John 5:1-10
1 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda[a] and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. [4--see commentary below for verse 4] 5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”
7 “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”
8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 10 and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”
(commentary by Marion Adams from www.easyenglishinfo/bible-commentary)
Verse 1 All adult *Jewish males had to go to three *festivals. These *festivals were called the *Passover, *Pentecost and the *Festival of Shelters. Many experts on the *New Testament think that John was referring to *Pentecost in this verse. In his *Gospel, John showed that Jesus attended these special *Jewish *festivals. Jesus followed the rules about this. It is clear that he loved to *worship God with his own people.
Verse 2 The pool called Bethzatha was well-known. People believed that the water there had the power to cure people. The pool was in the city, near to the hill where the *Temple was. Archaeologists (people who dig to find ancient buildings and objects) have uncovered it in recent times. Tourists visit it today. So we know that John’s description of it is accurate.
Verses 3-4 After John wrote his *Gospel, people made copies of it. Then, people made copies of these copies. And that is why we can read the *Gospel today. This is how all ancient books have come to us. The *New Testament books are some of the most accurate ancient books that we have. Experts know this because they compare all the different copies of the *New Testament books. People made these copies at different times and in different places. But they are almost completely the same. This proves that they are accurate copies of the original books.
However, sometimes some copies leave a verse out, or have extra verses. Verse 4 is an extra verse that appears in some copies of John’s *Gospel. The verse is: ‘They were waiting for the water to move. Sometimes, an *angel of the *Lord came down. The *angel would stir the water. After this, the first person to get in the pool became well again.’
So this was the reason why so many sick people were lying near to the pool. They believed that *miracles could happen there.
Verses 5-7 But Jesus did not cure all these people. Instead, he spoke to just one man. Jesus knew what was inside the man’s heart. He knew that the man had *faith.
Jesus asked the man if he wanted to be well. This seems like a strange question, because the man had been ill for 38 years. But Jesus wanted to get the man’s attention. He wanted the man to look at him. This was necessary to make the man’s *faith become alive. Then, Jesus could cure him. This reminds us about how we make our *faith become alive. We must look towards Jesus on the *cross. We do not do this with our physical sight. We do it in our hearts and our spirits (see note on John 3:14-15).
Verses 8-10 Jesus told the man to do what seemed to be an impossible thing. He told him to stand up. The man had been ill for 38 years and probably he was lying down during all that time. But nothing is impossible for God. The man got up and he began to walk immediately!
The people who were watching would have been very surprised. But the *Jewish leaders were angry. This was because the man was carrying his mat on the *Sabbath. This was not wrong in God’s *Law. God had simply told the *Jews that they must not work on the *Sabbath. It was a special, holy day (Exodus 20:8-10). But the *Jewish leaders had added many extra rules about the *Sabbath. These rules explained what ‘work’ meant. The *scribes had a list of 39 different types of work. The man was carrying his mat. This was a type of work.
Probably, however, they were using this as a mere excuse for their anger. Probably, they were jealous of Jesus. They could see that God’s power was working through Jesus. And they knew that God’s power was not working by means of their own efforts to follow their strict rules. The *Jewish leaders were not pleased that the man was well again after 38 years. So they told him that he was doing something wrong.
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