October 8: John 5

October 8, John 5

John continued…

John 5 Jesus and His disciples went up to Jerusalem - remember you always had to go ‘up’ to Jerusalem because it was at a higher elevation (a hill)… They get to a pool in Bethesda where a bunch of invalids laid - paralyzed, blind, lame… Brutal. There was a guy there who had been an invalid for 38 years and Jesus asked him if he wanted to be healed, the guy said yes, but that he had nobody to help him into the pool when the waters stirred up (they believed in miraculous healing at these kind of pools). So, Jesus healed him. Jesus told him to get up, take his bed and walk! He did! 

We find out that this happened on the Sabbath and we have already learned how the Jews put more rules on top of rules for the people to obey - and apparently one of them was very strict about not working (or carrying anything for that matter). The Jews questioned the healed man about who did it and why he was ‘working’ on the Sabbath and he responded he was simply obeying the man who healed him. Then Jesus found him later and told him to sin no more and the Jews were not happy with Jesus. Jesus explained to the Jews that if God was working, then Jesus was working.

“This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.” Black and white why they wanted Jesus dead.

We then read additional stories about Jesus and the Jewish leaders - no wonder the Jews were furious with Jesus - Jesus kept claiming to be God. He said things like:

• “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing”
• “For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.” 
• “For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel”
• “The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, 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”
• …”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 he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man”
• “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.”
•  “and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent.”

Jesus criticized the Jewish leaders for not even knowing God or loving God. They look in Scripture for salvation when salvation was standing right in front of them.

To sum it all up: 

• Jesus did and still does miracles. If Jesus tells you to do something, do it. You will be the better for it. We are blessed beyond compare because of Jesus Christ. He gives us new life and eternal life.