John 5:16-47

1 Timothy 4:16 Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.

If Jesus is the Savior of the world, why didn’t his own people, the Jews, embrace him as their messiah? How was it that the Savior of the world ended up dying a criminal’s death on a Roman cross?

Drama: a state, situation, or series of events involving interesting or intense conflict of forces.

In John 5:1-15 we find an unusual healing story that seems to show Jesus deliberately picking a fight with the Jewish religious leaders of Jerusalem.

John 5:1-15 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. {2} Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades….

… {3} Here a great number of disabled people used to lie--the blind, the lame, the paralyzed –and they waited for the moving of the waters. {4} From time to time an angel of the Lord would come down and stir up the waters. The first one into the pool after each such disturbance would be cured of whatever disease he had.

… {5} One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. {6} When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, "Do you want to get well?" …

… {7} "Sir," the invalid replied, "I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me." …

… {8} Then Jesus said to him, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk." {9} At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked….

… The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, {10} and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, "It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat." …

… {11} But he replied, "The man who made me well said to me, 'Pick up your mat and walk.'" {12} So they asked him, "Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?" {13} The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there….

… {14} Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, "See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you." {15} The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.

In John 5:16-18 the Jewish religious leaders make up their minds that Jesus is a bad man who needs to “go away.”

… {16} So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted him. {17} Jesus said to them, "My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working." …

… {18} For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God….

In John 5:19-30 Jesus goes on to offer a detailed response to the criticism leveled against him by the Jews that he was claiming to be equal with God.

… {19} Jesus gave them this answer: "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does….

… {20} For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, to your amazement he will show him even greater things than these. {21} For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it….

… {22} Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, {23} that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.…

Since the Son is the ambassador or agent of the Father, however the Jewish religious leaders respond to the Son is how they’re responding to the Father!

In John 5:25-27 we hear Jesus very subtly connecting the title “Son of Man” with the title “Son of God”!

What’s more, Jesus was boldly indicating here that, as the Son of God/Son of Man, he possessed the power to: (1) raise people from the dead; and then (2) serve as their judge at the final reckoning!

… {28} "Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice {29} and come out- -those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned. {30} By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me….

By the time this portion of Jesus’ speech to the Jewish religious leaders was over, Jesus had made the astonishing claim that he was so equal with the Father that his listeners’ relationship with God would hinge on their relationship with him!

In John 5:31-40, Jesus presents his credentials to support his claim to be the Christ (the Son of Man).

 First, there is the testimony of John the Baptist (5:31-35).

… {31} "If I testify about myself, my testimony is not valid. {32} There is another who testifies in my favor, and I know that his testimony about me is valid….

… {33} "You have sent to John and he has testified to the truth. {34} Not that I accept human testimony; but I mention it that you may be saved. {35} John was a lamp that burned and gave light, and you chose for a time to enjoy his light….

 Second, there is the testimony of the miracles he was performing (5:36).

… {36} "I have testimony weightier than that of John. For the very work that the Father has given me to finish, and which I am doing, testifies that the Father has sent me….

 Third, there is the testimony of the Scriptures (5:37-40, 45-47).

… {37} And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, {38} nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent. {39} You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, {40} yet you refuse to come to me to have life….

… {45} "But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. {46} If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. {47} But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?"

In John 5:41-44 Jesus accuses his antagonists of caring more about fitting in and impressing one another than about truly knowing, loving and pleasing God.

… {41} "I do not accept praise from men, {42} but I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts. {43} I have come in my Father's name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him. {44} How can you believe if you accept praise from one another, yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God?

It was on!

Practical Application:  This passage can and should inform the way we talk to others about the dramatic difference between ritual religion and a real relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

In addition to helping his readers understand when and how the tension between Jesus and the Jews got started, John was saying something to his readers about the dangers of ritual religion.

What if John intended the healing story he presents in chapter 5 to serve as a metaphor? Jesus wasn’t simply asking one physical invalid if he wanted to get well: that guy represented Israel as a whole. Jesus was asking a nation of spiritual invalids if they wanted to get well!

—the adherents of all the world’s religions More than that, John probably intended the story to serve as a metaphor for the spiritual healing Jesus wants to perform for all religious people everywhere—the adherents of all the world’s religions.

“While religious pluralism may be a novel experience for us, it is putting us in touch with the world that surrounded the biblical authors. The pluralism and the paganism of Our Time were the common experience of the prophets and apostles. In Mesopotamia, there were thousands of gods and goddesses, many of which were known to the Israelites—indeed, sometimes known too well.” -- David Wells

What if John intended for the original readers of this story—religious Jews and Gentiles alike—to understand that becoming truly spiritually healthy requires that we let go of our preoccupation with ritual religion, and boldly embrace a personal relationship with God through faith in and obedience to Jesus Christ?

Can you see how that John 5:16-47 seems to highlight for us the dangers of ritual religion (the dangers of all religiosity outside of a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ)?

According to John 5, embracing ritual religion the way Jesus’ antagonists did can cause folks to:  become convinced that serving God is all about what they don’t do: about not violating certain man-made religious rules and traditions (5:18);  feel the need to persecute those who don’t follow the same religious traditions they do (5:18);  completely misunderstand what the biblical authors were really trying to teach humanity (5:38- 39, 46-47);

 become religious zealots (fanatics) who, ironically, don’t really love God or other people (5:41);  become susceptible to false prophets proclaiming false teachings (5:43);  become preoccupied with the goal of gaining the praise of their peers rather than the praise of God (5:44).

Aren’t these the earmarks of the fanatical adherents of all the world’s religions (including those Christians whose religiosity is focused more on man-made rules and rituals rather than on a real relationship with God through Jesus Christ)?

John 5 was also designed to convey the crucial truth that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God, and that a personal relationship with him is absolutely crucial to our becoming truly spiritually healthy people who will someday be raised to new, eternal life in the Kingdom of God!

1.Honestly, to what degree are we, ourselves, guilty of turning the wine of real relationship with God back into the water of ritual religion?

2.Honestly, to what degree are we, like Jesus, really committed to pleasing God rather than ourselves and our peers no matter what the cost?

3.Honestly, to what degree are we engaging in the spiritual disciplines that will enable us to, like Jesus, “see” what God is doing and “hear” what God is saying so that we can, like Jesus, cooperate with what he’s up to in our world?

thethe 4.Honestly, to what degree are we, even though we live in a religiously pluralistic environment, willing to boldly proclaim the message that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God and the stairway to heaven?

5.Honestly, how does it feel to know that: (a) God has graciously enabled you to recognize Jesus for who he really is; (b) you can count on someday hearing Jesus’ voice and being raised to new life in the kingdom of God; and (c) in point of fact, your experience of eternal life has already begun?

If you think the first five chapters of John’s Gospel have been rich with content, you haven’t seen anything yet!

More DRAMA!

1 Timothy 4:16 Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.

John 5:16-47