Reflection on John 5

John told us that "Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews" sometime after He performed the second miraculous sign, which is the healing of the official's son in Galilee. In this chapter, Jesus was going to heal a invalid man and His action of compassion would arouse accusation and opposition that eventually cost His life.

 There was a pool called Bethesda which was surrounded by five covered colonnades. "From time to time an angle of the Lord would come down and stir up the waters. The first one into the pool after each disturbance would be cured of whatever disease he had." So there were "great number of disabled people used to lie" there to wait and fight for being healed. When Jesus passed by, He paid attention to a particular man who was lying there, who "had been invalid for thirty eight years." Possibly this man's being alone set him apart. Knowing this man's desperate and helpless condition, Jesus asked, "Do you want to get well?"  Who wouldn't? Why did Jesus ask this question.

 Let's first check what did the man say. This man didn't say "please help me"  to ask Jesus' help. This man didn't say "thank you for asking" to show appreciation for Jesus' concern. He didn't say "I want to get well" to answer Jesus' question directly. Instead this man immediately started to complain, "Sir, I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me." This man was full of self-pity and bitterness, helplessness and hopelessness. For being physically invalid for thirty eight long years, he was so settled in his circumstances that he didn't know that he should ask for help and that he should thank anyone who ever tried to help. The only thing he was good was complaining to whoever talked to him. It was no wonder he was alone. We might sympathize with him because in our own spiritual inability, we don't know that we should ask for help, we tend to complain. We are so settled in sin's bondages that we are afraid to break it. And we want to avoid the effort and responsibility involved in getting spiritual health and wholeness. But the thing we need the least is sympathy which was definitely not the man needed at that time. The Lord knows. He simply commanded the man, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk." Jesus's commands gave the man the ability to obey and carried the power to heal him. "At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked."

What happened when Jesus healed this man physically is truly a picture of what happened when Jesus heals us spiritually. If we are lying helpless, burdened by our sin , we need to obey Jesus' command, to choose to "get up" to pick up our mess or in another words, to deal our sin, then we need to "walk", to move to where Jesus now calls us, to begin a new life with all the responsibilities that belong to us. Jesus gave us all His commands and promises in Bible for us to apply them to our own situation.

"The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, 'It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.'" Over the centuries, Jewish teachers added hundreds of their own rules to God's perfect law. Following rules became more important than loving God and loving neighbors. The Jews didn't shout joyfully to praise God for this miraculous healing. They might have ignored this miraculous sign had Jesus not chosen to heal the man on Sabbath. They were not happy for the man who now could walk for the first time time in thirty eight years. They stopped him, accused him of breaking the law. The man could tell his accusers, "I simply carries my own mat, not sells mats. I break no law." But the man didn't. He replied, "The man who made me well said to me, 'Pick up your mat and walk.'" He didn't want the blame so he blamed it on "the man who made him well". His accusers didn't care about his healing, they asked, "Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?"  This time, the man could not answer the question since "he had no idea who it was." He didn't know who Jesus was! Of course, "Jesus had slipped away into the crowd" to avoid the unnecessary conflict. But Jesus didn't slip away to avoid him. He could walk now and he could follow Jesus to ask who He is and thank Him.

Physical healing is not necessarily spiritual healing. This man's spiritual inability was far worse than his physical one. The Lord desired more than physical healing for him, and for us too. As the man needed to know Jesus to be spiritually well, so do we. Although the man didn't know his spiritual need, Jesus knew. "Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, 'See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.'" Jesus pointed to his past sin and recent failure. Did the man take Jesus' warning seriously? Let's look at what he did next. "The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who made him well". Instead of following Jesus, he "went away" from Him, and even worse, he told on Jesus to the Jews who were trying to accuse Him. Some might think this man had good intentions. I personally don't think so.

Because Jesus did the healing on the Sabbath, "the Jews persecuted Him. Jesus said to them, 'My Father is always at work to this very day, and I, too, am working.'" Jesus reminded them that God the Father only rested from His work of creation, but never ceases to provide, protect, and direct His creation. Jesus placed His own work on the Sabbath under the shelter of God His Father. Jesus revealed to the Jews the mysterious oneness of the Father's working with His Son. Out of His mercy and compassion, He revealed the deep truth to His accusers. The Jews understood what was Jesus trying to say, but they chose not to accept His words. The Jews "tried all the harder to kill" Jesus. For the reason that Jesus "was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God." The Jews understood that Jesus identified Himself as God, but they refused to acknowledge His identity.

Jesus further explained His claim to be equal with God, "...the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does." Jesus would not do anything on His own agenda, on His own plan. Since His Father's working plan is the perfect and complete one. Jesus would never change His Father's plan. There is need to change. He knew His Father's plan and did all His Father wanted Him to do. "For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does." The Father and the Son have their uniquely intimate relationship. The Father holds nothing back from His beloved Son. And "he will show him even greater things than" healing on the Sabbath, "For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it." Jesus promised that greater works and greater signs of His oneness with His Father were yet to come. Jesus "has life in himself" and gives life to whomever "he is pleased to give it". "Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgement to the Son, that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father." God the Father has committed all judgement into the hand of His Son. Jesus will judge according to His Father's perfect law. To honor the Son is to honor the Father. "He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him." All people owe the Father and His Son equal honor.

People think that from standing on the earth to lying in the grave is crossing over from life to death. But this is not true in God's eye. Actually people without salvation are spiritually dead now. There are so many walking dead on earth. When they reach their grave without salvation, their death is eternal. Now Jesus wants to save those walking dead because He loves their lives as being the Creator of life. Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes Him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life." Jesus Himself called the audience then and calls the readers now to hear and believe Him to "cross over from death to life". It is right for those who have "done good" to choose to receive Jesus' offer. They "will rise to live". It is terribly wrong for those who have "done evil" to reject this gracious offer. They "will rise to be condemned". On the day of resurrection, all people who have ever lived "will hear the voice of the Son of God".  All the dead will be physically resurrected, either to a resurrection to eternal life or to a resurrection to eternal death and condemnation.

Jesus stood in front of the Jews, claimed Himself as "the Son of God",  "has granted" by His Father the right to give life and judge people, demanded the Jews to honor Him as they honor His Father. When the Jews looked at Him, it was very hard for them to believe His claims because He looked like a ordinary man. Jesus understood their doubt and knew that they had questions like, "what evidence can you bring to support your claims? Who gives you the right to demand us to honor you?" Jesus did not ask those who questioned Him to believe without proof. He desired faith to be grounded on valid evidence.

For any believing souls, Jesus' own testimony about Himself is sufficient because there is always the Holy Spirit to be the second witness. For the sincerely doubting ones, the Lord provided additional witnesses for independent proof. Here Jesus listed the Father's testimony, John the Baptist's testimony, the testimony of His own works, and the Scriptures' testimony to testify all His claims.

Jesus said, "There is another who testifies in my favor, and I know that his testimony about me is valid." Perhaps Jesus referred to His Father or the Holy Spirit who always gives "valid" testimony. "And the Father who sent me has testified concerning me." Perhaps He referred to His baptism, when His Father announced, "This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased."

Though Jesus did not depend upon any human testimony as He said "Not that I accept human testimony"; He mentioned John the Baptist' s testimony for the Jews' sake. Jesus described John the Baptist as "a lamp that burned and gave light". Perhaps John had been killed by then. Jesus reminded the Jews, " you chose for a time to enjoy his light". Many Jews, including some leaders, had enjoyed John's testimony when he was alive. Jesus was asking them: what would you do with John's testimony after he was killed? John died, but not his testimony. John's testimony which is valid is alive even today.

Jesus said His own works were a "testimony weighter than that of John". "For the every work that the Father has given" him "to finish, and which" He was doing,  "testifies that the Father has sent" Him. Jesus preformed miraculous signs that testified to His authority. No one could deny that Jesus' works testified to His divine origin. Could there be any more valid evidence?

Jesus listed one more.  He listed the Scriptures which the Jews had been diligently studied. They claimed to have believed Moses who represented all writers of the Scriptures. They believed themselves to be authorities on Moses, on Scriptures. But in their limited human understanding, they could not even find that the only main character in the Scriptures is Jesus Christ, the Messiah. "These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life". The Scriptures points to Messiah, testifying in detail of Messiah and His authority. Jesus is the perfect match of the Scriptures description of Messiah. He is the Messiah. Jesus exposed their fundamental problem, they wanted to "possess eternal life", but did "not have the love of God in" their hearts. This is still true for self-centered people today.

Their totally insincerity about God blinded them so they couldn't see the truth in Jesus. Jesus said, "I have come in my Father's name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him." If people don't believe truth, they believe lies, lies from man, like the hundreds of their own rules. They were fooled by their lies. Jesus asked them, "How can you believe if you accept praise from one another, yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God?" Was the man who was healed by Jesus in the audience? He probably was there. Did he go to the temple to pay the due required by Jewish rules after he was well? Was what his intention? To please God or to please men? Did he "went away" from Jesus because he made "no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God"? More important, did he take Jesus' warning this time?

The Jews claimed that Moses was a valid prophet, but refused to believe his valid testimony on Jesus in the Scriptures. Jesus was so sad for them. He cried out, "If you believe Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?" Jesus asks the same question today and holds all people responsible to respond to the evidences He listed.