The Healing at the Pool

5 Later on, there was another^[a] festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ² Near the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem is a pool called Bethesda^[b] in Hebrew. It has five colonnades, ³ and under these a large number of sick people were lying—blind, lame, or paralyzed—waiting for the movement of the water.^{[c] 4} At certain times an angel of the Lord would go down into the pool and stir up the water, and whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was healed of whatever disease he had.^[d]

⁵ One particular man was there who had been ill for 38 years. ⁶ When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

⁷ The sick man answered him, “Sir, I don’t have anyone to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up. While I’m trying to get there, someone else steps down ahead of me.”

⁸ Jesus told him, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!” ⁹ The man immediately became well, and he picked up his mat and started walking. Now that day was a Sabbath.

¹⁰ So the Jewish leaders^[e] told the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.

¹¹ But he answered them, “The man who made me well told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’”

¹² They asked him, “Who is the man who told you, ‘Pick it up and walk’?”

¹³ But the one who had been healed did not know who it was, because Jesus had slipped away from the crowd in that place. ¹⁴ Later on, Jesus found him in the Temple and told him, “Look! You have become well. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” ¹⁵ The man went off and told the Jewish leaders^[f] that it was Jesus who had made him well. ¹⁶ So the Jewish leaders^[g] began persecuting Jesus,^[h] because he kept doing such things on the Sabbath.

¹⁷ But Jesus^[i] answered them, “My Father has been working until now, and I, too, am working.” ¹⁸ So the Jewish leaders^[j] were trying all the harder 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.

The Authority of the Son

¹⁹ Jesus told them, “Truly, I tell all of you^[k] emphatically, the Son can do nothing on his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing, What the Father does, the Son does likewise. ²⁰ The Father loves the Son and shows him everything he is doing, and he will show him even greater actions than these, so that you may be amazed. ²¹ Just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to those he chooses. ²² The Father judges no one, but has given all authority to judge to the Son, ²³ so that everyone may honor the Son as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.

²⁴ “Truly, I tell all of you^[l] emphatically, whoever hears what I say and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged, but has passed from death to life. ²⁵ Truly, I tell all of you^[m] emphatically, the time approaches, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear it will live. ²⁶ Just as the Father has life in himself, so also he has granted the Son to have life in himself, ²⁷ and he has given him authority to judge, because he is the Son of Man. ²⁸ Don’t be amazed at this, because the time is approaching when everyone in their graves will hear the Son of Man’s^[n] voice ²⁹ and will come out—those who have done what is good to the resurrection that leads to^[o] life, and those who have practiced what is evil to the resurrection that ends in^[p] condemnation.^{[q] 30} I can do nothing on my own accord. I judge according to what I hear, and my judgment is just, because I do not seek my own will but the will of the one who sent me.”

Jesus’ Greater Testimony

³¹ “If I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is not trustworthy. ³² There is another who testifies about me, and I know^[r] that the testimony he gives about me is true. ³³ You have sent messengers^[s] to John, and he has testified to the truth. ³⁴ I myself do not accept human testimony, but I am saying these things so that you may be saved. ³⁵ That man John^[t] was a lamp that burns and brightly shines, and for a while you were willing to rejoice in his light.

³⁶ “But I have a greater testimony than John’s, because the actions that the Father has given me to complete—the very actions that I am doing—testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me. ³⁷ Moreover, the Father who sent me has himself testified on my behalf. You have never heard his voice or seen what he looks like, ³⁸ nor do you have his word at work^[u] in you, because you do not believe in the one whom he sent. ³⁹ You examine the Scriptures carefully because you suppose that in them you have eternal life. Yet they testify about me. ⁴⁰ But you are not willing to come to me to have life.

⁴¹ “I do not accept human praise. ⁴² I know that you do not have the love of God in you. ⁴³ I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me. Yet if another man comes in his own name, you will accept him. ⁴⁴ How can you believe when you accept each other’s praise and do not look for the praise that comes from the only God?^{[v] 45} Do not suppose that I will be the one to accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom you have set your hope, ⁴⁶ because if you believed Moses, you would believe me, since he wrote about me. ⁴⁷ But if you do not believe what he wrote, how will you believe my words?”