John presents us with contrasting interactions within his gospel. So far we've had Nicodemus and his self righteousness contrasted with John the Baptist's testimony of Jesus and the revival of the Samaritans. Today we have 2 healings and they are very different healings from many points of view. Remember where Jesus was. He walked due north into Samaria and the Pharisees who were opposed to His ministry stopped at the border. The Holy Spirit had gone before Him and prepared the Samaritans for revival and Jesus ministered there 2 days.
John 4:43-45
After the two days he departed for Galilee. (For Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own hometown.) So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, having seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast. For they too had gone to the feast.
Some folks point at this verse as the Bible contradicting itself. Scripture speaks of Jesus' place of origin as Nazareth in Galilee. So how can the Bible say that a prophet has no honor in his hometown when they welcomed Him in the next verse? Jesus received welcome but not honor for who He was. I think part of the critic's problem is that they do not stay in context. Remember the reception by the heretical Samaritans who repented and received Him as "Christ". The Samaritans honored Him. They, because of the work of the Holy Spirit, knew Him as the Messiah. John is making the point here that Jesus was welcomed but not honored in Galilee. The Galileans thought they knew Him but they didn't really know Him. They were looking for miracles like the ones they saw in Jerusalem. So this is not a contradiction in Scripture and if you think it is a contradiction then you're missing John's point.
John 4:46-54
So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill. When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. So Jesus said to him, "Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe." The official said to him, "Sir, come down before my child dies." Jesus said to him, "Go; your son will live." The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way. As he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son was recovering. So he asked them the hour when he began to get better, and they said to him, "Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him." The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, "Your son will live." And he himself believed, and all his household. This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee.
Jesus was back where He had made the water into wine. Rather than honoring Him as a prophet they were looking for more miracles. The official would likely have been a part of Herod's government in Galilee. He was in the port city of Capernaum and it was a hike to Cana but the man's son was dying. Jesus was a last resort and he was asking Jesus to do something out of desperation and not from faith. Jesus spoke a word of rebuke and the Official "took it for the team". The rebuke Jesus spoke to the official but in the rebuke the "you" was plural. In Georgia it would be "ya'll". It was a rebuke for wanting to see signs. So the Official, in a sense, was part of a crowd that wanted to see some power and not see some truth. But Capernaum was a long ways and the official asked again out of love for his child. We don't know how Jesus said, "your son will live" but the official believed. This was not a prophecy but rather was a word of power and grace going forth to heal the boy. The official headed back home and got word while he was on the road that his son was healed and as a result his entire household believed. The official got far more than he was looking for from Jesus because of God's grace.
John tells us that this was only the second sign in Cana and the worst part about the familiarity of the Galileans is this barrier they had to hearing the Word. The Samaritans turned at Christ's word while the Galileans didn't believe His words and wanted to see signs. Another "take home" message for the reader in these verses is that Jesus has the power over life and death. This will be an important part of His message to the religious leaders in Jerusalem.
John 5:1-9a
After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, "Do you want to be healed?" The sick man answered him, "Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me." Jesus said to him, "Get up, take up your bed, and walk." And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.
We don't know the feast associated with this healing. This healing is almost a definition of Grace. The man didn't ask and didn't believe as far as we can tell. God, while we were yet sinners, moved in our lives too. Some manuscripts add a commentary on the stirring of the waters by an Angel and the healing that would occur as a result. The "best" texts do not include that commentary and some people speculate that it was added to explain what was going on. Scripture doesn't say that an Angel did this. It is likely that artesian well activity made the waters move and may have changed the temperature of the water. In any case, a tradition had developed that the reason the water moved was an angel and then someone got well and then the idea emerged that first person in was healed. We often view hot springs in the same way. President Roosevelt felt that way about Warm Springs, Georgia west of Atlanta. We know now that hot mineral water doesn't heal polio but it felt good.
There has been speculation about why Jesus would start the conversation with "Do you want to be healed?" but I'm not sure how else you start a conversation with a guy sitting by a pool with a bunch of other sick people. It seems to me that walking up and gesturing to the water and saying "Do you want to be healed?" is a pretty good way to start the conversation. The sick man took it that way and explained his dilemma. The sick man indicates that this is a great way to be healed if you've got your track shoes on but he'd been sick 38 years and he still wasn't getting wet fast enough to get healed. Jesus goes right to the point and tells him to take up his bed and walk. This healing looks random to us. God isn't random. I had a statistics professor who once said, "You don't need to believe the world is random in order to find statistics to be a useful construct for understanding the world." What he was saying was that we look for patterns and random just describes our ignorance. God tells us that He has all things under control. He isn't capricious but He certainly doesn't explain everything to us. The "why" of this persons healing is one of those things. We can see the outcome and how God used it this time.
John 5:9b-18
Now that day was the Sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, "It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed." But he answered them, "The man who healed me, that man said to me, 'Take up your bed, and walk.' " They asked him, "Who is the man who said to you, 'Take up your bed and walk'?" Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, "See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you." The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, "My Father is working until now, and I am working." This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
Jesus' healing of the sick man caused a cascade of events. Nothing was out of control but the struggle was begging to heat up. Nicodemus' visit was a night and a one on one event. God was expanding the impact and conflict with sinful man at this point. The Jews were (are) really serious about their "blue laws" and the healed man (after 38 years who could blame him) walks right into an interpretation of the Sabbath prohibition against work. I really like his explanation of why he was "working". If the Guy who heals you tells you to take up your bed and walk on the Sabbath then you take it up and walk. The Jews at this point at corrupted the law and held to their corrupt view to such a degree that they couldn't celebrate the healing of someone after 38 years.
We know that there is no general association that makes infirmity the result of sin. We need to avoid that conclusion and Jesus warns us away from that conclusion elsewhere. However, we can't conclude the opposite either. That would be to say that infirmity is never the result of sin and Jesus warns this individual about his sin. The man's response is very odd. He runs straight to the Jews and tells them that it was Jesus that healed him and told him to "work" on the Sabbath. His action didn't surprise Jesus but it surprises me. I think John is once again drawing a contrast of first an official who had his son healed and came to faith and secondly a man sick 38 years who is healed and seems to have wandered immediately. We continue to see less faith where we expect more faith and more faith where we would expect less. We'll come back to the necessary work of the Holy Spirit in later verses.
Jesus was ready to begin making explicit truth claims and He knew what mankind was like. He knew that, as Romans teaches, there was no one righteous, not even one, apart from the work of the Holy Spirit. Also, we find Jesus expanding the Trinitarian teachings. The claims of the Jews would result in a death penalty. The word "answered" means that Jesus was giving His legal defense but it made His opponents angrier because of His claim to divinity.
John 5:19-29
So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. "Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.
There are a number of Trinitarian statements in here and we'll finish up looking at these today. In the economy of the Trinity, the Son follows the Father's lead. The Son is eternally begotten of the Father and eternally in harmony with Him and acting with Him. Greater works will occur. For example, raising someone from the dead, resurrection of the Son to Glory at the right hand of the Father, the judgment of Jerusalem, and growing the Church worldwide. The Holy Spirit doesn't attract attention to Himself. Here we see that, as the Father gives life so the Son gives life to whom He will and we know that is through the working of the Holy Spirit. Within the Trinity, all judgment is delegated to the Son and all honor is due the Son. You can't honor the Father without honoring the Son. Jesus will be the one who calls us from the grave (should He tarry).
Christ has life in Himself in accord with God the Father. Within the "being" of the Trinity the Son is equal in power, glory, and being. This is the "ontological" Trinity and it is one. However, when we talk about the economy of the Trinity we are discussion the persons and roles. In this case the Father sends the Son, the Son acquires our justification, the Holy Spirit applies that justification to the elect. The Son is subordinate in the sense that He is sent. The Son doesn't send the Father. Don't miss the point here that there is a single means of salvation. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. People who reject Christ don't have the Father.
You know what should have terrified the Jews accusing Jesus at this point. Jesus entered into a formal defense of His activity on the Sabbath just like the Father and, in this court with the Jews, Jesus pointed out that He was the Judge. Grace was in His words and in no other place and He was the righteous and holy Judge. Accusing the Judge in the highest court in the universe is not a good position to be in. That was the position of those accusing Christ.
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