Sign #3: Jesus Notices and Heals a Man at the Pool

John 5

After these things, there was Jewish festival, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now in Jerusalem by the sheep gate, there is a pool, which in Hebrew is called Bethesda and which has five covered walkways. In these, a large crowd of those who were sick, blind, lame, or paralyzed were lying. +5:4 Some manuscripts include the following in verse 3 and 4: waiting for the moving of the water; for an angel went down at certain times into the pool and stirred up the water. Whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was healed of whatever disease he had. A certain man was there who had been sick for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been sick for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to be made well?”

The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up. While I’m coming, someone else goes down before me.”

Jesus said to him, “Arise, pick up your mat and walk.”

Immediately, the man was made well, and he took up his mat and walked.

Now that day was a Sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath. It is not lawful for you to carry your mat.”

He answered them, “He who made me well said to me, ‘Take up your mat and walk.’”

Then they asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your mat and walk’?”

But the healed man didn’t know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn into the crowd in that place.

Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “Look, you have been made well. Do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you.”

The man left and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.

The Deity of the Son

For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus, because he did these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, “My Father is still working, so I am working, too.”

For this reason the Jews sought all the more to kill him, because he not only broke the Sabbath, but also called God his own Father, making himself equal with God. So Jesus answered them, “Truly, I tell y’all, the Son can do nothing by himself, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, the Son also does. For the Father has affection for the Son, and shows him all things that ʜᴇ ʜɪᴍꜱᴇʟꜰ does. Hᴇ will show him greater works than these, so that y’all may marvel. For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he wishes. Moreover, the Father judges no one, but ʜᴇ has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. Whoever doesn’t honor the Son doesn’t honor the Father who sent him.

“Truly I tell y’all, whoever hears my word and believes ʜɪᴍ who sent me has eternal life, and doesn’t come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. Truly I tell y’all, the hour coming and is present, when the dead will hear the Son of God’s voice, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in ʜɪᴍꜱᴇʟꜰ, so ʜᴇ gave to the Son also to have life in himself. Hᴇ also gave him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Humanity. Y’all must not marvel at this, for the hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear ʜɪꜱ voice and will come out—those who have done good deeds to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. I can do nothing by myself. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is righteous, because I don’t seek my own will, but the will of ʜɪᴍ who sent me.

Testimonies About Jesus

“If I testify about myself, my witness is not true. There is another who testifies about me. I know that the testimony that he gives about me is true. Y’all have sent to John, and he has testified to the truth. I do not receive human testimony. However, I say these things so that y’all may be saved. He was a lamp that was burning and shining, and y’all were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. But the testimony which I have is greater than that of John. For the works which the Father gave me to accomplish, the very works that I do, testify about me, that the Father has sent me. The Father ʜɪᴍꜱᴇʟꜰ, who sent me, has testified about me. Y’all have never heard ʜɪꜱ voice or seen ʜɪꜱ form. Y’all don’t have ʜɪꜱ word dwelling in y’all, because y’all don’t believe the one ʜᴇ sent.

“Y’all search the Scriptures, because y’all think that in them y’all have eternal life. These Scriptures testify about me, yet y’all are unwilling to come to me to have life. I do not accept glory from humans. But I know y’all—that y’all don’t have God’s love in you. I have come in my Father’s name, and y’all don’t receive me. If another comes in his own name, y’all will accept him. How can y’all believe when y’all receive glory from one another, and y’all don’t seek the glory that comes from the only God?

“But don’t think that I will accuse y’all before the Father. The one who accuses y’all is Moses on whom y’all have set your* hope. For if y’all believed Moses, y’all would believe me, for he wrote about me. But if y’all don’t believe his writings, how will y’all believe my words?”