John 5:1-18 - The Confined, the Blind, and the Divine (Rev. Erik Veerman)

The Confined, the Blind, and the Divine

Please turn in your Bibles to John 5:1-18.

We'll find in these verses that Jesus was back in Jerusalem. He and his disciples were there for one of the annual feasts. While there, Jesus met a man who had been significantly disabled for 38 years. Jesus then healed him. You'll hear that the Jewish leaders didn’t like that at all. As I read, listen for the reasons why they wanted to kill Jesus.

Reading of John 5:1-18

Prayer

Several years ago, I was in Tel Aviv for a conference. Tel Aviv is a modern city in Israel (you know, the nation state). Well, my trip spanned a weekend, so I was there on a Saturday. Saturday is the Jewish Sabbath - their day of rest. And I remember walking out of my hotel room on Saturday morning. And when I got to the elevators, there was a strange thing. One of the elevators was in "Sabbath mode."

What I came to find out was that the elevator would go up or down one floor at a time and open on each floor. Its purpose was so that orthodox Jews wouldn't need to press any elevator buttons. Turns out, pressing an elevator button was a Sabbath violation. But, they could get on the Sabbath elevator and just ride it up or down until they reached their destination floor.

I didn't remember anything in the Old Testament about elevator buttons, so I looked it up and it turns out that they have all these additional rules on what can or can't be done on a Sabbath. You are not supposed to handle money or get a haircut or turn on lights or add water to a vase. But you can hire a "sabbath guy" to do some of those forbidden things for you.

None of these legalistic laws are new. No, it's been going on for thousands of years. And that is what we come across in our text this morning. The guy who was healed broke the Sabbath by carrying his mat. Jesus himself broke the Sabbath by healing him. And those things caused the Jews to be enraged. They were so angry at Jesus that they wanted to kill him.

All of it revealed a few things. It revealed the hypocrisy of the Jewish establishment, and it revealed who Jesus truly is. Not only that, in the bigger trajectory of John's Gospel, this text introduces the tension between Jesus and the Jews. That tension will ultimately culminate in the cross.

So, in other words, there are a lot of layers in these verses - healing, matters of the Sabbath, Jesus' identity, Jewish motivations, and broader redemptive historical things.

In order to peel the layers back, we'll work through the different people involved and see how they interact. That will reveal a lot. So, we'll consider these verses by looking at the three main characters. #1 the confined, #2 the blind, and #3 the divine. The confined meaning this disabled man. The blind meaning the Jews. And, of course, the divine, meaning Jesus.

1. The Confined

So, #1 - the confined. We learn up front that this man had endured some kind of serious debilitating condition. I'm hesitant to call him paralyzed because it could have been some other condition that prevented him from walking or really even moving much at all. And this guy had endured this condition for 38 years. That's a long time.

We learn that he and others with life-long disabilities would spend time at one of the city pools. This particular pool was north of the temple mount near the Sheep Gate. By the way, the Sheep Gate was likely named that because livestock could enter the city and the temple area without dealing with a long set of stairs. Well, nearby the Sheep Gate was a public pool called Bethesda. It was a large pool. It had 5 colonnades, which were covered porches or porticos and which allowed people to take cover under the shade.

Interestingly, archeologists believe they found this exact pool. It was unearthed in the late 19th century adjacent to this northern gate - at the very location where this narrative occurred. And it turns out it had exactly 5 porticos. It had two levels of pools, one upper and one lower with 5 total colonnades. It's likely that one or both of the pools was fed by an underground spring that would bubble up at times.

The water in the pool was thought to have some kind of healing power. Some have even suggested that the healing was associated with a pagan god. That's undetermined, but because of the supposed healing, the pool attracted a crowd of people with different conditions.

Moreover, the healing was thought to be the greatest when the water was stirring. At certain times the spring or springs or perhaps another water source would bubble up. That would cause the water to be stirred up and that was the precise time when you wanted to be in the pool if you wanted to be healed.

That helps to explain verses 6 and 7. Jesus asked the man if he wanted to be healed. We expected this man to say yes. But he didn’t have in mind that Jesus could actually heal him. What he had in mind was getting into the water when it was stirred up… when its healing power was supposedly the greatest. That's why when he answered Jesus, he said, "Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up." In other words, yes, I want to be healed, but I can't get into the water. And if I try to work my way down, someone gets in front of me.

He was confined by his condition. Although he wanted to experience the so-called healing power of the water, he just couldn't get in. He was stuck on his bed mat.

But then something tremendous happened. Jesus said to him, "get up, take up your bed and walk." And immediately, as verse 9 tells us, he was healed. He took up his bed and walked. It's hard to even imagine all that this man felt when that happened. We learn a few verses later that Jesus had withdrawn from the crowd. So, this man couldn't even identify at the time who healed him! But he was healed. And then he carried his mat around. Maybe carrying his mat was a reminder to himself and others that he had been unable to walk, but now he could.

Ok, I want to note something important here. This miracle is not associated with this man's faith. Did you notice that? Furthermore, the events immediately before or after the miracle did not involve Jesus conveying some kind of spiritual message. No, in the leadup to the healing, Jesus did not identify himself nor was he teaching. He was just there; he asked a question, then healed the man, then retreated into the crowd.

Look down at verse 14. At some point later, Jesus found the man in the temple court. And look what Jesus said to him. It's very interesting. "See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.” That may seem out of place but it's simply there to emphasize that this man's greater need was to be reconciled to God. He'd been healed, yes, but what he really needed was to be saved from hell. Hell would be worse than the 38 years of his disability. Jesus was not saying that some former sin caused his paralysis. Nor was Jesus saying that if the man continued to sin that he would have some other worse disability. No, Jesus was just warning the man of the coming judgment.

What I am saying is that the purpose of this miracle was not a spiritual object lesson …like the healing of the official's son. Rather, the purpose of this miracle was to expose the Jewish establishment's hypocrisy and unbelief… and to reveal the one who is Lord of the Sabbath.

2. The Blind

Which bring us to #2 The Blind. You probably noticed, there's nobody physically blind in this story. No, but the Jewish elite here were spiritually blind. That is very clear. I think it will become even more clear as we go through this.

As I mentioned earlier, it was the Sabbath. And back in Jesus' day, the Sanhedrin had come up with a list of 39 forbidden tasks on the Sabbath. Just like today's additional Sabbath laws, this list was the invention of these ruling Rabbis. They thought that by adding rules, over and above the Scripture, that they were helping the people. But in reality, it was merely turning people's hearts to external things and away from the very purpose of the Sabbath - worship and rest.

Even worse, if you broke one of these extraneous laws, there were severe punishments. You could be publicly shamed, or excommunicated, or even put to death.

Rule 39 stated that it was forbidden to carry your load between your domains - like between your home and your work. That rule is actually derived from Jeremiah 17:21, but it expanded on it. Instead of just avoiding bringing your work burden home, this extra law prevented you from carrying anything.

I bring this up because when this man picked up his sleeping mat, he violated command 39. He pushed the elevator button. And for the Jews, that was a big problem.

That's why they told him in verse 10 that it was unlawful for him to carry his bed.

And look at his response in verse 11. "The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’” Well, that stirred the pot even more.

Who is this guy? Who is the one who told you to break the Sabbath laws? We want to know!

Did you notice… they did not care that he was healed. The man made a point to say that the guy who healed him told him to pick up his mat. But the Jews ignored that point. Look at verse 12. They asked, who is the man who told you to do this… to break the Sabbath. They didn’t say, "who was the man who healed you."

This man had been an invalid for 38 years. He had been around. People knew he was disabled. But there he was walking around. He even had enough energy to carry his mat! It was amazing! But they showed no excitement for him. They weren't even curious about how it happened. Rather, all they cared about was that he broke the rules. You see, they were blind. They were spiritually blind. They cared not about the miracle nor this man.

In fact, when the man later learned that it was Jesus who healed him, he pointed Jesus out to them. And again, he emphasized that Jesus was the one who healed him. But again, they ignored that part. Instead, they were furious. Why were they angry? Because Jesus had been doing these things on the Sabbath. Again, it doesn’t even mention the healing. Rather, Jesus and this man …had broken their laws.

This spiritual blindness was not just about being blind to the healing. No, they were blind to the purposes of the Sabbath, they were blind to God and the Scriptures… and they were blind to Jesus himself. It didn’t even cross their minds that perhaps Jesus was the Messiah. They were so blind to Jesus, they wanted to kill him.

We're going to get to Jesus in a minute. But before we do, I want to ask you two things.

First, are there areas in your life where you are spiritually blind? I suppose that if you are blind to them, you don't even know what they are. The question is really, what are you blind to? Are there patterns of sin that you are unwilling to confess or address? Are you unwilling to let the Lord lead you in certain areas of your life? And let me point out, it was not just the Jews that are blind here. We're not given any sense that this healed man responded to Jesus with faith. After Jesus warned him, the first thing he did was point out to the Jews who Jesus was. We don't know for sure, but perhaps he never heeded Jesus' warning about forsaking his sin and about judgment. Again, we don't know for sure, but we should heed Jesus words to him as a warning for us.

The second thing I want to ask is about how you treat the Sabbath. The Jews had suppressed the whole purpose of the Sabbath. It is supposed to be about worship and rest. It is supposed to be about our hearts and minds turning to God to give him glory. Their added laws undermined that purpose.

I am not saying that God's laws are the problem. No, disobeying God's law reveals hearts that are turned away from him. But obedience needs to come from hearts of faith. We set aside this day for worship because we desire to worship God.

Telling someone they can't carry a bed or telling someone that they can't push an elevator button distracts from the Sabbath's very purpose. So I ask, where is your heart in regard to the Sabbath? Is this day a going-through-the-motions day? Or are you striving to look to and honor the Lord with a heart of faith?

Just to be sure, neither your spiritual blindness nor your understanding of the Sabbath is the focus of these verses. But as you read the Word, like these verses, are you striving to search your own heart? Are you looking to see whether the examples or warnings or the call to believe apply to you?

I know that's a little off topic, but those are important questions to ask.

3. The Divine

Ok, returning to the text, let's move on to point #3. The Divine.

One clear emphasis in these verses is Jesus' divinity. These verses testify to Jesus' nature as God in the flesh. Certainly, Jesus’ divinity is displayed through the healing of this man. For 38 years he had been unable to walk, but Jesus healed him immediately.

But an even greater emphasis of Jesus’ divinity is found in how he responded to the Jews. And they knew it.

We read in verse 16 that after the Jews found out who healed the man, they were angry. Jesus was violating the Sabbath. We don’t know how, but it says that in some way, they were persecuting Jesus. It's most likely that they were verbally attacking him about violating the Sabbath. And how did Jesus respond to their accusations? Verse 16 “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”

Now, you may be wondering, is that true? Is God the Father working? After all, on the seventh day of creation, which they were in and we are in, Genesis 1 says that God rested. When it says that God rested does that mean he no longer works? In other words, on days 1-6, God certainly had been working… He established the universe; he hung the stars and planets in their places; he formed the earth and populated it with plants and birds and fish. He created man in all his glory as an image bearer.

He did all those things, but that does not mean that God is not still at work, even on the Sabbath! His work, rather, has moved from establishing the order of creation to providentially maintaining his creation.

God is still upholding his creation even on the Sabbath, which for us is on Sunday, the resurrection day. Every day, including the Sabbath, God is turning hearts to him. Babies are born. God is receiving his own into heaven when they pass from this life. He is hearing our prayers and guiding his people and enacting his providential care… and judging the unjust. Those works continue every day of the week, including the Sabbath.

When Jesus healed this man on the Sabbath, he was furthering the work of God. He was fulfilling his calling as God the Son in whom is found dominion and power… and through whom and for whom are all things created. Though the Jews were blind to him, yet before them stood the one in whom is all life. He is the preeminent one in all the universe… He is the very one who upholds the universe by the Word of his power. The act of healing this disabled man was only a glimpse of his glory and power. And in him, all the fulness of God was pleased to dwell.

As God the Son, Jesus could say to them that he was working just as his Father was working. In saying that, not only was Jesus giving the reason he could heal on the Sabbath, but he was also testifying that he was indeed God in the flesh.

And do you know what? The Jewish establishment knew exactly what he was saying. And for that very reason they wanted to kill him even more. As we learn in verse 18, to them not only was Jesus breaking the Sabbath, but as it says, he was making himself equal with God.

It was blasphemy. It was claiming to be God or equal to God. And the punishment was death. All the more they wanted to kill him. They were blind to him and to his healing ministry and divinity.

Their hearts were so hard, that they couldn't even consider that Jesus was God. But he clearly claimed to be and displayed his divine power.

Now, if you were a first-century Jew reading this Gospel, you would be very unsettled by this passage. Yes, the chapters before were reframing your understanding of Jewish intuitions and the Messiah. But this chapter in particular would put you in a difficult place. You wouldn't be able to read these verses without realizing you were in a predicament. Do you believe that this man Jesus is who he claimed to be? Or do you believe the Jewish establishment that he was a blasphemer, who justly deserved to be hung on a cross? There's really no middle ground. What do you believe?

In fact, the rest of this chapter seeks to establish the case that Jesus is indeed God. Next week and the week after, we'll see that he has divine authority and he has witnesses which testify to him.

Conclusion

So, the confined, the blind, and the divine. A man trapped in 38 years of helplessness, now healed. A religious establishment so blinded by their rules and darkened hearts that they couldn't see the miracle right in front of them. And the Son of God, who continues the work of his and our Father.

May we see Jesus as Lord of the Sabbath, the healer of our souls, and truly equal with the Father. And may we bow to him and worship him with hearts and minds desiring to honor him… every day of the week and especially the Sabbath.