John 5

The Third Sign: Healing the Sick

¹After this, a Jewish festival took place, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.²³By the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem there is a pool, called Bethesda in Aramaic, which has five colonnades.⁴⁵Within these lay a large number of the disabled — blind, lame, and paralyzed.⁶

⁷One man was there who had been disabled for thirty-eight years.⁸⁹When Jesus saw him lying there and realized he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to get well?”¹⁰

¹¹“Sir,” the disabled man answered, “I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I’m coming, someone goes down ahead of me.”¹²

¹³“Get up,” Jesus told him, “pick up your mat and walk.”¹⁴¹⁵Instantly the man got well, picked up his mat, and started to walk. Now that day was the Sabbath,¹⁶¹⁷and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “This is the Sabbath. The law prohibits you from picking up your mat.”¹⁸

¹⁹He replied, “The man who made me well told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’”²⁰

²¹“Who is this man who told you, ‘Pick up your mat and walk’?” they asked.²²²³But the man who was healed did not know who it was, because Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.²⁴

²⁵After this, Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well. Do not sin anymore, so that something worse doesn’t happen to you.”²⁶²⁷The man went and reported to the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.²⁸²⁹Therefore, the Jews began persecuting Jesus because he was doing these things on the Sabbath.³⁰

Honoring the Father and the Son

³¹Jesus responded to them, “My Father is still working, and I am working also.”³²³³This is why the Jews began trying all the more to kill him: Not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal to God.³⁴

³⁵Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, the Son is not able to do anything on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, the Son likewise does these things.³⁶³⁷For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he is doing, and he will show him greater works than these so that you will be amazed.³⁸³⁹And just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so the Son also gives life to whom he wants.⁴⁰⁴¹The Father, in fact, judges no one but has given all judgment to the Son,⁴²⁴³so that all people may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Anyone who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.⁴⁴

Life and Judgment

⁴⁵“Truly I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not come under judgment but has passed from death to life.⁴⁶

⁴⁷“Truly I tell you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.⁴⁸⁴⁹For just as the Father has life in himself, so also he has granted to the Son to have life in himself.⁵⁰⁵¹And he has granted him the right to pass judgment, because he is the Son of Man.⁵²⁵³Do not be amazed at this, because a time is coming when all who are in the graves will hear his voice⁵⁴⁵⁵and come out — those who have done good things, to the resurrection of life, but those who have done wicked things, to the resurrection of condemnation.⁵⁶

⁵⁷“I can do nothing on my own. I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, because I do not seek my own will, but the will of him who sent me.⁵⁸

Witnesses to Jesus

⁵⁹“If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true.⁶⁰⁶¹There is another who testifies about me, and I know that the testimony he gives about me is true.⁶²⁶³You sent messengers to John, and he testified to the truth.⁶⁴⁶⁵I don’t receive human testimony, but I say these things so that you may be saved.⁶⁶⁶⁷John was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.⁶⁸

⁶⁹“But I have a greater testimony than John’s because of the works that the Father has given me to accomplish. These very works I am doing testify about me that the Father has sent me.⁷⁰⁷¹The Father who sent me has himself testified about me. You have not heard his voice at any time, and you haven’t seen his form.⁷²⁷³You don’t have his word residing in you, because you don’t believe the one he sent.⁷⁴⁷⁵You pore over the Scriptures because you think you have eternal life in them, and yet they testify about me.⁷⁶⁷⁷But you are not willing to come to me so that you may have life.⁷⁸

⁷⁹“I do not accept glory from people,⁸⁰⁸¹but I know you — that you have no love for God within you.⁸²⁸³I have come in my Father’s name, and yet you don’t accept me. If someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him.⁸⁴⁸⁵How can you believe, since you accept glory from one another but don’t seek the glory that comes from the only God?⁸⁶⁸⁷Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom you have set your hope.⁸⁸⁸⁹For if you believed Moses, you would believe me, because he wrote about me.⁹⁰⁹¹But if you don’t believe what he wrote, how will you believe my words?”⁹²