The Healing at the Pool

5 After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ² Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, which in Hebrew is called Bethesda, having five porches. ³ In these lay a great crowd of invalids, blind, lame, and paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water. ⁴ For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water. After the stirring of the water, whoever stepped in first was healed of whatever disease he had. ⁵ A certain man was there who had an illness for thirty-eight years. ⁶ When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had been in that condition now a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be healed?”

⁷ The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred. But while I am coming, another steps down before me.”

⁸ Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” ⁹ Immediately the man was healed, took up his bed, and walked.

That day was the Sabbath. ¹⁰ The Jews therefore said to him who was cured, “It is the Sabbath day. It is not lawful for you to carry your bed.”

¹¹ He answered them, “He who healed me said to me, ‘Take up your bed and walk.’ ”

¹² So they asked him, “Who is the Man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?”

¹³ Now the man who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in that place.

¹⁴ Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, “See, you have become whole. Sin no more lest something worse happens to you.” ¹⁵ The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him.

¹⁶ So the Jews persecuted Jesus and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath day. ¹⁷ Jesus answered them, “My Father is working still, and I am working.” ¹⁸ So the Jews sought even more to kill Him, because He not only had broken the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God.

The Authority of the Son

¹⁹ Then Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do. For whatever He does, likewise the Son does. ²⁰ For the Father loves the Son and shows Him all things that He Himself does. And He will show Him greater works than these so that you may marvel. ²¹ For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom He will. ²² The Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son, ²³ that all men should honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.

²⁴ “Truly, truly I say to you, whoever hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has eternal life and shall not come into condemnation, but has passed from death into life. ²⁵ Truly, truly I say to you, the 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. ²⁶ For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has given to the Son to have life in Himself, ²⁷ and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man.

²⁸ “Do not marvel at this. For the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice ²⁹ and come out—those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. ³⁰ I can do nothing of Myself. As I hear, I judge. My judgment is just, because I seek not My own will, but the will of the Father who sent Me.

Witnesses to Jesus

³¹ “If I bear witness of Myself, My testimony is not true. ³² There is another who bears witness of Me, and I know that the testimony which He bears of Me is true.

³³ “You sent to John, and he bore witness of the truth. ³⁴ I do not receive testimony from man, but I say these things that you may be saved. ³⁵ He was a burning and a shining lamp, and you were willing for a season to rejoice in his light.

³⁶ “I have greater testimony than that of John. The works which the Father has given Me to finish, the very works that I do, bear witness of Me, that the Father has sent Me. ³⁷ The Father Himself, who has sent Me, has borne witness of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form. ³⁸ You do not have His word abiding in you, for you do not believe the One He has sent. ³⁹ You search the Scriptures, because you think in them you have eternal life. These are they who bear witness of Me. ⁴⁰ Yet you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.

⁴¹ “I do not receive honor from men. ⁴² But I know you, that you do not have the love of God in you. ⁴³ I have come in My Father’s name, but you do not receive Me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. ⁴⁴ How can you believe, who receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?

⁴⁵ “Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you—Moses, in whom you trust. ⁴⁶ For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote of Me. ⁴⁷ But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?”