John 5

Joh 5:1-47.

THE

IMPOTENT

MAN

HEALED--DISCOURSE

OCCASIONED BY THE

PERSECUTION

ARISING

THEREUPON.

1. a feast of the Jews--What feast? No question has more divided

the Harmonists of the Gospels, and the duration of our Lord's ministry

may be said to hinge on it. For if, as the majority have thought (until

of late years) it was a Passover, His ministry lasted three and a

half years; if not, probably a year less. Those who are dissatisfied

with the Passover-view all differ among themselves what other feast it

was, and some of the most acute think there are no grounds for deciding.

In our judgment the evidence is in favor of its being a Passover,

but the reasons cannot be stated here.

2, 3. sheep market--The supplement should be (as in Margin)

"sheep [gate]," mentioned in

Ne 3:1, 32.

Bethesda--that is, "house (place) of mercy," from the cures wrought

there.

five porches--for shelter to the patients.

3. impotent--infirm.

4. an angel, &c.--This miracle differed in two points from all

other miracles recorded in Scripture: (1) It was not one, but a

succession of miracles periodically wrought: (2) As it was only wrought

"when the waters were troubled," so only upon one patient at a time, and

that the patient "who first stepped in after the troubling of the

waters." But this only the more undeniably fixed its miraculous

character. We have heard of many waters having a medicinal virtue; but

what water was ever known to cure instantaneously a single disease?

And who ever heard of any water curing all, even the most diverse

diseases--"blind, halt, withered"--alike? Above all, who ever heard of

such a thing being done "only at a certain season," and most singularly

of all, doing it only to the first person who stepped in after the

moving of the waters? Any of these peculiarities--much more all taken

together--must have proclaimed the supernatural character of the cures

wrought. (If the text here be genuine, there can be no doubt of the

miracle, as there were multitudes living when this Gospel was published

who, from their own knowledge of Jerusalem, could have exposed the

falsehood of the Evangelist, if no such cure had been known there. The

want of

Joh 5:4

and part of

Joh 5:3

in some good manuscripts, and the use of some unusual words in the

passage, are more easily accounted for than the evidence in their favor

if they were not originally in the text. Indeed

Joh 5:7

is unintelligible without

Joh 5:4.

The internal evidence brought against it is merely the

unlikelihood of such a miracle--a principle which will carry us

a great deal farther if we allow it to weigh against positive

evidence).

5-9. thirty and eight years--but not all that time at the pool. This

was probably the most pitiable of all the cases, and

therefore selected.

6. saw him lie, and knew, &c.--As He doubtless visited the spot just

to perform this cure, so He knows where to find His patient, and the

whole previous history of his case

(Joh 2:25).

Wilt thou be made whole?--Could anyone doubt that a sick man would

like to be made whole, or that the patients came thither, and this man

had returned again and again, just in hope of a cure? But our Lord asked

the question. (1) To fasten attention upon Himself; (2) By making him

detail his case to deepen in him the feeling of entire helplessness; (3)

cure. (Compare

Mr 10:51).

7. Sir, I have no man, &c.--Instead of saying he wished to be

cured, he just tells with piteous simplicity how fruitless had been all

his efforts to obtain it, and how helpless and all but hopeless

he was. Yet not quite. For here he is at the pool, waiting on. It seemed

of no use; nay, only tantalizing,

while I am coming, another steppeth down before me--the fruit was

snatched from his lips. Yet he will not go away. He may get nothing by

staying, he may drop into his grave ere he get into the pool; but by

going from the appointed, divine way of healing, he can get nothing.

Wait therefore he will, wait he does, and when Christ comes to heal him,

lo! he is waiting his turn. What an attitude for a sinner at Mercy's

gate! The man's hopes seemed low enough ere Christ came to him. He

might have said, just before "Jesus passed by that way," "This is no

use; I shall never get in; let me die at home." Then all had been lost.

But he held on, and his perseverance was rewarded with a glorious

cure. Probably some rays of hope darted into his heart as he told his

tale before those Eyes whose glance measured his whole case. But the

word of command consummates his preparation to receive the cure, and

instantaneously works it.

8. Rise, take up thy bed, &c.--"Immediately" he did so. "He spake

and it was done." The slinging of his portable couch over his

shoulders was designed to show the perfection of the cure.

9. the same day was the sabbath--Beyond all doubt this was intentional,

as in so many other healings, in order that when opposition arose on

this account men might be compelled to listen to His claims and His

teaching.

10-16. The Jews--that is, those in authority. (See on

Joh 1:19.)

it is not lawful to carry thy bed--a glorious testimony to the cure,

as instantaneous and complete, from the lips of the most

prejudiced! (And what a contrast does it, as all our Lord's miracles,

present to the bungling miracles of the Church of Rome!) In ordinary circumstances, the rulers had the law on their side

(Ne 13:15;

Jer 17:21).

But when the man referred them to "Him that had made him whole"

(Joh 5:11)

as his authority, the argument was resistless. Yet they ingeniously

parried the thrust, asking him, not who had "made him whole"--that

would have condemned themselves and defeated their purpose--but who had

bidden him "take up his bed and walk," in other words, who had dared to

order a breach of the sabbath? It is time we were looking after

Him--thus hoping to shake the man's faith in his Healer.

13. he that was healed wist not, &c.--That some one, with unparalleled

generosity, tenderness and power, had done it, the man knew well enough:

but as he had never heard of Him before, so he disappeared too quickly

for any inquiries.

conveyed himself away--slipped out of the crowd that had gathered,

to avoid both hasty popularity and precipitate hatred

(Mt 12:14-19).

14. findeth him in the temple--saying, perhaps, "I will go into Thy

house with burnt offerings, I will pay my vows which my lips have

uttered and my mouth hath spoken when I was in trouble"

(Ps 66:13, 14).

Jesus, there Himself for His own ends, "findeth him there"--not all

accidentally, be assured.

sin no more, &c.--a glimpse this of the reckless life he had probably

led before his thirty-eight years' infirmity had come upon him, and

which not improbably had brought on, in the just judgment of God, his

chronic complaint. Fearful illustration this of "the severity of God,"

but glorious manifestation of our Lord's insight into "what was in man."

15. The man departed, and told, &c.--little thinking how unwelcome

his grateful and eager testimony would be. "The darkness received not

the light which was pouring its rays upon it"

(Joh 1:5, 11)

[OLSHAUSEN].

16. because he had done these things on the sabbath day--What to these

hypocritical religionists was the doing of the most glorious and

beneficent miracles, compared with the atrocity of doing them on the

sabbath day! Having given them this handle, on purpose to raise the

first public controversy with them, and thus open a fitting opportunity

of laying His claims before them, He rises at once to the whole height

of them, in a statement which for grandeur and terseness exceeds almost

anything that ever afterwards fell from Him, at least to His enemies.

17, 18. My Father worketh hitherto and I work--The "I" is emphatic;

"The creative and conservative activity of My Father has known no

sabbath-cessation from the beginning until now,

and that is the law of My working."

18. God was his Father--literally, "His own [or peculiar]

Father," (as in

Ro 8:32).

The addition is their own, but a very proper one.

making himself equal with God--rightly gathering this to be His

meaning, not from the mere words "My Father," but from His claim of

right to act as His Father did in the like high sphere, and by the same

law of ceaseless activity in that sphere. And as, instead of instantly

disclaiming any such meaning--as He must have done if it was false--He

positively sets His seal to it in the following verses, merely

explaining how consistent such claim was with the prerogatives of His

Father, it is beyond all doubt that we have here an assumption of

peculiar personal Sonship, or participation in the Father's

essential nature.

19, 20. the Son can do nothing of himself--that is, apart from

and in rivalry of the Father, as they supposed. The meaning is, "The

Son can have no separate interest or action from the Father."

for what things, &c.--On the contrary, "whatever the Father doeth

that same doeth the Son,"

likewise--"in the like manner." What claim to absolute equality with

the Father could exceed this: not only to do "the same things," but to

do them as the Father does them?

20. Father loveth . . . and showeth him all, &c.--As

love has no concealments, so it results from the perfect fellowship and

mutual endearment of the Father and the Son (see on

Joh 1:1;

Joh 1:18),

whose interests are one, even as their nature, that the Father

communicates to the Son all His counsels, and what has been thus shown

to the Son is by Him executed in His mediatorial character. "With the

Father, doing is willing; it is only the Son who acts

in Time" [ALFORD]. Three things here are

clear: (1) The personal distinctions in the Godhead. (2) Unity

of action among the Persons results from unity of nature.

(3) Their oneness of interest is no unconscious or involuntary thing,

but a thing of glorious consciousness, will, and love, of

which the Persons themselves are the proper Objects.

show him greater things, &c.--referring to what He goes on to mention

(Joh 5:21-31),

comprised in two great words,

LIFE and

JUDGMENT, which

STIER

beautifully calls God's Regalia. Yet these, Christ says, the

Father and He do in common.

21-23. raiseth the dead and quickeneth them--one act in two stages.

This is His absolute prerogative as God.

so the Son quickeneth them--that is, raiseth up and quickeneth.

whom he will--not only doing the same divine act, but doing it

as the result of His own will, even as the Father does it. This

statement is of immense importance in relation to the miracles of

Christ, distinguishing them from similar miracles of prophets and

apostles, who as human instruments were employed to perform

super-natural actions, while Christ did all as the Father's

commissioned Servant indeed, but

in the exercise of His own absolute right of action.

22. For the Father judgeth no man, &c.--rather, "For neither doth the

Father judge any man," implying that the same "thing was meant in the

former verse of the quickening of the dead"--both acts being done, not

through the Son as His voluntary Agent.

all judgment--judgment in its most comprehensive sense, or as we should

say, all administration.

23. honour the Son as . . . the Father--As he who believes that Christ

in the foregoing verses has given a true account of His relation to the

Father must of necessity hold Him entitled to the same honor as the

Father, so He here adds that it was the Father's express intention in

making over all judgment to the Son, that men should thus honor Him.

honoureth not the Father--does not do it in fact, whatever he may

imagine, and will be held as not doing it by the Father Himself, who

will accept no homage which is not accorded to His own Son.

24. believeth on him that sent me--that is, believeth in Him as

having sent Me. I have spoken of the Son's right not only to heal the

sick but to raise from the dead, and quicken whom He will: And now I

say unto you, That life-giving operation has already passed upon all

who receive My words as the Sent of the Father on the great errand

of mercy.

hath everlasting life--immediately on his believing (compare

Joh 3:18;

1Jo 5:12, 13).

is passed--"hath passed over"

from death unto life--What a transition!

(Compare

1Jo 3:14).

25-29. The hour cometh--in its whole fulness, at Pentecost.

and now is--in its beginnings.

the dead--the spiritually dead, as is clear from

Joh 5:28.

Here He rises from the calmer phrase "hearing his word"

(Joh 5:24),

to the grander expression, "hearing the voice of the Son of

God," to signify that as it finds men in a dead condition,

so it carries with it a resurrection-power.

shall live--in the sense of

Joh 5:24.

26. given to the Son, &c.--Does this refer to the essential life of

the Son before all time

(Joh 1:4)

(as most of the Fathers, and OLSHAUSEN,

STIER,

ALFORD, &c., among the moderns), or to the purpose of

God that this essential life should reside in the Person of the

Incarnate Son, and be manifested thus to the world?

[CALVIN,

LUCKE,

LUTHARDT, &c.] The question is as difficult as the

subject is high. But as all that Christ says of His essential relation

to the Father is intended to explain and exalt His mediatorial

functions, so the one seems in our Lord's own mind and language mainly

the starting-point of the other.

27. because he is the Son of man--This seems to confirm the last

remark, that what Christ had properly in view was the indwelling of the

Son's essential life in humanity as the great theater and

medium of divine display, in both the great departments of His

work--life-giving and judgment. The appointment of a Judge in our

own nature is one of the most beautiful arrangements of divine

wisdom in redemption.

28. Marvel not at this--this committal of all judgment to

the Son of man.

for the hour is coming--He adds not in this case (as in

Joh 5:25),

"and now is," because this was not to be till the close of the whole

dispensation of mercy.

29. resurrection of life--that is, to life everlasting

(Mt 25:46).

of damnation--It would have been harsh to say "the resurrection

of death," though that is meant, for sinners rise from death to

death [BENGEL]. The resurrection of both

classes is an exercise of sovereign authority; but in the one

case it is an act of grace, in the other of justice.

(Compare

Da 12:2,

from which the language is taken). How awfully grand are these

unfoldings of His dignity and authority from the mouth of Christ

Himself! And they are all in the third person; in what follows

He resumes the first person.

30-32. of mine own self do nothing--that is, apart from the

Father, or in any interest than My own. (See on

Joh 5:19).

as I hear--that is, "My judgments are all anticipated in the bosom

of My Father, to which I have immediate access, and by Me only

responded to and reflected. They cannot therefore err, as I live

for one end only, to carry into effect the will of Him that sent Me."

31. If I . . . witness of myself--standing alone, and setting up any

separate interest.

32. There is another--that is, the Father, as is plain from the

connection. How brightly the distinction of the Persons shines out

here!

and I know that the witness, &c.--"This is the Son's testimony to

the Father's truth (see

Joh 7:28; 8:26, 55).

It testifies to the full consciousness on the part of the Son, even in

the days of His humiliation, of the righteousness of the Father"

[ALFORD]. And thus He cheered His spirit under the

cloud of human opposition which was already gathering over His

head.

33-35. Ye sent unto John--(See

Joh 1:19,

&c.).

receive not testimony . . . from man--that is, depend not on human

testimony.

but . . . that ye might be saved--"I refer to him merely to aid your

salvation."

35. He was a burning and a shining light--literally, "the

burning and shining lamp" (or torch):--that is, "the great light of his

day." Christ is never called by the humble word here applied to John--a

light-bearer--studiously used to distinguish him from his

Master, but ever the Light in the most absolute sense. (See on

Joh 1:6).

willing for a season--that is, till they saw that it pointed whither

they were not prepared to go.

to rejoice in his light--There is a play of irony here, referring to

the hollow delight with which his testimony tickled them.

36-38. I have greater witness--rather, "The witness which I have is

greater."

the works . . . bear witness of me--not simply as miracles nor even

as a miracle of mercy, but these miracles, as He did them, with

a will and a power, a majesty and a grace manifestly

His own.

37. the Father himself . . . hath borne witness of me--not referring,

probably, to the voice of His baptism, but (as seems from what follows)

to the testimony of the Old Testament Scripture [CALVIN,

LUCKE,

MEYER,

LUTHARDT, &c.].

neither heard his voice, &c.--never recognized Him in this character.

The words are "designedly mysterious, like many others which our Lord

uttered" [STIER].

38. not his word abiding in you--passing now from the

Witness to the testimony borne by Him in "the lively

oracles"

(Ac 7:38):

both were alike strangers to their breasts, as was evidenced by their

rejecting Him to whom all that witness was borne.

39-42. Search the scriptures, &c.--"In the Scriptures ye find your

charter of eternal life; go search them then, and you will find that I

am the Great Burden of their testimony; yet ye will not come to Me for

that life eternal which you profess to find there, and of which they

tell you I am the appointed Dispenser." (Compare

Ac 17:11, 12).

How touching and gracious are these last words! Observe here (1) The

honor which Christ gives to the Scriptures, as a record which all

have a right and are bound to search--the reverse of

which the Church of Rome teaches; (2) The opposite extreme is, resting

in the mere Book without the living Christ, to direct the

soul to whom is its main use and chiefest glory.

41. I receive not honour from men--contrasting His own end with theirs,

which was to obtain human applause.

42. not the love of God in you--which would inspire you with a single

desire to know His mind and will, and yield yourselves to it, in spite

of prejudice and regardless of consequences.

43-47. if another shall come, &c.--How strikingly has this been

verified in the history of the Jews! "From the time of the true Christ

to our time, sixty-four false Christs have been reckoned by whom they

have been deceived" [BENGEL].

44. How can ye believe, &c.--(See on

Joh 5:40,41).

The "will not" of

Joh 5:40,

and "cannot" here are just different features of the same awful

state of the human heart.

45. Do not think I will accuse you to the Father--"My errand hither

is not to collect evidence to condemn you at God's bar."

one that accuseth you, even Moses, &c.--"Alas! that will be

too well done by another, and him the object of all your religious

boastings--Moses," here put for "the Law," the basis of the Old

Testament Scriptures.

46. he wrote of me--"an important testimony to the subject of the

whole Pentateuch--'of Me'" [ALFORD].

47. If ye believe not--(See

Lu 16:31).

his writings . . . my words--a remarkable contrast, not

absolutely exalting Old Testament Scripture above His own words,

but pointing to

the office of those venerable documents to prepare Christ's way, to

the necessity universally felt for documentary testimony in revealed

religion, and perhaps (as STIER adds) to the relation which the

comparative "letter" of the Old Testament holds to the more flowing

"words" of "spirit and life" which characterize the New Testament.