1 After these things, there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2 Now in Jerusalem by the sheep gate, there is a pool, which is called in Hebrew, “Bethesda”, having five porches. 3 In these lay a great multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, or paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water; 4 for an angel went down at certain times into the pool, and stirred up the water. Whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was healed of whatever disease he had. 5 A certain man was there, who had been sick for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had been sick for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to be made well?”

7 The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I’m coming, another steps down before me.”

8 Jesus said to him, “Arise, take up your mat, and walk.”

9 Immediately, the man was made well, and took up his mat and walked.

Now it was the Sabbath on that day. 10 So the Jews said to him who was cured, “It is the Sabbath. It is not lawful for you to carry the mat.”

11 He answered them, “He who made me well, the same said to me, ‘Take up your mat, and walk.’”

12 Then they asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your mat, and walk’?”

13 But he who was healed didn’t know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, a crowd being in the place.

14 Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, “Behold, you are made well. Sin no more, so that nothing worse happens to you.”

15 The man went away, and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. 16 For this cause the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill him, because he did these things on the Sabbath.

John 5:1-16 - World English Bible

John's gospel picked up on theme from Mark's: a Sabbath controversy.

In John 5, Jesus entered a public pool compound called "Bethesda" (from Hebrew and Aramaic, "beth hedsa" meaning "house of mercy"); in the 19th century, a compound fitting the description in found in 5:2 (pool building with five porticoes, near to the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem). The purpose of the pool was unclear to scholars; was it a spa with claimed healing properties or was it pool within the city water system that the sick took over for their own?

In either case, the Lord healed a man on the Sabbath with the command, "Pick up your mat and walk" (5:8) Of course, this was an order to do work, antithetical to the spirit of the day as a time of rest. While scholars debated whether the words of Jesus actually broke either a edict in the Law or a judgment derived from the Law, they clearly saw Jesus connected an "unnecessary" task with the Sabbath as a means to heal (5:11). Later, when the Lord encountered the man in the Temple, his remark implicitly undercut the leaders' objection to the cure; if the Sabbath was the day of YHWH, then it was THE day of divine revelation through divine activity. His remark also implied the true nature of the Sabbath; the way to fulfill the day of rest (indeed, the entire Law) was repentance ("Sin no more..), otherwise all is for naught ("...so that nothing worse happens to you.").

The moral of the passage is clear: Jesus heals us so we can live a life of repentance. In this way, we honor God's day and his Law.

How has God healed you? How has that event changed your life?