Book of Common Prayer
The letter to Thyatira
18 “Write this to the angel of the church in Thyatira. ‘These are the words of the son of God, whose eyes are like flaming fire and whose feet are like exquisite brass. 19 I know what you have done: I know your love, your faith, your service and your patience. I know that your works have been more impressive recently than they were before. 20 But I have something against you: you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet and deceives my servants by teaching them to practice fornication and to eat idol-food. 21 I gave her time to repent, but she had no wish to repent of her immorality. 22 Look! I am going to throw her on a bed, and those who have committed fornication with her will have great distress, unless they repent of the works into which she has led them. 23 I will utterly slaughter her children, and all the churches will know that I am the one who searches minds and hearts. I will give to each of you what your deeds deserve. 24 For the rest of you in Thyatira, those who have not held this teaching, who haven’t discovered the so-called “satanic depths”: I’m not going to put any other pressure on you. 25 Just hold on tightly to what you have until I come. 26 To anyone who conquers, who keeps my works right through to the end, I will give authority over the nations, 27 to rule them with a rod of iron, smashing them like clay pots! 28 That is the authority I myself received from my father. What’s more, I will give them the morning star. 29 Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the spirit says to the churches.’
The healing of the disabled man
5 After this there was a Jewish festival, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
2 In Jerusalem, near the Sheep Gate, there is a pool which is called, in Hebrew, Bethesda. It has five porticoes, 3 where several sick people were lying. They were blind, lame and paralyzed.
5 There was a man who had been there, in the same sick state, for thirty-eight years. 6 Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had been there a long time already.
“Do you want to get well?” he asked him.
7 “Well, sir,” the sick man replied, “I don’t have anyone to put me into the pool when the water gets stirred up. While I’m on my way there, someone else gets down before me.”
8 “Get up,” said Jesus, “pick up your mattress and walk!”
9 At once the man was healed. He picked up his mattress and walked.
God’s son breaks the sabbath!
The day all this happened was a sabbath. 10 So the Judaeans confronted the man who had been healed.
“It’s the sabbath!” they said. “You shouldn’t be carrying your mattress!”
11 “Well,” he replied, “the man who cured me told me to pick up my mattress and walk!”
12 “Oh, really?” they said. “And who is this man, who told you to pick it up and walk?”
13 But the man who’d been healed didn’t know who it was. Jesus had gone away, and the place was crowded.
14 After this Jesus found the man in the Temple.
“Look!” he said. “You’re better again! Don’t sin anymore, or something worse might happen to you!”
15 The man went off and told the Judaeans that it was Jesus who had healed him.
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.