5 After that, the Jews had a feast and Jesus went to Jerusalem.

² In Jerusalem, near the Sheep Gate, there is a wide water hole. The Jews called this water hole Bethesda. It had five places with roofs for people to stand under.

³ Many sick people were lying on these places. Some of them were blind. Some were lame. Some were very thin and stiff so that they could not move by themselves. All of them were waiting for the water to move.

⁴ An angel came down into the water at a certain time and made it move. The first person who stepped into the water when it moved was healed of any sickness that he had.

⁵ A man was there who had been sick for thirty eight years.

⁶ Jesus saw the man lying there. He knew that he had been sick for a long time. He said to him, `Do you want to be healed?'

⁷ The sick man said to him, `Sir, I have no man to put me into the water when it moves. While I am trying to get in, some other person comes and gets in before me.'

⁸ Jesus said, `Get up. Take up your bed and walk!'

⁹ The man was healed right away. He took up his bed and walked. This happened on the Sabbath day.

¹⁰ So the leaders of the Jews talked to the man who was healed. They said, `It is the Sabbath day. It is not right for you to carry your bed.'

¹¹ But he answered them, `The man who healed me said to me, "Take up your bed and walk." '

¹² They asked him, `Who is the man who told you to take up your bed and walk?'

¹³ The man who was healed said, `I do not know who he is.' Many people were at the place and Jesus had gone away.

¹⁴ After that, Jesus saw the man in the temple. He said to him, `See, you are healed. Do no more wrong things. If you do, something worse may happen to you.'

¹⁵ The man went away and told the leaders of the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him.

¹⁶ The Jewish leaders made trouble for Jesus because he did this on the Sabbath day.

¹⁷ But Jesus answered them, `My Father is still working and I am working also.'

¹⁸ This was why the leaders of the Jews tried much more to kill Jesus. He had broken the law of the Sabbath day. And also he called God his Father. In that way, he was making himself equal with God.

¹⁹ Jesus said to them, `l tell you the truth. The Son cannot do anything alone. He sees what his Father is doing and he does the same.

²⁰ My Father loves his Son. He shows him all that he himself is doing. He will show his Son bigger works than these so that you may be surprised.

²¹ My Father raises people who were dead, and gives them life. So his Son gives life to anyone he wants to.

²² My Father judges no one, but he has made his Son to be the judge of everything.

²³ He did this so that all people would respect the Son, just as they respect his Father. My Father has sent his Son. Anyone who does not respect his Son does not respect the Father.

²⁴ `I tell you the truth. The person who hears what I say and believes in him that sent me will live for ever. He will not be judged. He has already passed from death to life.

²⁵ `I tell you the truth. The time is coming. Yes, the time is here when the dead people will hear the voice of the Son of God. Those who hear his voice will live.

²⁶ My Father has life in himself. And so he has made his Son to have life in himself.

²⁷ He has given his Son power also to judge because he is the Son of Man.

²⁸ Do not be surprised at what I say. The time is coming when all who are in the graves will hear his voice.

²⁹ They will come out of the graves. Those who have done what is good will come out to live. But those who have done what is wrong will come out to be punished.

³⁰ `I have no right to do anything myself. I judge the way I am told to judge. The way I judge people is right. I do not do what I myself want to do, but I do what my Father wants me to do. He sent me.

³¹ `If I talk about myself, then what I say is not true.

³² But someone else also speaks about me. I know what he says about me is true.

³³ You sent someone to John and he has told you the truth about me.

³⁴ I do not need to listen to what a person says about me. But I tell you this so that you may be saved.

³⁵ John was a light burning and shining. For a while you were happy to be in his light.

³⁶ But I have something greater than John to talk for me. It is the works that I do. My Father has given me works to finish. The works that I do tell that he sent me.

³⁷ And my Father who sent me has himself talked about me. You have never heard him speak and you do not know what he is like.

³⁸ The word he talks is not in your hearts, because you do not believe the one he sent to you.

³⁹ `You read holy writings carefully. You think that there you will find out how to live for ever. In the same writings you will read about me.

⁴⁰ And yet you will not come to me for that life.

⁴¹ I do not want people to call me great.

⁴² But I know that you do not love God in your hearts.

⁴³ I have come in my Father's name, but you will not receive me. If another person comes in his own name, then you will receive him.

⁴⁴ How can you believe? You are always calling each other great, but you do not want the only God to make you great.

⁴⁵ Do not think that I will carry a complaint against you to my Father. Moses has already carried the complaint against you. He is the very one you trust.

⁴⁶ If you really believed Moses, you would believe me too, because he wrote about me.

⁴⁷ But if you do not believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?'