Disabled (adj) crippled; injured; incapacitated.
1. to make unable or unfit; weaken or destroy the capability of; cripple; incapacitate:
2. to make legally incapable; disqualify.
When we use the word "disabled" we normally think of someone who has a physical weakness. And in John 5 we meet someone who meets that criteria. But the real story here isn’t the physical disability of one man, it is the spiritual disability of all humanity. You may have a disability but are unaware of your real infirmity, or you may think you are not disabled in any way but are hopelessly unable.
1 - 5
Here we see the next encounter Jesus has with a distinct individual. This time it’s the person who is outcast because of a physical infirmity. The Bethesda Pool has been found near the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem. It was a two level spring-fed pool that was surrounded by colonnades. These little roofs would protect the disabled from the weather, a little bit.
An urban myth said that when the waters were troubled that if someone went in they would be healed. Today we have hordes of people go to Lourdes where they think the water there has magical properties and can heal. Most likely the myth rose from coincidence, or was simply made up. By the way, some scholars think this section about the angels was added later to explain why people went into the waters. That verse 4 is in the KJV and the NASB, but not in the NIV or the ESV.
There were no social services in those days. There was no safety net for the disabled. If you didn’t have someone to care for you then you were simply on your own to beg or die-and many did both.
Here out of the multitudes of disabled was one man who had been there for 38 years. Perhaps it was an injury or an illness, but imagine you are this guy: probably you are always on the verge of starvation and certainly depression and anxiety all the time as you see others get help and you are simply unable to get to the water or have no one to help you.
6 - 9
How did Jesus know that the man had been there a long time? Perhaps he recognized him from a past visit to Jerusalem or perhaps the Holy Spirit revealed it to him. Notice what He does, though. He asks the man if he wants to be healed. I don’t know about you but I find that kind of odd. Of course he wants to be healed. But maybe not. Some people would rather stay in a disabled state either because the known pain is better than the unknown risk of being healed or maybe they somehow enjoy being the victim.
Jesus does this a lot. "What do you seek?" "What do you want me to do for you?" Having Jesus touch your life connects you to Him. If you cry out to Him to help you then be prepared for Him to move and do much more than just fill what you see as your immediate need, as He does in this case.
As Jesus spoke and 20 miles away a boy was healed in chapter 4, here is simply tells the man to get up, take his bed and walk. All things obey Jesus, the Word. But there was a problem, not for the man, but for the religious leaders-Jesus did this healing purposefully on a Sabbath.
10 - 13
Surely the Jews knew this man had been disabled. Instead of rejoicing in the healing they got upset because he was breaking their interpretation of the Law that said they were not to work on the Sabbath. Note: it was not a violation of the Law to carry your bed on the Sabbath, only a violation of the rules of the Pharisees, who had hundreds of such rules governing behavior.
Sometimes we can overlook the major miracle that God is doing in someone’s life because they don’t fall into a pre-supposed template like dressing a certain way or not doing certain activities that culturally in that setting or group or considered "good Christian behavior." We need to be careful that we miss the real miracle of healing the soul that Jesus does.
14 - 18
Basically Jesus was telling the man that physical healing was one thing, but spiritual healing was much more important. Like all of us, this man needed the salvation of his soul in order to avoid the real problems from sin-eternal separation from God.
The Jewish leaders were threatened by Jesus actions so they began to persecute him. When he said "my Father" the Jews knew he was claiming a special relationship with God. To claim that a person was equal with God was blaspheme, if it wasn’t true.
19 - 29
This is the first real declaration of who Jesus is and what he is doing in John’s gospel. Up until now we’ve seen some things, and we’ve heard Jesus in conversation, but here he declares openly some things that I’m sure shocked the Jews to the roots.
19 - 20 (& 25 - 26) Jesus has a unique relationship with God the Father
21- Jesus has the ability to grant life
22 - 24 To worship God you have to worship Jesus
27 - 29 Rejecting Jesus brings a person under judgment - in other words, everyone must answer to Jesus.
Now what does "who have done good" (29) mean - is Jesus setting up a legalistic earning of salvation by good deeds? No. Only Jesus is good. We are evil by nature. We can only become good (and do good) through Jesus life, not our own. So He is saying that only those that have been given the new life that only Jesus can give will be saved.
30
The Son and the Father (and the Spirit) each have a unique role and purpose. These are also great words for us as well. If we are attuned to the Holy Spirit inside of us we will only do things that God wants us to do for His glory and His purposes.
31 - 35
Deuteronomy 17:6 says that by the testimony of two or three witnesses, every fact would be confirmed. Jesus validates his claims by the witness of John, even though they are true whether validated or not. John reflected the glory of Jesus, he was not the source of the light itself.
36 - 37
The Father bore witness to the Son at His baptism (Matthew 3:16-17), and later on the Mount of Transfiguration (Matthew 17:5), his crucifixion (John 12:28), and in His resurrection (Romans 1:3-4). He also bore witness by Jesus’ miracles.
The Jews had not seen the Father. In fact, no one can see His face and live. (Exodus 33:20).
38 - 40
Notice how Jesus says this. Paying close attention to God’s Word (not the rules of the Pharisees) would lead you to Jesus. But then in the next statement he says that it is not the Scriptures themselves that bring life but the fact that they speak of the Messiah: Jesus.
The Jewish religious leaders and especially the Scribes and teachers of the law spent their entire lives studying the Scriptures, but not to learn more about God or get closer to God but more as an academic exercise and a way to further their own ends by endlessly arguing about the minutia of the law. If you fail to see Jesus in the Scriptures you have missed the point.
41 - 44
The religious establishment of the day was all about self preservation. In order to maintain their power they had to be exclusionary. It was only when the group agreed on something that they accepted it. And it was more important to receive praise from others, than to receive it from God.
Jesus doesn’t need anyone’s approval. How did Jesus know they didn’t have the love of God-because they didn’t love Jesus and recognize him. Later on he’ll actually tell them that they are really aligned more with Satan than with Yahweh (John 8:44). They would believe others were the Messiah, though (including a man named Simeon ben Kosebah in AD 132 who was proclaimed the Messiah by the preeminent rabbi of the day Akibah.
One of the main defenses the Jews put up against Jesus was that they identified with Moses. They thought that due to the fact that God spoke to Moses and they were related to him that God owed them salvation. Moses, who wrote the first five books of the Bible, spoke about Jesus in Genesis 3:15 (Eve’s Seed), Numbers 21:9 (bronze serpent), Numbers 24:17 (a scepter shall rise out of Jacob), Deuteronomy 18:15 (the Prophet).
This is still true today. Any Jewish person who is really looking for the Lord in the Scriptures will find Jesus there. The character of the Messiah is portrayed in the Old Testament, even the suffering Savior that Jesus was in His first coming. If you don’t accept that then you won’t accept Jesus because He is the fulfillment of those things!
Lessons:
The man was disabled and knew it. The Pharisees were disabled and didn’t. The man was looking for the right thing (healing) in the wrong place (a mythical pool) - found the right person (Jesus) and healing (both physical and spiritual). He was spiritually ignorant but open to the Savior.
The Pharisees were looking for the wrong thing (justification for self) in the right place (the Scriptures) - missed the right person (Jesus) and were not healed. They were not spiritually ignorant but were not open to the Savior.
Most humans are in one of these two camps. Either we are disabled and know it, or we are disabled and don’t. But without Jesus we remain unable to find healing and peace and lasting joy, we are weak and are incapacitated to be or do good. It may not appear on the outside as a physical infirmity, but we are crippled by sin and legally incapable of being justified before God. We are disqualified from being able to come into his presence.
So the word today is to look, really look at your situation and realize just how disabled you are if you don’t know Jesus. He has come to you today-sought you out and asked you "what do you want?" Or perhaps you have become so religious that you can’t see the forest for the trees-you can’t see the Savior for all the stuff of religion: the rules and the tradition and the flesh.
Even if you are a Christian already, perhaps you need Jesus to open your eyes to the fact that He really is the source, not your own idea about
If you think your problem is physical (need that new job or more money or perfect health) in order to be happy, maybe its spiritual (I need to trust God more and learn to be content in Him). Or maybe you realize your problem is spiritual but you don’t realize you need Jesus in the problem (I’m going to church and paying my tithes and singing songs but I’m not happy). Maybe He just wants to be more central to your life, in more of your life.
A second lesson is that you won’t find God by your own efforts, but He goes out of His way to find you, if you are willing to receive Him, just as Jesus went back and found the man he healed to introduce himself as the Messiah.
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