See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you

 

 After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.  Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches.  In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water.  For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had.  Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years.  When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, "Do you want to be made well?"  The sick man answered Him, "Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me."  

 

Jesus said to him, "Rise, take up your bed and walk."  And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked.  And that day was the Sabbath.  The Jews therefore said to him who was cured, "It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your bed."  He answered them, "He who made me well said to me, 'Take up your bed and walk.'"  Then they asked him, "Who is the Man who said to you, 'Take up your bed and walk'?"  But the one who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, a multitude being in that place.  

Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, "See, you have been made well.   Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you."  The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.  For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, "My Father has been working until now, and I have been working."  Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God. 

 

- John 5:1-18 

 

Yesterday we read that after two days in Samaria near Jacob's well Jesus departed from there and went to Galilee.  For Jesus Himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country.  So when He came to Galilee, the Galileans received Him, having seen all the things He did in Jerusalem at the feast; for they also had gone to the feast.  So Jesus came again to Cana of Galilee where He had made the water wine.  And there was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum.  When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to Him and implored Him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.  Then Jesus said to him, "Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe."  The nobleman said to Him, "Sir, come down before my child dies!"  Jesus said to him, "Go your way; your son lives."  So the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way.  And as he was now going down, his servants met him and told him, saying, "Your son lives!"  Then he inquired of them the hour when he got better.  And they said to him, "Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him."  So the father knew that it was at the same hour in which Jesus said to him, "Your son lives."  And he himself believed, and his whole household.  This again is the second sign Jesus did when He had come out of Judea into Galilee.

 

 After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.  According to patristic commentary, this feast is considered to be the celebration of the Old Testament Pentecost (also called the "Feast of Weeks").   It commemorated the giving of the Law on Mt. Sinai.  My study Bible says that the references to the Law of Moses later in this chapter confirm this interpretation.

 

Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches.  In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water.  For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had.   This was a double-basin pool which was believed to have curative powers.  My study Bible says that it has been discovered about 100 yards north of the temple area, near the Sheep Gate.  The water for this high-ground pool flowed from underground springs.  It as used to wash down the sacrificial lambs before they were slain.  A note tells us that this pool functions as a "type" of Christian baptism.  Under the old covenant, a great multitude waited to enter the water for physical healing after an angel touched it.  These waters were special in that they were a way of indirectly participating in the animal sacrifices of the temple, since the animals were washed in the same water.  But this grace was limited to the first person to enter.  In the new covenant, baptism is given to all nations as a direct participation in Christ's own sacrificial death (Romans 6:3-6) without the mediation of angels.  Baptism therefore grants healing of the soul and the promise of eternal resurrection of the body, and its grace is inexhaustible.  

Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years.  My study Bible cites St. John Chrysostom, who writes that Jesus singled out the man who had waited for thirty-eight years in order to teach us to have perseverance, and as a judgment against those who lose hope or patience in much lesser troubles lasting a far shorter time. 

When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, "Do you want to be made well?"  The sick man answered Him, "Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me."  Here my study Bible comments that Christ's question is relevant for many reasons. First of all, it made public the fact that the sick man kept his faith even in circumstances that are seemingly hopeless.  How could a paralytic ever be the first into the water?  Second, Christ draws attention away from the water and toward the need we have for a man to help us.  This is fulfilled in Christ, who became Man in order to heal all.  Finally, my study Bible adds that not everybody who's ill truly desires healing.  Some might prefer to remain infirm in order to have license to complain or to avoid responsibility for their lives, possibly to continue receiving the pity of others.

Jesus said to him, "Rise, take up your bed and walk."  And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked.  And that day was the Sabbath. This healing is the third sign of seven given in John's Gospel.  It manifests the divine power to restore a person to wholeness.

 

The Jews therefore said to him who was cured, "It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your bed."  He answered them, "He who made me well said to me, 'Take up your bed and walk.'"  Then they asked him, "Who is the Man who said to you, 'Take up your bed and walk'?"  But the one who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, a multitude being in that place.  My study Bible tells us that although the Law itself does not specifically forbid the carrying of burdens on the Sabbath, this is prohibited in Jeremiah 17:21-22 and explicitly forbidden in rabbinical teachings.  That Christ is Lord over the Sabbath is made clear here by His command ("Rise, take up your bed and walk") and by the man's obedience.  As is frequently the case in John's Gospel, the use of the term the Jews refers to leaders as a sort of political term, and not to the people in general.  We are asked to notice the malice of these leaders, as their focus is only on the Sabbath violation, asking the man, "Who is the Man who said to you, 'Take up your bed'?" but ignoring altogether the miraculous healing.  

Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, "See, you have been made well.   Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you."  My study Bible asks us to note that this man was found in the temple, for it shows his great faith, as he had gone there directly to thank God for his cure instead of leaving to someone's home or to the marketplace.  Jesus tells him to sin no more:  My study Bible notes that while there is a general connection between sin and suffering (Romans 6:23), it's not always one-to-one.  The innocent frequently suffer, and often the guilty are spared earthly sufferings (see also John 9:1-3).  Nonetheless, there are times when one's own sin leads directly to personal suffering in this world.  St. John Chrysostom writes that this was the case with this paralytic.  But Christ's warning, according to my study Bible, is that the sins that destroy the soul lead to a far worse result than an affliction of the body.  The one hope is to flee from sin altogether.  

The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.  This man does not report Jesus to the leaders of the Jews in a way that is malicious, but rather as testimony to Christ's goodness.  My study Bible says that although these leaders are only interested in the violation of the Sabbath, the healed man emphasizes that it was Jesus who had made him well, and says nothing about carrying his bed.  

For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, "My Father has been working until now, and I have been working."  Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God.  Jesus refers to God as My Father, and the religious leaders clearly understand that this implies absolute equality.  He will continue this dispute in our following reading.  

In Matthew 12:1-8, we can read of a similar kind of incident, in which Jesus upsets the religious authorities who accuse Him and His disciples of violating the Sabbath, as they gleaned food by plucking heads of grain to eat in the fields as they walked.  In that case, Jesus provided to them an example of a blameless violation of the Sabbath by David and his men, who ate of the showbread meant only to be for the priest.  But Christ's greater emphasis is on mercy as the very nature of God and source of the Law ("But if you had known what this means, 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the guiltless" - Matthew 12:7).  In that reading, Jesus declares that "the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath" (Matthew 12:8), hence the relevance also for the events of today's reading.  My study Bible asks us to examine the attitudes of the religious leaders, whose zealousness for rabbinical tradition would become the source of conflict with Jesus, and also an object of His great criticism for the hypocrisy it led to on their part (Matthew 23).  Moreover, the fullness of Christ's purpose in coming into the world is revealed through this particular action of mercy, for it is necessary in order to heal.  It is not separate from faith (nor used to induce faith through "proofs") as remarked upon by my study Bible, when it notes that the man was found giving thanks in the temple, in gratitude for his healing.  This detail about gratitude is extremely significant, for it seems that it is related to Christ's admonition to the man, "See, you have been made well.  Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you." One of the ways in which we can understand this teaching given by Jesus is an emphasis on the true importance of gratitude, and its linked understanding that this is the recognition of just where the man's healing comes from in the first place.  For without proper gratitude for the healing, how would he be expressing in his life any sense of what has happened to him, and what great gift has been given to him?  How do we understand gratitude except in its proper place as recognition for the giver of a gift?  To continue to commit sin with impunity would in fact imply a complete lack of recognition of the Giver; and prove a sort of challenge to God -- implying entitlement and not gratitude or recognition of what he has been given.  One might say that to continue to sin, without a thought given to God and God's desires and teachings or nature, would be test God in some sense, to challenge the nature of our relationship to God.  For it is we who depend upon God, even as God loves us beyond what we can understand of love.  Gratitude characterizes proper relationship, a true sense of maturity even in human relations.  For without it, we do not properly recognize love or mercy, nor the care and sacrifice of others.  Neither are we able to function fully without the practice of gratitude, as in its absence we find despair, unhappiness, and blindness to the things in life that offer us goodness and richness, our own blessings we overlook.  (For modern science on gratitude, see this article and this one.)  Even these religious authorities show an extreme lack of gratitude in their blindness to the revelation of God's mercy in the miraculous sign of healing, the blessing that has come among them and within their community.  So we may conclude here the essential nature of gratitude to our lives, and the many ways we might show that.  In this case, Jesus admonishes this healed man to remember God, by teaching him to "go and sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you."  It teaches us not to take our blessings for granted, nor the mercy or kindness of others.  It also gives us a strong message about God at work in our midst, for as Jesus teaches about the Holy Spirit, our own responses to God form the shape of judgment (see John 16:7-11), including the possibility of consequences to our lives even in this world.  Even such negative consequences must be seen as corrective warnings, if we are not blind to them nor to God's goodness, giving us another reason why gratitude is a necessary component of a mature spirituality and character of a person.  So let us think hard about gratitude and its central importance for us as human beings.  It centers us in the place of relatedness to God, to Christ, and to God's active work in the world through grace and the Holy Spirit.  It teaches us the proper response to love (and God is love, 1 John 4:8).  It is the hallmark of a person of a fully formed character, and creates right-relatedness within our own social groups, while its lack creates severe problems and conflicts.  Let us consider both the powerful effects of gratitude, and the depleted conditions of life without it, as we move through Lent toward the Passion of Christ, and to Resurrection.