Jesus is going around and doing good. He heals the man at the pool of Bethesda and the religious people of the day respond in John 5:10 “It is the Sabbath, and it is not permitted for you to pick up the mat!”. Jesus and his disciples are followed by a great crowd and the people don’t have any food. His disciples respond that they don’t have the money, then notice one boy that has a little food. By our natural way of thinking, there are needs all around us and we better get our piece before it is all gone! But Jesus has a different message, in John 5:17 “My Father is working until now, and I am working” and in John 5:40 “come to me so that you may have life”. With God, there is healing. With God, there is provision. With God, there is a future and hope if we will seek him, and come to him.
My Father is Working and I Am Working
John 5:14–18
When Jesus healed the man at the pool of Bethesda, the man didn’t ask who he was, he was just happy to have been healed. But the religious Jews complained at him saying you cannot pick up your mat on the Sabbath in
John 5:10 So the Jews were saying to the one who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not permitted for you to pick up the mat!”
Doing work on the Sabbath was against the law and “In ordinary circumstances, the rulers had the law on their side (Ne 13:15; Je 17:21)”.1
But Jesus had not told him to do work, he had told him to take his belongings, his mat, and leave the pool. Jesus told him to go and live his life and when Jesus saw him later at the temple he instructed him further in
John 5:14 After these things Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “Look, you have become well! Sin no longer, lest something worse happen to you.”
This man’s sickness had been the direct result of sin in his life and Jesus warned him not to go back to the way he had lived before.
Then here come the religious Jews again “to persecute Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath” in John 5:16. Jesus responds, with the truth they don’t understand, it is always right for everyone to do good, to heal, to help even on the Sabbath. Jesus says it this way in
John 5:17 But he answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”
In this response, “Jesus said: ‘Even on the Sabbath God’s love and mercy and compassion act; and so do mine.’ It was this last passage which shattered the Jews, for it meant nothing less than that the work of Jesus and the work of God were the same”.2
What He Sees the Father Doing
John 5:19–30
There is Another Who Testifies About Me
Come To Me So That You May Have Life
John 5:39–47
Jesus faces people that claim to have the truth, they claim to know God and have God’s blessing. He says of them in
John 5:39 You search the scriptures because you think that you have eternal life in them, and it is these that testify about me.
What they don’t understand is that the letter, the law alone, kills. Paul said it this way in
2 Corinthians 3:6 who also makes us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit, for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
Knowledge alone isn’t enough, and it says in
Proverbs 26:12 Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.
Jesus has now come, with the anointing of the Holy Spirit to demonstrate God’s love, God’s will, which is forgiveness for those that come to him. These people though, are self-satisfied, standing on their “own name” in John 5:43 and Jesus says of them in
John 5:40 And you are not willing to come to me so that you may have life.
They Were Observing the Signs That He Was Doing
After He Had Given Thanks, He Distributed It
John 6:8–15
Jesus faced the persecution of the religious Jews while in Jerusalem but as he traveled through Galilee, crowds of people followed him. As Jesus saw the crowd, he talked with his disciples about food for the people and they responded as we might, as Philip said, we don’t have enough money to feed them in
John 6:7 Philip replied to him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for them, in order that each one could receive a little.”
But it wasn’t just that they didn’t have enough money, even if they had the money, where would they be able to buy food? There wasn’t a corner supermarket where they could find the provisions even if they wanted them. Then, one of the disciples offers a suggestion in
John 6:8–9 One of his disciples, Andrew the brother of Simon Peter, said to him, 9 “Here is a boy who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these for so many people?”
Imagine if you made this suggestion today, someone would immediately dismiss this thought because this is the boys’ lunch and what right do we have to take it? How could you think to rob the little bit he has? And even if we did, it isn’t enough. But this is worldly natural thinking that says I need to protect what is mine. Jesus simply says to them “Make the people recline” in John 6:10 and then in
John 6:11 Then Jesus took the bread, and after he had given thanks, he distributed it to those who were reclining—likewise also of the fish, as much as they wanted.
This is the way faith works. God takes what we have and as we give it, he multiplies it. With God, there is always enough, and in the end, there was more left over.
It is I! Do not be Afraid!
John 6:16–21
Study Verses
- John 5:14–18 My Father is Working and I Am Working
- John 5:39–47 Come To Me So That You May Have Life
- John 6:8–15 After He Had Given Thanks, He Distributed It
Today’s Reading
- John 5:14-47
- John 6:1-21
References
- 1. Jamieson, R., Fausset, A. R., & Brown, D. (1997). Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (Vol. 2, pp. 135–136). Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.
- 2. Barclay, W. (2001). The Gospel of John (Rev. and updated., Vol. 1, p. 213). Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press.
