Fri, 15 December, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.

John 5:1-18

¹ After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

² Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. ³ In these lay a multitude of invalids–blind, lame, and paralyzed. ⁵ One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. ⁶ When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” ⁷ The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” ⁸ Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” ⁹ And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.

Now that day was the Sabbath. ¹⁰ So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.” ¹¹ But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’” ¹² They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” ¹³ Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. ¹⁴ Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.” ¹⁵ The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. ¹⁶ And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. ¹⁷ But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”

¹⁸ This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

According to most people, Jesus was a good teacher. Nothing more. We can learn from Him. He is a great example for us to follow. But that is all. They do not believe that He is God in human flesh. According to them, He was just a man and He never claimed anything more for Himself.

The people of Jesus’ day knew better than to say He was just a good teacher. In our text today, they were ready to kill Him for His claim to be God.

What do we learn from this?

Jesus clearly claimed to be equal with God the Father. As C.S. Lewis has pointed out, Jesus was either right or wrong about being God. If He was wrong, He could have been insane, believing Himself to be God when in fact He was not. Or He could have known He was not God and He was the worst of manipulative people. Or He was God. He can’t be just a good teacher. For if He is not God, He is crazy or evil. And if He is God, He is far more than just a good teacher.

We can’t ignore Jesus’ claims about Himself. We can reject them and say He isn’t God, or we accept them as the truth. But we can’t pretend He never made them. He claimed that He was equal with God the Father.

Where is Christ in this passage?

Jesus Christ is God incarnate. He is the eternal Second Person of the Trinity. In our reading today, He proves the truth of His claim by healing the invalid. He is who He says He is.