After some time, the Judaeans held a festival, and Jesus went to Jerusalem. At the sheep’s gate in Jerusalem, a pool called Bethesda (in Hebrew) had five covered colonnades. Many people were ill and lay in the pool, like the blind, lame, withered, etc., waiting for the waters to move. (It was said that an angel descending into the pool at a certain time stirred the waters, and whoever stepped into the waters first after the stirring was healed of whatever disease they had.) One man in particular had an ailment for thirty-eight years, and when Jesus saw him laying there and knowing he had already done so for a long time, said to him, “Do you wish to become healthy?” (John 5:1-6)
The sick man answered, “Lord, I have nobody who might place me in the pool when the water is stirred; rather, as I approach, someone else goes down ahead of me.” Jesus said to him, “Arise, take up your mat and walk.” Immediately the man became well, took his mat, and walked. However, the day this happened was on the Sabbath. So the Judaeans said to the man who had been healed, “It is a Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to carry the mat.” But the man answered back, “The one making me well told me to “take my mat and walk.’” So they asked him, “Who is the man telling you, ‘take and walk?’” But the man who had been healed had no idea who it was; for there was a crowd in the place now, and Jesus had withdrawn. (John 5:7-13)
Afterward, Jesus found the man in the Temple and said to him, “See, you are no well, sin no more so that something worse may not happen to you.” So the man went away and told the Judaeans that Jesus was the one who had made him well. So, the Judeans persecuted Jesus for having done these things on a Sabbath day (and sought to kill him). But Jesus answered the Judaeans, “My Father is working right up to this moment, and I am working too.” Because of this, the Judaeans sought all the more to hill him; not only did he break the Sabbath, but he also called God his own Father, making himself equal to God. (John 5:14-18)
Jesus Answers the Judaeans
Jesus answered them and said, “Amen, Amen, I tell you, the Son can do nothing from himself, except what he sees the Father doing; for whatever things the Father does, the Son does the same also. For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he does. He will show him works greater than these, so you may be amazed. Just as the Father raises the dead and makes them live, the Son makes all he will alive. The Father does not judge anyone but has given all the judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who has sent him.” (John 5:19-23)
“Amen, Amen, I tell you that whoever hears my words and has faith in the one who has sent me has life of the Age and does not come to judgment, but rather has crossed out of death into life. Amen, Amen, I tell you that an hour is coming – and now is – when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. As the Father has life in himself, he also granted it to the Son to have life in himself. And he gave him the power to pass judgment because he is the Son of Man. Do not be amazed at this, for an hour is coming which all those in the tombs will hear his voice, and those who have done good things will come forth into a resurrection of life, and those who have done evil things into a resurrection of death.” (John 5:24-29)
“I can do nothing; I judge as I hear, and my judgment is just. I don’t seek my will but rather the will of the one who sent me. If I testify concerning myself, my testimony is not true; however, another is testifying concerning me, and I know that the testimony he gives concerning me is true. You have sent to John, and he has testified to the truth. But I do not take the testimony of a man; rather, I say these things so that you might be saved. That man was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to exult in his light for a time. But I have a greater testimony than John’s. The works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works I am performing, testify about me that the Father has sent me. The Father, having sent me, has testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice or seen his form. Nor do you have is Word abiding in you, for this one whom he sent, you do not have faith in him” (John 5:30-38)
“You think to take hold of the life of the Age, you search through the scriptures. But those scriptures testify concerning me; yet you do not wish to come to me to take hold of life. I do not receive glory from men, but I have known you: you do not have God’s love in yourselves. I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive that one. How can you have faith and receive glory from one another, yet you do not receive the glory coming from God? Do not think that I shall accuse you before the Father; the one accusing you is Moses, in whom you have hoped. If you had faith in Moses, then you would have had faith in me; for that one wrote concerning me. But if you do not have faith in that one’s writings, how will you have faith in what I say?” (John 5:39-47)
