The Third Sign: Healing the Sick

5 After this, a Jewish festival took place, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.^{(A) 2} By the Sheep Gate^(B) in Jerusalem there is a pool, called Bethesda^[a] in Aramaic, which has five colonnades. ³ Within these lay a large number of the disabled—blind, lame, and paralyzed.^[b]

⁵ One man was there who had been disabled for thirty-eight years. ⁶ When Jesus saw him lying there and realized he had already been there a long time,^(C) he said to him, “Do you want to get well?”

⁷ “Sir,”^(D) 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.”

⁸ “Get up,” Jesus told him, “pick up your mat and walk.” ⁹ Instantly the man got well, picked up his mat, and started to walk.

Now that day was the Sabbath,^{(E) 10} and so the Jews^(F) said to the man who had been healed, “This is the Sabbath.^(G) The law prohibits you from picking up your mat.”

¹¹ He replied, “The man who made me well^(H) told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’”

¹² “Who is this man who told you, ‘Pick up your mat and walk’?” they asked. ¹³ But the man who was healed did not know who it was,^(I) because Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.^[c]

¹⁴ After this, Jesus found him in the temple^(J) and said to him, “See, you are well. Do not sin anymore, so that something worse doesn’t happen to you.” ¹⁵ The man went and reported to the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.^{(K) 16} Therefore, the Jews began persecuting^(L) Jesus^[d] because he was doing these things on the Sabbath.^(M)

Honoring the Father and the Son

¹⁷ Jesus responded to them, “My Father^(N) is still working, and I am working also.” ¹⁸ This is why the Jews began trying all the more to kill him:^(O) Not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal to God.

¹⁹ Jesus 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^[e] does, the Son likewise does these things.^{(P) 20} For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he is doing, and he will show him greater works^(Q) than these so that you will be amazed. ²¹ And just as the Father raises^(R) the dead and gives them life, so the Son also gives life to whom he wants.^{(S) 22} The Father,^(T) in fact, judges no one but has given all judgment to the Son, ²³ so that all people may honor the Son just as they honor the Father.^(U) Anyone who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.^(V)

Life and Judgment

²⁴ “Truly I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life^(W) and will not come under judgment but has passed from death to life.

²⁵ “Truly I tell you, an hour is coming, and is now here,^(X) when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.^{(Y) 26} For just as the Father has life in himself, so also he has granted to the Son^(Z) to have life in himself. ²⁷ And he has granted him the right to pass judgment,^(AA) because he is the Son of Man.^{(AB) 28} Do not be amazed at this, because a time is coming when all who are in the graves will hear his voice ²⁹ and 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.

³⁰ “I can do nothing on my own. I judge only as I hear, and my judgment^(AC) is just,^(AD) because I do not seek my own will, but the will of him who sent me.^(AE)

Lord of the Sabbath

6 On a Sabbath, he passed through the grainfields.^(A) His disciples were picking heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands, and eating them. ² But some of the Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” ^(B)

³ Jesus answered them, “Haven’t you read what David and those who were with him did when he was hungry— ⁴ how he entered the house of God and took and ate the bread of the Presence, which is not lawful for any but the priests to eat?^(C) He even gave some to those who were with him.”^{(D) 5} Then he told them, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

⁶ On another Sabbath^(E) he entered the synagogue and was teaching. A man was there whose right hand was shriveled. ⁷ The scribes and Pharisees were watching him closely,^(F) to see if he would heal on the Sabbath, so that they could find a charge against him.^{(G) 8} But he knew their thoughts^(H) and told the man with the shriveled hand, “Get up and stand here.”^[a] So he got up and stood there. ⁹ Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you: Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?”^{(I) 10} After looking around at them all,^(J) he told him, “Stretch out your hand.”^(K) He did, and his hand was restored.^{[b] 11} They, however, were filled with rage and started discussing with one another what they might do to Jesus.