INTRODUCTION
• Have you ever been criticized for doing something good, something that helped another person?
• Maybe what you did for someone else was life-changing, yet there was someone or a group of someones who just had to put their two cents in.
• If you have ever faced criticism for doing something good, today’s event will hit home with you.
• Today we will dig into another time when Jesus faced criticism.
• The song “Jesus Christ” by the secular band Brand New has some hauntingly insightful lyrics that resonate with the criticism Jesus faced in the passage for today.
• The songwriter describes the second coming of Jesus and expresses his fear that he’s too much of a deceiver and sinner to follow Jesus: “But I’m scared I’ll get scared, and I swear I’ll try to nail you back up.”
• Later, he says, “We’ve all got wood and nails” (Jesse Lacey, 2006).
• It isn’t a song about hating Jesus but rather about how our go-to instinct is to react to Jesus or others in a hostile, fearful way.
• In the story we’re looking at today, Jesus does something good, but the reaction to this good miracle is hostility.
• As we examine the event today, we will look at some things behind the scenes when folks decide to go down the path of negativity.
• In the text, we will notice that once again. Jesus puts Himself in a position where He knows He will be at odds with the religious leaders.
• Today, we will be in John 5:1-18; let’s turn to the passage.
John 5:1–8 (NET 2nd ed.)
1 After this there was a Jewish feast, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool called Bethzatha in Aramaic, which has five covered walkways.
3 A great number of sick, blind, lame, and paralyzed people were lying in these walkways.
5 Now a man was there who had been disabled for thirty-eight years.
6 When Jesus saw him lying there and when he realized that the man had been disabled a long time already, he said to him, “Do you want to become well?”
7 The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up. While I am trying to get into the water, someone else goes down there before me.”
8 Jesus said to him, “Stand up! Pick up your mat and walk.”
SERMON
I. The backdrop.
• On the Sabbath, Jesus goes to Jerusalem for a festival and sees this man on the way that catches His attention.
• For thirty-eight years, a man has been unable to walk.
• This man is carried to the pool of Bethesda, where he lies every day, for years on end, hoping to be lowered into the water and healed at the moment when it seems like an angel is present (5:7).
• We already talked about this passage in March concerning the angel and the stirring of the waters and how whatever happened, people felt like healing took place when the waters moved.
• Here is a man for 38 years had been lame.
• There were no government or special programs to help a person in this situation.
• The only perceived hope this man had was that somehow, somehow, he would be the first in the water when they moved.
• We also see from the text that this man was not the only person holding on to the hope of being the first in the water.
• Verse three tells us that several people were sick, blind, lame, and paralyzed, lying in the hallways hoping to be the one who was healed.
• As verse ten will reveal, it happened to be the Sabbath when Jesus entered the area.
• Of all the people who were around the pool and in the hallways, I wonder why of all the people, Jesus chose this person to engage.
• Have you ever been in a place where you saw a great number of people who were sick and dying?
• Or have you seen the commercials for organizations like Compassion International?
• Child after child who is living without much hope, does it move you?
• In the backdrop of this scene, we will learn that not only are there people who need healing, but there are healthy people, and the religious leaders are also present.
• I wonder if any healthy people and religious leaders were moved by the scene, or were they so used to the scene that it no longer moved them?
• As Jesus walked among those in need, He noticed this particular person.
• I do not know why He took note of this one person, but Jesus does.
• We could speculate, but that is not important right now.
• Why didn’t Jesus heal EVERYONE in the area?
• Here we are; Jesus is among many people who needed and desired physical healing.
• It is the Sabbath, and Jesus is aware of this fact.
• Jesus looks at the man and asks...
John 5:6 (NET 2nd ed.)
6 When Jesus saw him lying there, and when he realized that the man had been disabled a long time already, he said to him, “Do you want to become well?”
• The man responds.
John 5:7 (NET 2nd ed.)
7 The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up. While I am trying to get into the water, someone else goes down there before me.”
• The man does not say ABSOLUTELY!
• He replies that he cannot get into the water before someone else does.
• Jesus tells the man to stand up, pick up his mat and walk!
• WOW!
• We will dig more into this in a minute.
• But think of this.
• Jesus could have avoided the controversy He will run into by telling the man that it is the Sabbath, I will come to see you tomorrow.
• Jesus could have told him, ok; you are healed; can you sit here until the Sabbath is over?
• Or, since the Jews were allowed to walk, I think it was 7/8’s of a mile; Jesus could have said, walk around your mat to protect it, then pick it up, so we do not upset the religious leaders.
• One thing we need to understand about negative criticism is that there is always a backdrop; there is some history that brings people to that point.
• Let’s look at verses 9-16.
John 5:9–16 (NET 2nd ed.)
9 Immediately, the man was healed, and he picked up his mat and started walking. (Now that day was a Sabbath.)
10 So the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and you are not permitted to carry your mat.”
11 But he answered them, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”
12 They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Pick up your mat and walk’?”
13 But the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped out, since there was a crowd in that place.
14 After this Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “Look, you have become well. Don’t sin any more, lest anything worse happen to you.”
15 The man went away and informed the Jewish leaders that Jesus was the one who had made him well.
16 Now because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began persecuting him.
II. The criticism.
• What would you do, and how would you feel if you knew a person could not walk and has not been able to walk for 38 years, all of the sudden standing on their two feet, walking and carrying the bed they were restricted to live on?
• Before we are too harsh on the religious leaders, they see a person carrying his mat.
• Tradition considers that working, and according to tradition, you are not to work on the Sabbath.
• The Jews had been observing the Sabbath for centuries.
• The cultural expectation was that you did not work on the Sabbath.
• The man responds to their question by telling the leaders that the man who made him well told him to pick up his mat and walk.
• What would you think the proper response should have been?
• Wow, what happened? What were you healed from?
• Maybe the leaders did not know the man could not walk for 38 years before this moment.
• This man told the leaders a man made him well, so why didn’t they ask?
• These men were so focused on their traditions they missed something great.
• This man had been healed, but they missed the miracle because the leaders' focus was in the wrong place.
• How many times do we miss the joy because our focus is in the wrong place?
• How often do we miss the real story because we are not looking for it?
• This should have been a joyous time, but they missed it because the leaders were not looking at anything other than their tradition.
• The real story was not that this man was breaking the leader's interpretation of the Sabbath; the real story was that this man COULD carry his mat and walk!
• The leaders continue grilling the man, not knowing who healed him and how, but who told you to carry your mat and walk?
• Sometimes, we miss the real story because we are still holding on to the old story.
• When a marriage is in trouble, the husband or wife can become like Jesus because of the changes they made, but the other spouse wants to hold onto the old story of how it was.
• It one can keep the old tradition going.
• That person will not have to change.
• Jesus later appears to the man at the Temple and tells him to sin no more lest he ends up in worse shape than before.
• The healed man tells the leaders it was Jesus who healed him.
• Look at verse 16.
John 5:16 (NET 2nd ed.)
16 Now because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began persecuting him.
• The leaders began to persecute Jesus for doing a good thing but not the way they wanted it done.
• It will get worse for Jesus.
• Let’s look at verses 17-18.
John 5:17–18 (NET 2nd ed.)
17 So he told them, “My Father is working until now, and I too am working.”
18 For this reason the Jewish leaders were trying even harder to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was also calling God his own Father, thus making himself equal with God.
III. The answer.
• Jesus answers the religious leaders.
• Jesus could have avoided all this by not engaging the leaders or telling them He was sorry for upsetting them.
• Why didn’t Jesus look to avoid the conflict?
• It was because He had a message for them.
• The criticism of Jesus starts in verse 17 and is then explained in verse 18.
• Jesus is criticized for two things, but one of them matters more than the other (v. 18), and that’s the one we are focusing on today.
• When asked to explain why he is “working” (healing) on the Sabbath, Jesus responds in verse 17, “But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”
• At first glance, it may seem the people are upset because Jesus did something on the Sabbath—which is part of it, as we see from other passages in the Gospels.
• But verse 18 makes the central objection clearer: “This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because … he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.”
• The criticism is that Jesus is claiming to be equal to God—and that he shouldn’t be doing that!
• When you encounter opposition from someone that “Jesus never claimed to be God,” point this passage out to them.
• That is the root of the criticism: that Jesus is claiming divinity.
• As with the passage last week, it is helpful to pause and consider the critics’ point of view.
• Why might they be upset if Jesus was claiming divinity?
• The reason is that the Jews were (and still are) strict monotheists (one God, not many), as are Christians.
• This means we believe that there is only one God.
• The Jewish creedal statement is Deuteronomy 6:4: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.”
• The Jews did not believe in a multitude of gods, which, in the polytheistic Greco-Roman world, set them apart.
• And then comes a Jewish man who is educated in the Jewish sacred writings and claiming to be God.
• This is insulting to their faith and, they feel, to their God.
• From their perspective, Jesus’s claim to be divine is blasphemous to their faith and insulting to the God they serve.
• It would be like if you turned on a movie or watched a TV show where the focus was to make fun of Christians and what they believe or to take the name of God in vain.
• You would be upset, and so were they.
• Jesus is the Son of God; He knew and named it and claimed it.
• Jesus had the courage to answer.
CONCLUSION
• Jesus did not shy away from this claim.
• His response to why he was “working” on the Sabbath was to claim equality with God the Father.
• This criticism of Jesus tells us that Jesus understood who He was and His mission.
• The church did not make up the idea that he was God in the flesh; Jesus proclaimed such things to explain why he was doing the things he was doing.
• He cares about and for us and does whatever he can to take care of us. Even if it means entering creation, taking on flesh, and dying for our sins.
› Application Point: We must discover and proclaim who Jesus said he was and is—whether the implications challenge or comfort us.
