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Jesus Heals A Cripple On The Sabbath (John 5:1-18)

 Apparently, it was believed that an angel would stir the waters. This poor man couldn't get in fast enough. This seems a bit out of the ordinary, to believe that putting yourself in a pool of water could provide healing, but it is not unheard of. In any case, Jesus cuts the red tape, so to speak. It is doubtful that the opponents of Jesus had a real objection to what Jesus had done here on the Sabbath. Instead, they probably are running out of seemingly reasonable explanations for how Jesus is healing people. Also, anyone who says that the rules the people have been living under don't matter so much is going to challenge the authority of those who hold authority based on those rules.

It is prohibited in the law of Moses to do work on the Sabbath. On the other hand, a miracle of healing is not an ordinary work. Also, God would have authority to dispense with the laws as He sees fit. That is why the identity of Jesus is so important. If Jesus is God in the flesh, then he can alter the laws as he sees fit. He can even tell us what the purposes of each law really were.

It's kind of in the background here, but there is another healing of a disabled person elsewhere in the Bible. In Luke 5:17-26, Jesus heals a paralytic, and he connects the healing to the spiritual healing that we all need. In some way, every weakness and misfortune that we experience in our bodies is related to sin. The people in this culture believed that illness, injury, and disability were direct results of their actions. Jesus understands that, which is why he speaks in the way he does here (v. 14). Even so, he will challenge some of those attitudes later, and he may be hinting at something spiritual in these words anyway. The judgment of God would be far worse than anything bad that happens to us here.

It is unique for anyone in this culture to address God as, "my Father." We are used to speaking this way now, because we have grown up in a culture where the way Jesus talks about God is the way we have learned to speak about Him. In any case, the leaders are not wrong to interpret Jesus as saying that he is equal with the Father. That previous passage in Luke makes it more obvious. Anyway, St. John wants us to believe that Jesus is God, and that Jesus understood himself to be God.

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