John 5:6-18
Healing at the Pool on the Sabbath
6When 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."
8Then Jesus said to him, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk." 9At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 10and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, "It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat."
11But he replied, "The man who made me well said to me, 'Pick up your mat and walk.' "
12So they asked him, "Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?"
13The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.
14Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, "See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you." 15The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.
Life Through the Son
16So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted him. 17Jesus said to them, "My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working." 18For 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.
Jesus on the Sabbath ask the invalid "Do you want to get well?"...When you are sick, or down, not feeling good first you have to want to get well...One needs the right attitude...
The invalid does not know who Jesus is...Jesus is reaching out to the invalid...He does not answer Jesus' question directly (about wanting to get well), but tells Him that he cannot make it to pool when the springs start stirring the water...Everyone goes ahead of him and know one is there to assist him in the water... The one invalid thinks Jesus is going to help him to the water...
Jesus tells the invalid to get up and walk...After thirty-eight years of not walking ones legs would be very thin and very weak...Not only does Jesus healing the affliction but also strengthens the muscles throughout his legs...Jesus provides all the therapy needed for the invalid...The man is cured at once...He is able to walk...Being able to walk on His weakened leg muscles is another miracle, all in its self...
All this is done on the Sabbath and the Jewish leaders do not condone what Jesus is doing on the Sabbath...The Jews interpretation of the Law of Moses believe that the healed man carrying his mat is forbidden...The Jewish leaders and people opposing this act of kindness ask, "Who is this Fellow who told you to pick up your mat?"...The man at that time did not know Jesus...But he knows he was healed by this Fellow...
The healed man was a sinner...Jesus had singled him out for all the other disabled people at the pool...The invalid's goal every day was to reach the pool first so he could be healed, not knowing the one who does all the healing, including those healed in the pool, was right beside him...Jesus healed him completely of being invalid...Then tells him to stop sinning...
All of need to answer that question, of "Who is this Fellow?"...He is the one who comes from God, who reaches out, who wants us to have the right attitude toward health and life...Who heals on any day, including the Sabbath and who wants us to stop sinning so nothing worse will happen to us...
Jesus did on the Sabbath, what He does on everyday, help people in need...