Look to Jesus for Mercy – John 5:1-30
5 After these things there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. (2) Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Hebrew is called Bethesda, and that is surrounded by five covered colonnades. (3) Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. (5) Now a certain man was there, a man who had been an invalid for thirty eight years (6) When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had been in that condition for a long time, he asked him, Do you want to be healed? (7) The invalid answered him, Sir, I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred up. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me. (8) Jesus said to him, Get up, pick up your mat, and walk. (9) Immediately the man was healed; he picked up his mat and walked. Now the day on which this happened was the Sabbath. (10) Therefore the Jews said to the man who was healed, This is the Sabbath, so it is not lawful for you to pick up your mat. (11) But he answered them, The man who healed me said to me, Pick up your mat, and walk. (12) They asked him, Who is the man who said to you, Pick up your mat, and walk? (13) But the man who was healed did not know who it was; for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there. (14) Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, Look, you are healed; stop sinning, or something worse will happen to you. (15) The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. (16) Because he did these things on the Sabbath, this is why the Jews persecuted Jesus.
(17) But Jesus answered them, My Father is working even until now, and so I am working. (18) For this reason the Jews tried even harder to kill him; not only because he broke the Sabbath, but also because he called God his own Father, making himself equal with God. (19) Jesus therefore responded to them by saying, I tell you the truth, The Son can do nothing by himself, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, the Son also does in the same way. (20) This is so because the Father loves the Son and therefore shows him everything that he is doing. Indeed, greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. (21) Just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so the Son also gives life to whom he desires to give life. (22) Neither does the Father judge anyone; rather, he has entrusted all judgment to the Son; (23) so that everyone may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father.
Whoever does not honor the Son, does not honor the Father who sent him. (24) I tell you the truth, Whoever listens to my word and believes him who sent me, he has eternal life and will not be condemned; on the contrary, he has crossed over from death into life. (25) I tell you the truth, The hour is coming, and even now has arrived, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who listen shall live; (26) for just as the Father has life in himself, so also he has granted the Son to have life in himself. (27) Furthermore, he has given him authority to judge, because he is the Son of Man. (28) Do not be amazed by this; for the hour is coming when all who are in the tombs shall hear his voice (29) and shall come out: they who have done good shall be resurrected to life; but they who have done evil shall be resurrected to condemnation. (30) I am not able to do anything by myself, I judge only as I hear; and my judgment is righteous, because I do not seek to do my own will, but rather to carry out the will of him who sent me.
Now proceed to the next section of this study, entitled, Exploring the Passage.
