus” (or perhaps “were persecuting Jesus”)
Jesus will take this opportunity to respond and set up even more obstacles, because if the Jews didn’t like Jesus healing on the Sabbath, they will have a cow over Jesus’ justification being that he works as does his Father. This is tantamount to claiming deity.
Applications
Jesus shows love in healing, even though the response may not have reflected gratitude and a transformed life
As we pray “thy kingdom come” we should be aware that what comes along with that is the banishing of sickness and disease
As we show concern for others and for their physical needs, we should be aware that the greatest of needs is spiritual