Coming On Our Knees
Prayer: Lord Jesus, we praise you that you came to do the work of your Father in this world, bringing healing
and salvation. Thank you that you are still working even up to this day. Open our eyes to see you at work and
put our trust in you. Amen
Connecting with One Another
Have you ever had an experience when you did something generous or helpful for another person but they didn’t
thank you? How did you feel?
Or perhaps someone blessed you, but you neglected to express your gratitude to them?
Listening to the Word
Read John 5:1-18 together.
After ministering in Samaria and Galilee, Jesus again “goes up to Jerusalem” to attend a Jewish festival. This
is the second of three trips to Jerusalem mentioned in the Gospel of John, and comes at least a year after his
last visit, when he overturned the tables in the Temple courtyards and met Nicodemus (John 3). While in
Jerusalem, Jesus is in the Temple area, near the Sheep Gate (see Nehemia 3:1, 32). The pool of
Bethsaida/Bethesda mentioned here may have been a pool used for washing sheep before they were led to
slaughter in the Temple. As such, it would have been a place that those wishing to be ritually pure would have
avoided. It was also a place where invalids (blind, lame, and paralyzed) lay in hopes of being healed when the
waters of the pool were allegedly stirred by an angel (some later biblical manuscripts have this information,
and it is implied later in the story).
Why do you think Jesus visits this particular area? What does it say about his character and ministry?
Jesus encounters a man who has been paralyzed for 38 years, longer than the average life-span in that time.
As in other instances of miraculous healings, Jesus has compassion on him. Jesus’ question to the man seems
to have an obvious answer: “Do you want to get well?” We might think that of course the man wants to get
well!
Can you think of a situation, perhaps in your own life, where you might NOT want to be healed? What might be
your reasons?
The invalid’s response implies that he does want to get well, but he is completely focused on the physical
means of being healed – he has no-one to carry him into the water.
How often do we focus on our perceived lack of resources, and our needs, instead of God’s abundant provision
and desire to save us?
While the man does not seem interested in who Jesus is, or why he might be talking with him, Jesus does heal
him – “Pick up your mat and walk!” In his obedience to Jesus’ word, the man is healed. Jesus heals him
without any intermediary assistance, like the water of the pool. Simply his word is powerful enough to heal.
The man picks up his mat and leaves, apparently without saying thank you at all! This is the fourth sign in the
Gospel of John proving that Jesus is the Messiah. As with many of the other miracles (signs) he performs, part
of the emphasis is on how it is only God who could do such a thing – the man had been invalid for 38 years
with no hope of a cure.
We now learn that the day on which this happened was a Sabbath, and the Jewish authorities (“the Jews” in
the Gospel of John) chastise the man for carrying a mat, which was against their Sabbath regulations that
forbade the carrying of an object from one place to another. (This was not a biblical Sabbath law, but a
further interpretation of the biblical principle to rest on the Sabbath.)
Read Genesis 2:2-3 and Exodus 31:12-17.
What are the origins and purpose of the Sabbath?
When Jesus encounters the man again he warns him to stop sinning. Sometimes Jesus answers our prayers,
heals us, or provides something we have asked for – yet we go on sinning! Jesus’ warning to the man that
“something worst might happen” is a reminder that salvation includes repenting and turning from sin in our
lives, not only receiving the good things God wants to give us.
Now the man reports Jesus to the Jewish leaders (versus 15). “The Jews” use this miraculous healing as an
excuse to persecute Jesus. Jesus’ response (verse 17) points to the work of God the Father who is still working
to this day.” Even though God rested on the Sabbath (Genesis 2:2-3), Jewish belief acknowledged that God
did not rest from the “work” of giving life and sustaining the whole universe (otherwise it would cease to
exist!). When Jesus claims that he is also working, like his Father, he is explicitly identifying himself with the
Father – which the Jews see as even more reason to persecute and kill him. Jesus does not defend his act of
healing by saying he did not break the Sabbath law, but rather by pointing to his equality with the Father as
the giver and sustainer of life.
Jesus’ identity with the Father will be further developed in the rest of chapter 5 (and the book of John).
Prayer and Reflection:
Repent of any times you can recall that you have neglected to give thanks to God for how he has answered
prayer in your life, or when you have continued in a pattern of sin even after God’s intervention in your life. Ask
God’s forgiveness.
Praise God for his ongoing work of sustaining life and healing in the world today. Share any specific items of
thanks from your life.
Ask God where he might be seeking to challenge you personally or your group to greater obedience.
Prayer: Lord Jesus, we praise you that you are doing your Father’s work in the world even today, sustaining
life and bringing healing. Thank you for the work you have done in us already. Give us courage to follow you
wherever you lead us. Amen