John 5: The Sabbath, Healing, and the Son of God
- Apr 16
- 4 min read
In our Bible study this week, we continued in John 5, where Jesus went up to Jerusalem during a feast and came to the pool of Bethesda. There, among a great multitude of sick and afflicted people, was a man who had been dealing with an infirmity for thirty-eight years. He had waited a long time for change, a long time for healing, and a long time for his situation to turn around. And yet, when Jesus saw him, the Scripture makes it clear that Jesus already knew how long he had been in that condition.
That alone is a comfort. There are seasons in life where it can feel like we have been in the same struggle for a very long time. It may be physical, emotional, financial, or spiritual. And in those moments, one of the easiest questions to ask is, “Lord, do You see me?” John 5 reminds us that He does. Jesus knew exactly how long that man had been there, and He knows exactly how long we have carried what we carry.
When Jesus asked the man if he wanted to be made whole, the man explained that every time the water was troubled, he had no one to help him into the pool before someone else got there first. Even after all those years, he had not lost the desire to be healed. He had not stopped hoping. And Jesus responded simply: “Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.” Immediately, the man was made whole.
That miracle is powerful on its own, but John makes a point to tell us that it happened on the Sabbath day. That is what shifts the chapter into something deeper. The religious leaders were not moved first by the miracle. They were troubled that the man was carrying his bed on the Sabbath. Their focus was not on the fact that a man who had been afflicted for thirty-eight years was now walking. Their focus was on a rule.
That part of the chapter led us back into the Old Testament to understand what the Sabbath was actually for. God had commanded Israel to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy, but not merely as a rigid tradition. The Sabbath was meant to remind them that He was the Lord who had brought them out of Egypt by a mighty hand. It was meant to call them to stop, remember, and acknowledge what God had done for them. In other words, the Sabbath was not given to burden man, but to turn his heart back toward the goodness and deliverance of God.
By the time of John 5, that intention had been buried under custom and dogma. The form remained, but the heart of it had been lost. That is why the leaders could look straight at a miracle and still miss what God was doing. They had become so attached to the outward observance that they no longer recognized the One the Sabbath was always meant to point toward.
When the healed man later identified Jesus as the one who had made him whole, the conflict sharpened. Jesus answered them by saying, “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” In that one statement, He was saying something far bigger than they were ready to receive. It was understood that God alone was not restricted by the Sabbath, because if He ceased from sustaining creation, all life would stop. So when Jesus said that His Father worked and He worked also, He was declaring that He operated with the same authority and under the same divine commission. That is why they understood Him to be making Himself equal with God.
From there, Jesus gave what was, in many ways, a masterclass on His identity. He said that the Son can do nothing of Himself, but only what He sees the Father do. He was not acting independently. He was moving in perfect union with the Father. Whatever the Father did, the Son did likewise. He spoke what the Father gave Him to speak. He acted as the Father showed Him to act. His works were not random miracles. They were the evidence that He truly was the Son of God.
Jesus then made the claim even stronger. Just as the Father raises the dead and gives life, so the Son gives life to whom He will. Just as judgment ultimately belongs to God, the Father had committed judgment unto the Son. This was all so that men would honor the Son even as they honor the Father. To reject the Son was to reject the Father who sent Him.
That is one of the clearest messages of John 5. Jesus is not presented as merely a teacher, a healer, or a prophet among many. He is the Son who perfectly reveals the Father, carries the Father’s authority, gives life, and has been appointed judge. He is worthy of the same honor given to the Father because He comes from the Father and does only what the Father has given Him to do.
The chapter also turned our attention back to life and death. Jesus said that the hour was coming, and now was, when the dead would hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who heard would live. This is not only about the future resurrection. It is also about the present reality that those dead in trespasses and sins can be brought to life through Christ. His voice still calls dead things to life. He still heals. He still restores. He still delivers.
So the chapter leaves us with several searching questions. Do we still trust that the Lord sees us, even when we have been in the same condition a long time? Have we become so attached to form that we miss the work of God when it stands right in front of us? And perhaps most importantly, do we honor the Son as He deserves to be honored?
John 5 reminds us that Jesus is not only the one who heals. He is the Son of God, the giver of life, the appointed judge, and the one in whom the Father is fully revealed. And when He tells a man to rise and walk after thirty-eight years, it is proof that no situation is too long, too hard, or too far gone for Him to change.
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