Immediately the man was well. He picked up his mat and started walking. The day all this happened was a Sabbath day.

So some Jews said to the man who had been healed, “Today is the Sabbath. It is against our law for you to carry your mat on the Sabbath day.”

Jesus was doing all this on the Sabbath day. So these Jews began trying to make him stop.

This made them even more determined to kill him. They thought it was bad enough that he was breaking the law about the Sabbath day. And now he was saying that God is his Father, making himself equal with God!

Jesus said to them, “I did one miracle on a Sabbath day, and you were all surprised.

But you obey the law Moses gave you about circumcision—and sometimes you do it on a Sabbath day. (Really, Moses is not the one who gave you circumcision. It came from our ancestors who lived before Moses.) Yes, you often circumcise baby boys on a Sabbath day.

This shows that someone can be circumcised on a Sabbath day to obey the Law of Moses. So why are you angry with me for healing a person’s whole body on the Sabbath day?

The day Jesus had made mud and healed the man’s eyes was a Sabbath day.

Some of the Pharisees said, “That man does not obey the law about the Sabbath day. So he is not from God.” Others said, “But someone who is a sinner cannot do these miraculous signs.” So they could not agree with each other.

This day was Preparation day. The next day was a special Sabbath day. The Jewish leaders did not want the bodies to stay on the cross on the Sabbath day. So they asked Pilate to order that the legs of the men be broken. And they asked that the bodies be taken down from the crosses.

The men put Jesus in that tomb because it was near, and the Jews were preparing to start their Sabbath day.