Setting the Scene again.
“Stirring up the waters at the Sheep’s gate pool”
Previously Jesus had come from Jerusalem to Cana and a father met Him coming from Capernaum to plead for the life of his son. And at Jesus word His son was healed in Capernaum from Cana.
So here in John 5:1-5,
we see another feast of the Jews and Jesus going back to Jerusalem to be a part of it. The story here picks up in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate. There is a pool where invalids are waiting for a movement to restore them. The story focus in on one man who had been there for 38 years.
In John 5:6-9
Do you want to be healed?
Jesus ask the invalid man if he wants to be healed? This sick man identifies the hurdle to his healing as he sees it. Jesus again show us the power of His words, when He says “Get up, take up your bed and walk” by His command the man at once was healed and took up his bed and walked.
In John 5:10-15
Is it a sin to Heal on the Sabbath?
We see the man was healed by Jesus on the Sabbath and because of this the Jews question the healed man about carrying his mat. This goes back and forth until the Jew are compelled to persecute Jesus for healing on the Sabbath. Jesus response to this all, is My Father is working until now and I am working.
This justification for working on the Sabbath gets the Jewish leaders pretty worked up. In Lev. we have a term “do no ordinary work” on the Sabbath. As we work through the objections the Jews have towards Jesus about how He behaves on the Sabbath, we know Jesus did not sin, so therefore the perspective of the Jews was wrong. This term “do no ordinary work” proposes and pretty interesting question. Was what Jesus was doing “ordinary work” so if not was it clearly ok to do on the Sabbath. He ask is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath? What is the answer.
Consider these stories
Matt. 12:9-14
If you sheep falls in a pit on the Sabbath will you not take hold of it and lift it out? Of how much more value is a man than a sheep?
John 7:21-24
You circumcise a man on the Sabbath and I made a man’s whole body well. What better day to do an extradinary thing than on the Sabbath.
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