John 5

The world is full of false answers to our deepest problems. We know that we have brokenness in us and all around us. Some of it is so serious, that it prevents those who are deeply troubled from having anything close to normal lives. As people attempt to cope with trials, they can easily become trapped in systems of recovery that are only false solutions to their tragedies. The pool of Bethesda was a place dedicated to one of these false systems. There apparently was a commonly held belief that the waters there, when they were agitated in a certain way, were some kind of conduit for angelic powers of healing. It was there where our Lord spoke to a man who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. He said, “Do you want to be healed.”

The man did not answer the question, but launched into an explanation as to why this false spirituality had not yet delivered for him. The system at the pool was one where the first shall be first. If you were fast enough, you would win the benefit of the magic waters, and then all would be well. This is what we want, and we expect that it will come through some use of our own abilities. Jesus cut through this explanation with these simple words, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” The power came from the Word that was spoken, and not through anything in the man who received the Word. He was healed. Then he took up his bed and walked.

This taking up of a bed and walking was no small issue. It drew attention to the healing that had taken place and it violated the false understanding that many Jews had concerning the Sabbath commandment. Both healing and picking up a bed were understood by many followers of Jewish rituals to be violations of God’s Law. By instructing this man to pick up his bed, Jesus was confronting the false spiritual way of man-made Jewish traditions. He added to this conflict by His answer to those who questioned the things that He was doing on the Sabbath. “My Father is working until now, and I am working.” They understood from this kind of statement that Jesus was making Himself equal with God, and they took such offense at this that they wanted to kill Him.

Jesus did not back away from His contentions concerning both the Law and His own person. He explained that His connection with the Father was even greater than anything of which they have accused Him. Jesus knows all that the Father does, and He does what the Father does. This includes even the raising of the dead. Furthermore, it is the Son who is the One who will execute all divine judgment. Anyone who claims to honor God must honor the Son just as they honor the Father, which means that they must worship the Son, since that is the way that we honor the Father. To ignore this duty to honor the Son of God is an insult to the Father. Jesus says that it is through His own Word that eternal life is experienced now, and through His own voice that the dead will be raised forever. This is because the Son has life in Himself, just as the Father has life in Himself. The Son is the great I-AM, just as the Father is the great I-AM.

The fact of the resurrection of the dead should surprise no one who claims to be following the Scriptural answer to the problems of sin and death. Instead of being offended by Jesus, and seeking to kill Him, the righteous hearer of His Word should have marveled at the grace of God in the provision of a Messiah who had the power to speak words of life to the dead, and to bring forth a resurrection kingdom. It is a plain Scriptural fact that there will be a resurrection of the dead and a separation of the righteous and the wicked. What should have cause a righteous man to fall to the ground before Jesus was the fact that the central figure in this great salvation of the unworthy was before Him in the flesh.

But what is the testimony to Jesus as the Christ, the Messiah, which should have been conclusive. It was not what He said about Himself alone. They also had the word of John the Baptist, who pointed to Him as the Lamb of God. More than this, Jesus had the approval of the Father which was displayed in the works that He performed. Even these might have caused people to question what was occurring before their eyes, but they should have turned to the Scriptures for confirmation that the signs that were being performed before them were the signs of the Messiah. It is the Scriptures that are such a solid testimony to the fact that Jesus is the One who we should come to for eternal life.

Jesus said these things not in order win their approval, as if He needed to be glorified by men in order to believe in His own worth. He is God in the flesh, and they need to be approved by Him. It was clear to Him that they do not have the love of God in them. He is the giver of divine glory, a glory that can only come at the cost of His life. Instead of receiving the great gifts that He has for His people, they were showing their rejection of God by their refusal to receive Him. Moses did not do this. Moses looked for the coming of One who was greater than Him. Moses longed for the days of the Messiah. They claim to be followers of Moses, but they reject his words as these testify to the truth about Jesus Christ. Their trust in Jewish traditions is just as false and as powerless as the supposedly magical waters of the pool where an invalid had waited for healing for so many years without any good result. The only way to receive the resurrection is to receive it as a gift from God, a gift where the unworthy are given the greatest divine kindness, and where some who are the last, end up being first.