The Gospel of John - Outline Part 11 - Swimming with the Current

TITLE

John 5:1-18 – Swimming with the Current

EXPLANATION

Jesus returned to Jerusalem again.  At the pool of Bethesda, He observed a man who had been an invalid for 38 years.  Taking the opportunity to perform another miracle, Jesus healed the man and instructed him to take up his bed and walk.  Soon after, the formerly handicapped man was accosted by the religious leaders, who accused him of violating Sabbath law by carrying his bed.  It should be noted that this was not truly Sabbath law.  It was a Pharisaical oral tradition, which had been given a weight of authority equal to the Law of Moses.  These traditions were the basis for the religious ritualism which was plaguing Jewish society in the 1^st century.

The man who had been healed attempted to deflect blame for his infraction onto Jesus by pointing out that He was the One who had told him to pick up his bed.  However, at this point he did not know Jesus’s name, and so the trail for the Pharisees went cold.

Later, Jesus met the man again, this time in the temple.  Knowing that the man had caved to pressure from the Pharisees, Jesus admonished him to stop sinning, lest he face punishment worse than his former crippled state.  Unfortunately, this man seemed to be more afraid of the Pharisees than of Jesus.  He immediately went and gave the leaders Jesus’s name.  With this vital piece of information, they in turn confronted Jesus over His work of healing on the Sabbath.  Jesus calmly responded that His Father, by implication God, was always working regardless of the day.  Therefore, Jesus Himself was always working as well.  This caused the Pharisees to pursue Him with death on their minds all the more fiercely, because they rightly interpreted that He was calling Himself God.

APPLICATION

The invalid man at the pool of Bethesda is an unfortunate example of giving in to peer pressure.  As soon as he was confronted by the Jews, he began to look for a scapegoat to absorb the accusation he was facing.  Then, when he had Jesus’s name to give them, he ignored the warning he had been given and seems to have happily handed the name over to the Pharisees.  This in turn seriously hampered Jesus’s ministry because of the increase in opposition from the Jews.

As Christians, we are guaranteed to face heavy opposition from the world, which is dominated at this time by the power of Satan.  If we give in to this pressure and stay silent about the gospel or if we sacrifice our testimony and defame the reputation of Christ by acting like the world, then we are guilty of the same crime as this Jewish man from 2,000 years ago.  Does it even need to be said to avoid such behavior?