John Chapter 5

John 5:1-15   The Healing at the Pool

At the beginning of this chapter, Jesus visits a pool surrounded by many people who are disabled.  It is a place where people gathered in the hopes of being healed.  Jesus approaches a man who he learns has been sick for 38 years.  Jesus asks him if he wants to get well.  The man is not begging to be healed and does not even know who Jesus is.  The man replies that every time he tries to get into the healing waters of the pool, he is pushed aside by someone else.  Jesus tells him to pick up his mat and walk and the man does!  This took place on the Sabbath and the Jews there tell him it is forbidden for him to be carrying his mat (day of rest).  When he turns to look for Jesus ("the man who made me well"), to explain his reason for carrying the mat, Jesus has slipped away into the crowd. 

John 5:16-30   Life Through the Son

In the middle of this chapter, Jesus runs into the healed man again and the man points him out to the Jews.  They immediately berate him for doing work on the Sabbath and want him dead.  Jesus defends himself by saying that, " 'My father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working.' "  This infuriates them more because he is now claiming to be equal with God.  Jesus goes on to say that is doing what His Father has given him authority to do and that those who don't believe in him, do not believe in God.  They will be condemned.

John 5:31-47   Testimonies About Jesus

In the end of the chapter, it is obvious that Jesus is addressing Jews that had their attention set on each other, on self-seeking and praise from each other.  They were not accepting Jesus and therefore missing the whole point, that praise comes from God and in order to receive it, they would need to see Jesus for who he was. 

I love that Jesus is telling it like it is when speaking to the Jews in this chapter.  They are reading Scripture but have no faith in the man that is standing before them.  I imagine it was difficult to believe certain things, miracles that Jesus was performing, things that he was preaching about, things that people were seeing him do, but regardless, you would think they would have been intrigued and not so judgmental.  However I think that is what holds people back today sometimes, that the stories of the Bible are hard to imagine, hard to believe sometimes.  This is where faith comes from and where we as Christians need to share (not force upon) what we know to be true about God, what we have learned from Jesus, in any way we can.