John 5

Chapter 5: http://www.esvbible.org/John+5/

Jesus travels to a pool called Bethesda. Supposedly, this pool would occasionally be stirred by an angel, and when it was, the first person to climb into the pool would be healed of any ailments, so terminally ill people crowded by this pool. Today, scholars believe that there were hot springs under the pool that caused healing of pain. One man had been sitting there for 38 years, but every time he tried to get into the pool, somebody else beat him to it. When Jesus saw him, He asked the man if he wanted to be healed. The man thinks Jesus is offering to stay with him until the pool is stirred and help him be the first one in. He refuses to believe that there can be any other way that he can be healed. Society has shaped him to believe that something amazing has to happen in order for him to be healed. He doesn't see that Jesus doesn't follow the rules of society. Jesus is limitless. In the same way our imaginations are limited: here is what success is, this is what you must pray for, heaven looks like earthly success. Jesus wants to free our minds to His will and purpose, not that of society. Furthermore, when the Jewish officials discover this man has been healed on the sabbath, they tell him he can't carry his mat on that day. And then they try to find the one who healed him in order to punish him. They can't see that Jesus was there to overturn the Jewish laws as only the Son of God can. Jesus again hints to hell when He later tells the man to stop sinning before something worse happens to him.

In the second part of chapter 5, Jesus tries to make the Jewish officials understand who He is and what He is doing. They grow angrier at Him because He says He is God's son. Jesus tells them not to listen to His own testimony to prove who He is but to listen to the testimony of the Father who has given Him the ability to perform the miracles. He says that the Son can't do anything without the Father and learns from what He's seen the Father do. That is how Jesus has been able to bring life back to people; the Father is the provider of life. At the same time, the Father  gave the Son certain responsibilities and powers like the judging of people. Jesus says that one day the dead will hear His voice and be judged. This is a common theme in the New Testament that Jesus sits as a judge in Heaven, and only allow those who truly believed into the City of God. He accuses the Pharisees of praising each other and looking for such praise but not seeking praise from God.