“And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked. And that day was the Sabbath. The Jews therefore said to him who was cured, ‘It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your bed’ ” (John 5:9-10).
The man, miraculously healed by Jesus after 38 years of disability, picked up his bedding according to Jesus and walked out into the light of day. John notes, “And that day was the Sabbath.” Jesus was warned repeatedly not to heal on the Sabbath (Luke 6:6-11, 13:10-17), of which no prohibition exists in Moses’ law.
But there is a prohibition against carrying a burden on the Sabbath (Exod. 20:10; Jer. 17:21-22), though I hardly think the man happily walking with his bed constituted a burden. Because the divine Author of the law of the Sabbath told the man to carry his bedding, the Pharisees were therefore overzealous when deciding what was a burden to carry. Jesus had no problem with it. Let’s be careful not to add burdens that are contrary to the new covenant of grace.
So the Jews told him it wasn’t lawful to carry his bed. In John’s gospel, “the Jews” refers to the Jews who are in authority, not all Jews. These authorities are asking who told him to carry his bed. The man didn’t know healed him, so he couldn’t tell the Jews that Jesus had given the order.
“Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, ‘See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you’ ” (John 5:14). Jesus found him in the temple. Worshiping in the temple had been denied the lame man for 38 years because the disfigured could not worship there. After presenting himself to the priests for inspection and given permission, the healed man did what he longed to do, and praised the God who heals.
The book, Is God a Moral Monster?, speaks of the servants of the tabernacle, that they were barred from service if they had any defects. Was this a heartless discrimination of the disabled? No, for many of the elements of the temple and other aspects of Jewish culture given through Moses had a prophetic function. In this case, those serving in the tabernacle and holy place prefigured the eternal dwelling place of God among His people in the everlasting kingdom—who are clothed with perfected resurrection bodies.
We can be sure the formerly lame man was overwhelmed with emotion and gratitude for the privilege to worship on the temple grounds. Unfortunately, we can take church times and morning devotions for granted if we are not careful to stir up our hearts. Have we forgotten it is a privilege to enter the congregation of the righteous and worship Him who is holy?
Jesus said to the man, “Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you” (John 5:14). Sixteen other English Bible versions agree with this translation. The plain sense of the passage tells us that his disability was a consequence of personal sin. Or perhaps it was continued because of sin? Or had he worshiped a demonic idol, became possessed, and the lameness-inducing demon was released at Jesus’ command that the man rise up?
Was Jesus talking about something else? Jesus had said to him, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” Is the bed a symbol for laziness? Was the man lazy, so he did not exert himself as he could have? Did he have the sin of slothfulness? The man gave excuses. Are there sins connected with all these?
These are interesting questions, but a better question is to ask: if we are disabled (and I am deaf), did we let it get in the way of honoring God? Do we blame God? Did we reject our faith over it? Are we despondent that God let this happen to a “good” person? Do we let our pity-party blind us to God’s care through the many people who helped? It is a grievous sin to malign the sustaining Creator in whom is light and no darkness at all.
So the scriptures tell us nothing of the sin or repentance of this man. Of the scores of people Jesus healed in the other gospels, did they all have faith? Were they all without sin? However, they came for healing in response to the proclamation of the kingdom gospel of grace. The miraculous healings were verifications of the message that the kingdom had come (Isaiah 35:4-6). This was the context of His miracles. They validated Jesus’ word of the kingdom.
“The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well” (John 5:15).
The man found out that Jesus made him well, which prompted the next domino to fall. He went and told the authorities that Jesus did it.
“For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, ‘My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.’ Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God.
“Then Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does; and He will show Him greater works than these, that you may marvel’ ” (John 5:16-20).
The domino tips over and releases a tumbling of revelations concerning the intimate relationship between the Father and the Son, particularly how they work together.
The Jews, zealous for the law, wanted to kill Jesus. Profaning the Sabbath was punishable by death (Exod. 31:14-15). Then Jesus explains His rationale for the healing. The Father was working, so the Son was working. The Son’s role was to do what the Father was doing. He knew the Father wanted to heal that one man, so He did so. It is always lawful to do the will of God.
This bombshell opens up new understanding of our relationship with Jesus. Does He not want His people to represent Him? If we are to be like Jesus, should we be attentive to the Spirit as Jesus was, and do His will? We certainly see this fact represented in the book of Acts.
Evangelists and missionaries see fruit from their evangelistic efforts, which includes the willingness for the converted to meet together to pray, fellowship, and study the word of God. This is the building of a local church. God is moving, so His people participate and go with the flow, following Acts 2:42. A local church is born.
There is so little spiritual fruit in church-going lives because we are not seeking God’s will. We do not sense the prompting and voice of the Spirit. We read and memorize Prov. 3:5-6, but don’t know how to follow through. Instead of not leaning on our understanding, we lean on it, not realizing that our understanding is polluted by the ways of the world. Therefore we cannot trust the Lord with all our hearts because the heart is guided by the dependence on the flesh and the world.
He wants to direct our paths and make them straight, but we do not acknowledge Him in all our ways. Our ways come from the culture and we acknowledge that mindset, and it directs us to be worldly, not heavenly.
When we acknowledge Him as Lord and not depend on the idols of the world; when we acknowledge Him as the Creator who knows us better than man’s institutions do; when we acknowledge Him as the one who saves us from our sins and stop trying to fix us by man’s ways–the He will give light to our path.
He will be the lamp that shows us the road ahead. We will give attention to the word as we ought, and submit to its truths. God will lead. The Spirit will enlighten. The Lord will shepherd His sheep as they follow Him. And they will be saved in the sense the Lord had in mind with the phrase “born again.”
As the wind blows, but we cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going, so are the born again who know the leading of the Spirit, following Him, but not knowing where they are going until they get there (John 3:3-8).
When we are not familiar with this way, we are like the Pharisees who do not look up for direction but at the laws. When we don’t have this relationship between the Father and the Son, our lives are still broken. Jesus came to save us from our sins and bondage to the law, and thus restore the rupture between our souls and the Savior. The epistles spell out all the ways we are beholden to the world, the flesh, and the devil to bring us into the same communion and oneness with the Father and the Son–a communion characterized by joy (John 17:20-23; 1 John 1:1-4).
The “Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do” (John 5:19). The Spirit longs to bring us into this communion where we work with God and not against Him. Where we put His will above our own. He wants us to see the greatness of the kingdom of God and our place in it, and it must be done with closer communion with God. Closer communion with God–that’s what the kingdom of God looks like!
