For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website.
43 When the two days were over, he went from that place to Galilee 44 (for Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in the prophet’s own country). 45 When he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, since they had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the festival; for they too had gone to the festival.
- Leaving the Samaritan village, Jesus continues northwards into Galilee (v.43).
- Despite the observation that a prophet is without honor in his own country (v.44 -- see parallels in Matthew 13:57 and Mark 6:4), Jesus is welcomed in Galilee.
- His deeds had been noticed during the Passover festival (2:23).
- Exodus 12 and Numbers 9 instructed all Jewish males to attend the annual Passover in Jerusalem. Women were of course welcome, but with sensitivity to pregnancy and family, were not obligated. (In Luke 2 Jesus' family, including Mary, makes the journey from Galilee to Jerusalem, apparently a large group.)
- In addition, there were two other annual mandatory visits to Jerusalem.
46 Then he came again to Cana in Galilee where he had changed the water into wine. Now there was a royal official whose son lay ill in Capernaum. 47 When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. 48 Then Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.”
- Jesus goes again to Cana, where he meets a royal official, who begs him to help his son (v.46f). Capernaum is near the top of the Sea of Galilee. Capernaum is Jesus´ hometown.
- The boy lay mortally ill.
- As some readers have experienced, the death of a child is different to the loss of a parent, or even a sibling. It is devastating in every possible way.
- The royal official is desperate.
- And yet Jesus is not entirely pleased that some will not believe without signs and wonders. His comment in v.48 isn't a declaration of the impossibility of faith in the absence of miracles, but more of an expression of frustration over the slowness of people to believe.
49 The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my little boy dies.” 50 Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started on his way. 51 As he was going down, his slaves met him and told him that his child was alive. 52 So he asked them the hour when he began to recover, and they said to him, “Yesterday at one in the afternoon the fever left him.” 53 The father realized that this was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.”
- And yet Jesus was not willing to leave Cana for Capernaum, preferring to heal at a distance. For a similar example of a "distance" healing, see Matthew 8:13 / Luke 7:10.
- The father took Jesus at his word, and the son was healed -- at the exact hour Jesus promised his son would live. Realizing this was no coincidence, the official believed, along with his household.
So he himself believed, along with his whole household. 54 Now this was the second sign that Jesus did after coming from Judea to Galilee.
- The royal official´s whole household would have included his wife, sons, daughters, and servants. In ancient times, as in many traditional societies today, there is great solidarity among households. When the leader makes a decision, it is normal for all in the group to support it and to follow it.
- John notes that this was Jesus' second sign. This was hardly Jesus' second miracle.
- Nothing else about this stay in Galilee is related to us. In chapter 5 we will find Jesus back in Jerusalem.
- To quote Beasley-Murray (John, in the Word Biblical Commentary, 71): "The relationship between the Johannine narrative of the healing of the king's officer's son and that of the Centurion's son (or pais/servant) has been much discussed. Whereas earlier writers tended to view them as different events most recent scholars agree that they represent independent accounts of the same happening."
5:1 After this there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
- Which feast was Jesus attending (v.1)? Was this Passover again? If so, there may be four Passovers in all recorded in John. The three definite Passovers are:
- 2:13, 23; 4:45 = one instance
- 6:4 = another instance
- 11:55; 12:1; 13:1; 18:28-29; 19:14 = a third instance.
- Again, the three Synoptic [common view] Gospels are structured around a single Passover visit, whereas John's gospel has several, with the action moving up and down between Galilee and Judea (where Jerusalem is).
2 Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha, which has five porticoes.
- Aramaic (v.2) was the language of the people, even more than Hebrew (the language of the Temple).
- Bethesda was the name of the pool(s) with covered colonnades.
- The meaning is "house of mercy," from Hebrew beth (house) and chesed (mercy).
- The original Aramaic word is Bethesdatayin, which is neither singular nor plural. It is dual, indicating two pools -- which is what this was.
- The pools were first discovered by archaeologists in 1956. It is by the beautiful church of St. Anne.
- The pools had attracted many sick and handicapped persons, believing their chances for being cured were greater in the vicinity of such a holy place.
- The Sheep Gate was at the northeast entrance to the Temple precinct.
- Presumably this is the portal through which sheep and other animals were led for sacrifice.
- This means that the location of this miracle, at the pools of Bethesda, was right under the noses of the priests!
- Jesus is invading their territory, challenging their authority, coming too close for comfort.
- Moreover, he performs this miracle on the Sabbath (v.9), implicitly challenging the Jewish traditions.
3 In these lay many invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. 5 One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be made well?” 7 The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.” 8 Jesus said to him, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.” 9 At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk.
- The invalid had been there for 38 years -- nearly four decades (v.5)!
- This man was doubly victimized.
- He was a victim of his condition.
- He was also victimized in that others made their way to the healing waters before he was able to drag himself to the pool.
- At the same time, the location and the routine had become the major part of his life.
- Jesus asks what some might take as an unusual question: "Do you want to get well?" (v.6)
- The man seems to make an excuse.
- What sort of heart does the invalid have? Is he a moocher, or someone who has been sincerely making efforts to rise above his condition?
- We will return to this matter once we have finished reading the entire account.
- Verse 4 is missing from modern Bibles.
- This is not because it was removed, but because it was probably never in the original text.
- Sometime in the early Middle Ages verse 4 was added. (Remember that there were no verse numbers in the original manuscripts, so an addition might not be obvious.)
- Occasionally scribes would write explanatory comments, or glosses, in the margins. Later copyists might unwittingly include them in the canonical text, perhaps unsure whether the previous scribe had omitted something in the copying process.
- "Get up!" (v.8), egeirein, is the same verb as in 5:21 (raise).
- Jesus "raised" the invalid, an illustration of the believer's transition from paralysis and darkness and death to freedom and light and life.
- At any rate, the man is healed. Then things get really interesting.
Now that day was a sabbath. 10 So the Jews said to the man who had been cured, “It is the sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.”
- We are told that it was the Sabbath. Why did Jesus choose this day for the miracle?
- Jesus came to set us free from sin (John 8:31-34).
- Yet he also sets us free from bad theology.
- It is doubtful that the Torah really forbade someone from carrying his mat.
- The Pharisees had added all sorts of rules to the law, to prevent even accidental infractions.
- They confused God's law with their law.
- Matthew's gospel (especially) insists that there is a difference.
- Sabbath law did not forbid healing, but it did forbade carrying a load (v.5).
- It is difficult to see how carrying a mat, especially after one has been healed from a 38-year incapacitation, is a sin.
- Yet in later Jewish writings (Mishnah and Talmud), "carrying" even one's own wooden leg was considered a sin by some rabbis!
11 But he answered them, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Take up your mat and walk.’” 12 They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take it up and walk’?” 13 Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had disappeared in the crowd that was there. 14 Later Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you have been made well! Do not sin any more, so that nothing worse happens to you.”
- Jesus follows up with the man he has healed (v.14).
- He has been restored to fellowship.
- Because of his physical limitations and under O.T. law, this man had probably not been permitted to worship or sacrifice with his fellow Israelites.
- For another passage on "follow-up," see 9:35.
- But the fellow gets Jesus into trouble.
15 The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. 16 Therefore the Jews started persecuting Jesus, because he was doing such things on the sabbath. 17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father is still working, and I also am working.” 18 For this reason the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because he was not only breaking the sabbath, but was also calling God his own Father, thereby making himself equal to God.
- This raises the question again about his motives, and his heart.
- Is the man’s response an excuse, or an explanation?
- There are different views on this. I personally lean towards doubting the purity of his motives.
- His words are in stark contrast to the faith of the official in 4:50.
- The man (inadvertently?) caused trouble for Jesus (vv.15-18).
- That the Lord tells him to “stop sinning” suggests he was not entirely innocent.
- On the "innocent" side, we may say that:
- He was quite helpless in his condition, physically speaking, wholly dependent on the benevolence of others.
- The "competition" was stiff.
- Spending so many years in failure and despondency, he was trapped psychologically.
- His behavior may seem a little off to us, but surely he was in shock.
- Yet on the "guilty" side, we note that:
- When asked whether he wanted to get well, he does not respond with faith in Jesus, or even a wholehearted "yes," but seems to make an excuse.
- Why did he need to inform the Jewish leaders it was Jesus who had healed him? Having camped out in the shadow of the Temple for several decades, was he really clueless about the nature of the religious establishment?
- Unlike the blind man (chapter 9), he has no idea who had healed him. (That is remarkable.) Did he care? Was he not grateful?
- Jesus warns him to "sin no more." The Bible doesn't draw a direct connection between sin and sickness, but in this man's case there was a particular sin he needed to avoid.
- This makes for a lively group Bible discussion.
- See the study XIV in chapter 18 of Till the Nets Are Full[March 2018], formerly Shining Like Stars [1987-2017].
- Other studies from John in Nets that make for good group discussions:
- John 9 (the Blind Man), which is another more or less complete chapter with multiple clearly identifiable characters. [This is study V.]
- John 4 (the Samaritan Woman). [This is study VII.]
- John 6+ (The I Am Statements), great for anyone new to Jesus, for example people from non-Western cultures. [This is study VIII.]
- The study of Nicodemus (John 3; 7; 19) is excellent, as there are only 3 passages and they show us the man, and the trajectory of his life, without giving us the conclusion (whether he ultimately became a Christian). This is good for those in the throes of making a decision for Christ.
- Jesus insists there are some activities that are permitted even on the Sabbath.
- Severely criticized for “working” on the Sabbath, Jesus responds (v.17ff). Jesus commented that his Father was still at work to this day (v.17), this implies that the "rest" of Day Seven in Genesis 1 was only a pause.
- To illustrate, if I were to say, "My son stopped eating," I probably only mean that he was full, not that he had entered a state of permanent fasting.
- In other words, God's creative work, rather than taking place in toto in Genesis 1, may equally well be interpreted as ongoing.
- Time to rethink theology?
- Claiming a unique relationship to the Father, Jesus offended the leaders with an apparent claim to divinity -- the same issue that would lead to his condemnation in the nocturnal trial after his arrest.
Tomorrow: We will continue studying chapter 5, and also consider the nature of the Trinity -- a doctrine that extremely few Christians understand. Please come back, ready to learn!