Healing On The Sabbath
HEALING ON THE SABBATH
JOHN 5:10-18
While the Jewish leaders were getting angry with the man, Jesus went out of his way to increase his understanding.
John traces Jewish reaction to the person and ministry of Christ as it was unfolded in his actions and words. The true Light had come into the world (John 1:9), and men whose habitat was darkness rather than light (John 3:19) were disturbed; eventually they were to attempt to extinguish the Light.
If Jesus has really come to give new life in a way that the old order could not, then he is bound to clash with the guardians of the old order concerning their religious institutions. He has tried to show them the true significance of the temple (2:13-22), now he has to reveal to them the true meaning of the Sabbath. In one sense there was no urgency about this miracle, one extra day could hardly have made much difference, and it may be that its performance on the Sabbath (cf. Matthew 12:9-15; Luke 13:10-17; 14:1-6) was a direct challenge to the Jews. The Sabbath, intended for man’s benefit and enjoyment, had been so hedged about with petty restrictions, many enforceable by death, that man was shackled in legalistic bondage. But the question of the Sabbath could not be solved without going back to the more fundamental point—the origin and authority of Jesus himself.
The healed cripple is the first object of their attack. To carry his bed on the Sabbath was against the Law (Jeremiah 17:21). He has the feeling that the man who gave him healing has also authority in other matters, and defends himself by referring to Jesus’ command. Naturally enough they wish to know who it is who gives such illegal orders. But Jesus had not been ready to reveal himself and had slipped away, so that, like countless others, the man was ignorant that Christ was the source of the blessing which had come to him.
Jesus does not wish to leave him in ignorance, and after finding him gives him a solemn warning. The spiritual lesson must reinforce the physical healing. There is a far worse fate for persistent sinners than even the pathetic condition of paralysis. What the man made of this we do not know, but he dutifully gave the authorities the information for which they had asked. This attitude to the Sabbath became a main cause of the persistent hostility of the Jews towards Jesus. Yet he takes the matter further—God his Father does not stop working on the Sabbath, nor does he. Such apparent blasphemy turns Jewish hostility into a desire to kill him.
Notes 5:14: this does not imply that the man’s illness was directly the result of his own sin (cf. 9:3). It does mean that spiritual warnings are to be taken from physical evils (cf. Luke 13:1-5). Too easily we fail to see and heed them. 5:17: God’s Sabbath rest (Genesis 2:2) did not mean that the Creator of the world was inactive. He was seeking to give life on the Sabbath; they were seeking to kill. There was no doubt which was God’s work (cf. Mark 3:1-6).