CHAPTER 6

Jesus left Galilee and walked up to Jerusalem to attend a Jewish feast. He entered Jerusalem through the Sheep Gate, where he passed a pool of water called Bethesda. The pool was surrounded with a large number of disabled people—blind, lame, and paralyzed—lying helplessly on the ground.

There was a man lying at the pool who had been disabled for 38 years. When Jesus saw him lying on the ground, and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to be healed?” The disabled man said, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water stirs. And when I do try to get in, someone else goes down before me.” At that time they believed that they would be healed if they got into the water when an angel stirred it. Then Jesus said to him, “Stand up! Pick up your mat and walk.” Immediately, the man was healed, and he picked up his mat and walked away.

Now the healing of this disabled man took place on the Sabbath day, and some religious Jews said to the man who had been healed, “You are breaking the law of Moses by carrying your mat on the Sabbath.” But the man said to them, “The man who healed me told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’” So the Jews asked him, “Tell us, who is this man who told you to pick up your mat and walk?”

The man who was healed had no idea who he was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd of people.

Later Jesus found the man in the temple and said to him, “You are now healed! Stop sinning or something worse can happen to you.” The man left and told the religious leaders that it was Jesus who had healed him. So the religious leaders began to persecute Jesus for healing on the Sabbath. But Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” After Jesus said this, the religious leaders tried even more to kill him, not only because he was breaking the Sabbath law, but because he was also calling God his Father—making himself equal with God.

Jesus said to the religious leaders, “I tell you the truth: The Son can do nothing on his own; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, for whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and the Father will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed. For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to those he is pleased to give it. Moreover, the Father judges no one, but he has given all judgment to the Son, so that everyone will honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him into this world.

Jesus said, I tell you the truth: Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged, but has crossed over from death to life. A time is coming and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has also granted the Son to have life in him- self. And the Father has given the Son authority to execute judgment because he is the Son of Man.”

Then Jesus said, “Do not be surprised at my teaching, for a time is coming when the dead in their graves will hear the Father’s voice and be raised to life—those who have done what is good will rise to life, but those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned. I can do nothing on my own. I judge only what I hear, and my judgment is just, for I do not seek to please myself, but the will of the Father who sent me into this world. If I testify about myself, then my testimony is not true. But there is another one who testifies about me, and I know that his testimony is true.

“You religious leaders sent men to question John the Baptist, and he told you the truth. I don’t need any human testimony, but I say this so that you will be saved. John was a burning lamp that shined forth light, and you chose for a while to enjoy his light. But I have a much greater testimony than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish—the very works that I am doing—prove that the Father sent me into this world. And the Father who sent me testifies about me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, nor does his word live in you, for you do not believe in the one he sent. You study God’s word zealously because you think that in it you have eternal life. However, these are the very Scriptures that testify about me, but you still refuse to come to me to receive eternal life. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts. I came in my Father’s name, and you do not believe in me; but if some- one else comes in his own name, you will embrace him. How can you believe when you accept praise from one another, but make no effort to seek the glory that comes from the only God? But do not think that I will accuse you before the Father. For Moses—the one you put your hope in—is the one who accuses you. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But since you do not believe in the writings of Moses, how will you believe my teaching?”

After returning from the Jewish feast in Jerusalem, Jesus and his disciples were walking through the grain fields in Galilee on the Sabbath day. His disciples were hungry and so they picked some heads of grain, rubbed them in their hands, and ate the kernels. When some of the Jewish religious leaders saw the disciples do this, they asked them, “Why are you doing work that is unlawful on the Sabbath?”

Then they said to Jesus, “Look! Your disciples are doing work that is unlawful on the Sabbath.” Jesus heard them and said, “Haven’t you read 1 Samuel 21:1-6 when David and his men were in need and were hungry? In those days David went into God’s temple and ate holy bread and gave some of it to his men to eat, which was unlawful because the holy bread was only for the priests to eat. Listen to me! The Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath. I tell you the truth: Someone greater than the temple is here. If you really knew the meaning of Hosea 6:6, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have accused those who are innocent. For the Son of Man is the Lord of the Sabbath!”

Jesus walked away and entered the Capernaum synagogue to teach on the Sabbath day. In the synagogue was a man who had a shriveled right hand. Some Jewish religious leaders were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus of doing something wrong so they could bring charges against him.

They watched him closely to see if he would heal the man on the Sabbath. Then the religious leaders asked Jesus, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” Jesus said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a hole on the Sabbath, will you not pull it out? How much more valuable are people to God than sheep! Therefore, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” Jesus knew what the religious leaders were thinking. Then Jesus said to the man with the withered hand, “Get up and stand in front of everyone.” So the man got up and stood there. Jesus asked the religious leaders “Which is lawful on the Sabbath, to do good or to do evil? To save life or to kill?” But they did not say anything. Jesus looked around at them with anger because he was deeply troubled by their stubborn hearts. Then Jesus said to the man, “Stretch out your hand!” When the man stretched out his hand, it was totally healed.

After Jesus healed the man’s hand in the synagogue, the religious leaders became furious. So they quickly left the synagogue and began to plot together with the Herodians on how they could go against Jesus and how they could kill him. The Herodians were a Jewish political party that supported the sons of King Herod the Great, who were closely aligned with the Roman rulers.

When Jesus learned that the religious leaders were planning to kill him, he and his disciples left Capernaum and walked out to the northwest coast of Lake Galilee. A large crowd of people from Galilee followed Jesus, and he healed all who were sick. Jesus told the people he healed not to tell anyone.

But when the people heard about all the miracles that Jesus was doing, a huge crowd of people came to him from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, the region of Perea east of the Jordan River, and from around Tyre and Sidon.

Because of the growing crowd Jesus told his disciples to get a small boat ready for him, so the people would not crush him. Because Jesus had healed so many people, those with diseases were pushing forward to touch him. Whenever demons saw Jesus, those who were demon-possessed fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God!” But Jesus commanded the demons not to tell others who he was. All this happened to fulfill the words written in Isaiah 42:1-4, “Here is my chosen servant, the one I love and in whom I delight. I will put my Spirit on him, and he will proclaim justice to the nations. He will not argue or cry out. No one will hear his voice in the streets, for a bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. He will lead justice to victory, and the nations will put their hope in his name.”