John 5:14-18

¹⁴Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, "See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you." ¹⁵The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. ¹⁶So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted Him. ¹⁷Jesus said to them, "My Father is always at His work to this very day, and I, too, am working." ¹⁸For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill Him; not only was He breaking the Sabbath, but He was even calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.

Jesus re-introduces Himself to the man and tells him to stop sinning. Although he had been delivered from a physical sickness, the man was still under the weight of a far greater calamity – eternal judgment. Faith in Jesus as a mere provider of physical benefits, without the spiritual knowledge of Him as God and Messiah, was not a saving faith. We’ve seen that over and over in John’s Gospel. So Jesus sought him out, found him at the Temple (suggesting that the man was realizing the magnitude of what had occurred and rightly wanted to worship God), and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” Commentators are divided on this statement. Some suggest that Jesus is claiming that the reason for this man’s paralysis was that he had sinned in some way. Others disagree, claiming that we are to infer from Jesus’ statement that the man is now being made spiritually well. “You are well AGAIN.” He was healed twice, both physically and spiritually, both at the words of the Healer. Evidence that this man has truly come to know who Jesus is and loves Him with all his heart, evidence of a changed heart, of a converted life, of a regenerate soul, the evidence of that will be that he will not go on sinning anymore. Not that he will be sinless, but that he will sin less; his desire will be to be free from slavery to sin.

The man responds by telling the Jews that the Healer was Jesus. The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. Again, we get an illustration of the proper course of action when receiving Christ as Savior. The man sought out the Pharisees to make right on his earlier statement. He had said that he didn’t know who healed him. Now he knows, and he wants them to know. He wants to honor Christ for what He has done, as should we. Soli Deo Gloria – To God be the Glory.

The Jews persecute Jesus for healing on the Sabbath; He responds declaring His Father’s will, making Himself equal with God, and draws assassination attempts. Picture the Jews saying harshly to Jesus, “Who do You think You are? You’re coming from the less-respected north region down here to the well-respected southern territory, to Jerusalem. You’re upsetting the traditions – specifically Sabbath observation – that have kept this city together for decades and centuries.” That’s persecution. But with Jesus’ response, He’ll draw death threats. He replies, “My Father is always working, and I am working too.” Jesus is claiming that the One who created the world, the One who gave the Sabbath Day, the One who sustains us and blesses life – even on the Sabbath day – is His Father. And as the unique Son of the Father, by healing the disabled man on the Sabbath, He was imitating the work of His Father. He had not broken the law (John says, “…not only was He breaking the Sabbath…” because that was the opinion of His accusers); rather He was claiming to have upheld it. And the Jews understood what He was saying. “He was making Himself equal with God.” So they stepped up their persecution, trying to put Him to death.

The conflict between Jesus and the Pharisees over the nature of the Sabbath came into even sharper focus when Jesus explained why He should be healing on the Sabbath. It was because God the Father was constantly at work to accomplish the plan of redemption and usher in the final Sabbath; and so Jesus, as the true Son of the Father, was also constantly at work for the same purpose. By asserting this much, Jesus is claiming that He and God the Father are equally involved in the constant government of the world, and the unfolding of redemptive history – which, as the Pharisees quickly recognized, is a claim to equality with God. Because Jesus had “broken the Sabbath” (although He had actually fulfilled its essential principle) and had made a blasphemous claim to equality with God (according to the Pharisees’ perception that He was a mere man), He deserved to be condemned. The Pharisees saw His miracles, but they did not exhibit saving faith; therefore, their dissension escalated continually throughout Jesus’ ministry.