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John 5:1-18
Jesus Heals a Sick Man
1Later, Jesus went to Jerusalem for another Jewish festival. 2In the city near the sheep gate was a pool with five porches, and its name in Hebrew was Bethzatha.
3-4Many sick, blind, lame, and paralyzed people were lying close to the pool.
5Beside the pool was a man who had been sick for 38 years. 6When Jesus saw the man and realized that he had been crippled for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to be healed?”
7The man answered, “Sir, I don't have anyone to put me in the pool when the water is stirred up. I try to get in, but someone else always gets there first.”
8Jesus told him, “Pick up your mat and walk!” 9Right then the man was healed. He picked up his mat and started walking around. The day on which this happened was a Sabbath.
10 When the Jewish leaders saw the man carrying his mat, they said to him, “This is the Sabbath! No one is allowed to carry a mat on the Sabbath.”
11But he replied, “The man who healed me told me to pick up my mat and walk.”
12They asked him, “Who is this man that told you to pick up your mat and walk?” 13But he did not know who Jesus was, and Jesus had left because of the crowd.
14Later, Jesus met the man in the temple and told him, “You are now well. But don't sin anymore or something worse might happen to you.” 15The man left and told the leaders that Jesus was the one who had healed him. 16They started making a lot of trouble for Jesus because he did things like this on the Sabbath.
17But Jesus said, “My Father has never stopped working, and this is why I keep on working.” 18 Now the leaders wanted to kill Jesus for two reasons. First, he had broken the law of the Sabbath. But even worse, he had said God was his Father, which made him equal with God.
John 5:1-18
The healing at the pool
1Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. 2Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3Here a great number of disabled people used to lie – the blind, the lame, the paralysed. 4 5One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, ‘Do you want to get well?’
7‘Sir,’ the invalid replied, ‘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.’
8Then Jesus said to him, ‘Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.’ 9At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 10and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, ‘It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.’
11But he replied, ‘The man who made me well said to me, “Pick up your mat and walk.” ’
12So they asked him, ‘Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?’
13The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.
14Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, ‘See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.’ 15The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.
The authority of the Son
16So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. 17In his defence Jesus said to them, ‘My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.’ 18For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
