EXPLANATORY AND CRITICAL NOTES
“Up to the present time our Lord has offered Himself to typical representatives of the whole Jewish race at Jerusalem, in Judæa, in Samaria, and in Galilee, in such a way as to satisfy the elements of true faith. Now the conflict begins which issues in the Passion. Step by step faith and unbelief are called out in a parallel development. The works and words of Christ become a power for the revelation of men’s thoughts. The main scene of this saddest of all conceivable tragedies is Jerusalem. The crises of its development are the national festivals. And the whole controversy is gathered round three miracles” (Westcott).
THE HEALING OF THE IMPOTENT MAN AT BETHESDA
John 5:1. After these things.—μετὰ ταῦτα indicates perhaps a less immediate succession of events than μετὰ τοῦτο, after this (vide John 2:12, etc.). A feast.—This has been identified with all the feasts of the Jewish year in turn. Many of the Fathers held that it was Pentecost; others, e.g. Irenœus, Eusebius, etc., considered that the passover is meant;—Chrysostom, Calrix, Bengel, etc., Pentecost. But in view of the notes of time indicated in John 4:35, etc. (December–January = Tebeth), and John 6:4 (April—Nisan), the feast of Purim, which was observed in the month of March (Adar), would seem to be the feast referred to. Our Lord’s absence from Jerusalem at the succeeding passover would be accounted for by the hostility of the Jews (John 5:16-18; John 7:1).
John 5:2. There is, etc.—This phrase would seem to imply that this narrative was written before the destruction of Jerusalem (see Introduction). At the sheep (gate) (ἐπὶ τῇ προβατικῇ).—The word “gate” seems to be the only suitable name to place after this adjective (see Nehemiah 3:1; Nehemiah 3:32; Nehemiah 12:39). Bethesda (בִּית חֶסְדָּא).—The house of mercy. This was probably the designation of the building under which the sick and diseased folk sheltered themselves whilst waiting at the healing spring. The Birket-Israil, near St. Stephen’s Gate in modern Jerusalem—the gate leading from the Haram Area to the Kidron—is the traditional site. But great weight is to be placed on the evidence that identifies the Pool of Siloam with this healing spring. It is a mineral spring, with an intermittent flow of water at irregular periods (see Alford’s Greek Testament, in loco, and note on chap. John 5:2). “Dr. Guthe’s excavations have laid bare the remains of four such pools in the neighbourhood of that of Siloam” (Sayce, Fresh Light from Ancient Monuments, p. 105).
John 5:3. In these lay a great multitude, etc.—This pool was in fact an ancient spa. A modern instance is to be found in the hot springs near Tiberias, on the shores of the lake of Galilee. Waiting for, etc.—This clause and John 5:4 are omitted in all the great MSS. but A. They seem to have been a gloss, finally incorporated in later MSS. But on John 5:4 see Revelation 16:4-5.
John 5:5. Thirty and eight years.—This man has been regarded as a type of Israel in the wilderness compelled to wander nearly forty years on account of their unbelief, and thus of the unbelieving Jews of Christ’s time.
John 5:6. Jesus saw him lying there, etc., and reading with His searching glance this man’s history (John 2:25), the long years of helplessness, and the sinful cause of it all, was moved with compassion as He saw this victim of sin lying before Him helpless and desponding. His compassion led Him to the spontaneous offer of help. “Wilt thou be made whole?” were the words which fell on this lonely and helpless sufferer’s ear.
John 5:7. Our Lord’s words seem hardly to have quickened hope. But he explained why it was that he had no hope of cure. When the water has been troubled.—Some special advantage was apparently popularly connected with this phenomenon.
John 5:8. Jesus said, etc.—It was a word of power. κράββατόν σου.—Mattress, or probably something like the kind of thick quilt, لحاف (Lihòâf), used now by many of the poorer natives of Palestine as a “bed.”
John 5:9. The effect of Christ’s words was immediate. It was the Sabbath.—This statement introduces and explains what follows.
John 5:10. It is not lawful, etc.—The objectors would found on such a passage as Jeremiah 17:21.
John 5:11. He that made me whole, etc.—The restored man felt that this was a sufficient vindication of his action. He who had shown His divine power in this miracle was not one who would contravene the divine law.
John 5:12. Thy bed (τὸν κράββατόν σου).—Omitted by א, B, C, L.
John 5:13. A multitude, etc.—No doubt our Lord did not desire to attract attention; and the presence of the multitude is mentioned to show how our Lord was able to withdraw quietly and at once, so that “he that was healed” even lost sight of Him.
John 5:15. The man departed, etc.—There is no indication in the narrative that there was any malice in the man’s heart in making this communication to the Jews. What reason had he to hide the truth? A great and miraculous cure had been effected in his case: why should he not make known his benefactor, who would be able to clear up all difficulties?
John 5:17. My Father worketh hitherto (ἕως ἄρτι, until now).—The working of God knows no cessation (Psalms 121.).
John 5:18. Because He not only had broken, etc.—Or, more accurately, He was destroying or dissolving the Sabbath. He was, however, only freeing it from the human restrictions which changed in part its purpose and effect.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— John 5:1-18
John 5:1-9. Bethesda, a witness of divine compassion, grace, and power.—In this narrative Jesus is again in Jerusalem when a great feast of the Jews, probably Purim, is in progress. The feast of Purim was one during which great festivity was kept up, gifts were distributed to the poor, etc. This fact might account for the number of sick, blind, halt, etc., then congregated at Bethesda—just as during the Easter festival at the present day Jerusalem is crowded with lame, etc., beggars from all quarters of the country. The spring by which these people lay was noted for the curative power of its waters, and pious hands had erected a covered portico to protect those who waited for a periodical disturbance of the waters, which indicated the presence of some healing element. The Saviour, ever compassionate and gracious, seeking to save men and give them His best gifts, sought out this sorrowful crowd. And seeing one of that crowd most miserable physically, but perhaps more truly penitent and receptive than all the rest, He showed toward him—
I. His divine compassion.—
1. There was one who was a sad epitome of the race—sick and impotent in body, the result of soul-sickness, of moral disease (John 5:14).
2. This poor man was utterly helpless, unable to do more than crawl to this place of hope. For thirty-eight years he had been in this miserable condition. How long he had lain at Bethesda does not appear; but it had been long enough to depress him on account of that “hope deferred which makes the heart sick.” Hope was well-nigh extinguished when the Redeemer appeared to him.
3. Jesus, the Son of the All-merciful, could not but be moved in view of this epitome of human wretchedness, of helpless, despairing, miserable humanity. Thus we are prepared for the display of—
II. His divine grace and goodness.—
1. As Jesus looked on this poor, forsaken, despairing being, He sought first to awaken in that hopeless breast a desire for healing and an impulse to seek to attain it. Therefore he said, “Wilt thou be made whole?”
2. The answer serves to reveal the poor man’s state of mind. He had fallen into a dumb and numbed state of resignation. One fancies that in his heart was heard in a whisper the modern Oriental’s Kismet: “It is fate.”
3. It was doubly sad that during this joyous festival, when gifts were lavished abroad, he sat there, friendless and alone, none offering him a helping hand.
4. But a better Friend was near him now than all earthly friends; and as the Saviour’s question fell on his ear, it must have been like a ray of heaven’s own light coming in on the dull and sombre sky of the man’s existence, and bidding hope spring up in his heart.
5. But our Saviour’s gracious compassion did not end—it never does end—with the mere awakening of hope. It is active and beneficent, and therefore His gracious question is followed by—
III. His gracious word of power.—
1. “Wilt thou be made whole?” Jesus had said. And ere the sick man’s almost querulous statement of his sad position had well ended the word of power went forth: “Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.”
2. It was a divine voice that spoke, and its speech was with divine authority. For thirty-eight years human skill, and latterly what at Bethesda seemed (popularly) to possess supernatural efficacy, had failed to help this miserable being. But here in a moment “the man was made whole.” All who reflected might see that this was the power of God, and that Jesus only more fully explained this when He said, “My Father worketh,” etc. (John 5:17). And thus to all who were not spiritually blinded the divine mercy and power were unmistakably displayed.
John 5:5-14. Help to the wretched.—A sentimental humanitarianism is one of the features of our day. External cures are applied to inward ills. As it has been well said, “men try to dam up the brook, but still leave the fountain-head untouched.” They seek to heal the wound superficially, whilst the deep-seated cause of all the pain and trouble is left unhealed. The outward causes of misery and wretchedness are pointed to, and endeavours are made to remove and alleviate them. But our age seems to have lost sight of the great fact of indwelling sin—that it is this that is at the base of all those evils, and that the removal of this is the true summum bonum for the race. Free men from the power of sin, and bring them into conformity to the mind and will of God, and the result will be a new world. Could this be effected universally, the earth would become a province of heaven. Where this result does take place, the individual life is new-created, and the individual heart becomes a temple of the Holy Ghost. It is thus that Christ goes to the roots of our misery and wretchedness. He alone can redeem humanity. His name proclaims Him a true Redeemer; for “He shall save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).
I. The misery that oppresses men.—
1. This impotent man was a most miserable object—a poor, wretched human being.
2. But his greatest misery was not his physical but his spiritual deadness. There was little aspiration after what was higher. His wretched state, perhaps caused by his sin, was more wretched from its apparent hopelessness and his want of spiritual comfort.
3. His state represents men spiritually by nature. They are impotent—they cannot of themselves attain to a new life. What they desire is the material, not the spiritual. And they have experienced the vanity of their own efforts, even when some vague desire after the higher life has come into their souls.
4. Like this man, they need to have the word of power spoken to them, ere they can arise and walk in spiritual freedom.
II. The awakening of hope.—
1. Pitying the man’s wretchedness, the Saviour sought to awaken faith and hope in the heart of the poor sufferer. And although hopelessness seems to have numbed the man’s spiritual sense, so that even his aspirations were dulled, yet we may believe that some ray of hope and inarticulate longing of faith came to him when the Saviour spoke. His respectful address shows that he considered the Saviour’s word to be more than an idle inquiry.
2. This incident is a parable of man’s spiritual state. It is a matter of eternal rejoicing that the Redeemer pitied our wretchedness, and came to earth in order that He might put to us the all-important question, “Wilt thou be made whole?” and that He puts this question with full power to answer with His omnipotent affirmative, however feeble and faltering our reply may be. He sees our wretchedness, and comes with divine messages of love and peace to awaken hope and lead to salvation.
III. The word of power and the renewed life.—
1. The word of Jesus laid hold of even by this man weak in faith as in body brought about a marvellous cure. Thirty-and-eight years of waiting, latterly of despairing, and in a moment the man was renewed, though still the same. The “impotent” frame received new strength for labour in what remained of life.
2. And how closely parallel is this to the spiritual experience of many! During a long life, it may be, they have been “impotent” in the divine service. At one time there may have been a desire for spiritual strength; but because help was not sought in the right direction, or for some other cause, the blessing has never been attained. And at last perhaps a kind of despair has settled down on the soul as one after another passes away healed—a kind of hopeless apathy, and acquiescence in enduring what seems inevitable. But to such the word of power can bring renewal and spiritual strength, just as healing came at last to the poor helpless one at Bethesda. And then life becomes changed, and for its remaining years there is a joy and freedom in service, the only regret being that their healing did not come sooner, and for the wasted years.
3. Many have thought the man healed at Bethesda a kind of churl—thankless and ungrateful (John 5:15). But there does not seem any trace of this in the narrative. Despite Jewish prejudice, he obeyed the command of Christ (John 5:9). And although his faith may have been feeble and imperfect, yet it seems to have been real, for he was found by Jesus just where he should have been, worshipping and thanking God in the temple (John 5:14).
4. A true sign of the reality of spiritual healing, of genuine though feeble faith, is the giving of praise and thanks to God with heart and life, not only in the courts of His house, but in all the activities of life.
John 5:6. Jesus the life-giving Saviour.—The miracle wrought by Jesus at Bethesda is typical of His spiritual working, in saving men. By nature the sinful are like the impotent man: they are “dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1). Their life is a moral death. And it is only when Christ, the life of men, speaks the word of power that there comes spiritual activity where before there was impotence, spiritual health where before lurked spiritual disorder, spiritual life where before reigned spiritual death. But though men cannot of themselves rise from their low and lost spiritual state by nature, yet it does not seem that they are raised against their will. The willingness and desire for healing are apparently conditions of the gift. This is shown in our Lord’s question to the impotent man: Dost thou desire, hast thou the will, to be made whole?
I. Men are spiritually impotent by nature.—
1. It needs but a glance at history and experience to prove that it is so.
2. Have not men through the millennia since the Fall sat beside the pools of human systems of religion and philosophy, vainly awaiting spiritual healing? And did not each new system, usurping or superseding what had gone before, prove that these were vain for the purpose?
3. And does not individual experience confirm this? Do not most men sit down patiently by the fountain of the law at one time or other of their life-history, expecting to find spiritual health through obedience to its precepts, and in the end have to confess themselves spiritually powerless, unable to attain salvation, spiritual healing, in this way?
4. And do not many fall into the hopeless acquiescence in their condition into which the impotent man fell? Indeed, do not many become strangely unconscious of their inability to gain salvation, and, worse still, of their need of it? “They are dead,” etc. (Ephesians 2:1).
II. Jesus quickens the desire for spiritual life.—
1. The human will must be brought into harmony with the divine will in order to spiritual healing. There must be human receptivity ere the divine gift is accorded.
2. It was so with this poor man. The desire after healing, deadened and almost extinguished during those long years of waiting, must be quickened anew. Therefore Jesus said, “Wilt thou be made whole?” He will not force His gifts on unwilling men. He will not violate the conditions of the freedom of human nature.
3. So, too, He does not force salvation on unwilling men (John 5:40); and thus want of willingness to be saved rests at the basis of the doom of the unsaved.
4. Hence Jesus seeks to bring men to willing obedience; to see their need and to desire to have it satisfied. Then He directs them to Himself as the giver of spiritual healing and life.
5. Thus one of the chief duties of the ambassador of Christ is to seek, divinely aided, to awaken this desire for spiritual healing in men’s hearts; for this is what the Spirit is ever seeking to do (John 16:7-10; Genesis 6:3). A New Testament ministry should be an enlightening and quickening ministry through the grace of the Spirit.
III. Jesus gives spiritual life.—
1. He and He alone can give it. No human help can avail here. No profound and even spiritual philosophy; no system of education and training, however perfect; no laws, however good, can accomplish this. No sacrifices, however costly; no devotion, however unremitting; no asceticisms, however strict. But let those who desire spiritual life turn to Christ, and it is theirs. To the truth of this let the Christian ages testify: “We believe, and therefore speak” (2 Corinthians 4:12-13).
2. This, indeed, is the chief end of Christ’s appearing. “Christ’s chief purpose was not so much to inaugurate new moral precepts or simply anew to enforce the old, which, indeed, He certainly did, as to bring into humanity a new divine and mighty element of life. For just as while on earth, in this and similar wondrous works, He gave new power to the body, so He grants new spiritual power to our souls, that we may walk in that new obedience which is well pleasing unto Him. So is the kingdom of nature in which the Lord works visibly ever the symbol of the kingdom of grace, in which the unseen (spiritual) powers which proceed from Him alone are bestowed” (Lisco).
3. It is therefore to Christ that His true servants must ever point sin-sick, weary, despairing souls. This duty must ever lie to the hand of ministers of the word; and, when it is neglected, what wonder is it to find many lying spiritually impotent by many a far-famed “pool” vainly waiting for spiritual healing!
John 5:10-16. Traditionalism versus truth.—The conflict between our Lord and the dominant Jewish party, which was inevitable, became from this point more acute. The hatred of the Jewish traditionalists began to wax more fierce and deadly; for our Lord’s action and teaching would, they saw, if permitted to continue and to influence the people, lead to the overturning of their authority. And they were well aware that in regard to no other part of the law would our Lord’s action be more prominent than in regard to the observance of the Sabbath. Its observance was so universal, so frequent, so hedged about with traditional enactments, that deviation from it would be more marked than in any other direction. Hence the prominence of this question in the conflict between our Lord and the Jews.
I. The blindness of traditionalism.—
1. Here a great miracle had been wrought. A man whose case had been apparently hopeless for thirty-eight long years was cured in a moment; and yet those Jews, because a seeming infringement of the traditional Sabbath law had been made, ignored the miracle, and cavilled at the supposed infringement.
2. But their strictures were founded on human misinterpretations of the law. There seemed some ground for their complaint in a passage like Jeremiah 17:21. But in Nehemiah 13:19 it is evident that such restrictions as to burden-bearing were not intended to apply to a case like this. The central idea of the Sabbath was rest from ordinary toil (Isaiah 58:13). Only the priests in their temple duties continued their work as on ordinary days, showing that the life of devotion and worship should be daily and unceasing. But rabbinic subtilising had built up round this ordinance a superstructure of minute observances that altogether neutralised the design of the law.
3. The Jews themselves permitted works of mercy and necessity to be performed on the Sabbath; and here they found fault with such a work. Had the man who was healed remained where he was not only would he have occupied the space where some now more needy sufferer could find accommodation, but he would not have been able to do what thankfulness and gratitude impelled him to do—to “pay his vows” to God in the temple.
4. Thus traditionalism, in seeking rigidly to maintain the letter, frequently transgresses the spirit of the law.
II. The command and example of Christ the true corrective to traditionalism.—
1. The man who was healed, against whom the Jews brought this serious charge, which rendered him liable to excommunication at least (John 9:34), had a convincing answer: “He that made me whole, the same said,” etc. (John 5:11). It was surely a divine power that was exerted to work that miracle, and therefore He who wrought it would not require aught to be done inconsistent with the divine law.
2. The power of tradition to warp men’s minds and shut them against the truth is seen in the question asked by the Jews. They say nothing about the miracle; the evidence it gave of the presence of heavenly power in Him who wrought it is thrust aside, and they ask, “What man is that which said unto thee, Take up thy bed and walk?”
3. The true corrective to traditionalism and formalism is still the same. We must ever get back from the tradition of men and the rudiments of the world to Christ and His inspired word.
III. The result of unenlightened traditionalism.—
1. Our Lord sought to complete the good work He had begun in this poor man; and finding him in the temple, thanking God for his recovery, thus evidencing his gratitude and faith, our Lord gently counselled him to sin no more, lest a worse evil than that which had afflicted him should come upon him. And when the man knew that it was Jesus who had healed him he went, as in duty bound, and told the Jews. Here was their opportunity of being enlightened.
2. But in place of endeavouring to come to a, right decision on the matter—without adopting even the calm and in part temporising position afterwards counselled by Gamaliel (Acts 5:34-40)—these formalists wilfully shut their eyes against the light and set themselves in opposition to eternal truth. Ignorance and prejudice combined led them to persecute Jesus because He was wont to do such things on the Sabbath, i.e. to teach the true nature of the Sabbath and to vindicate for His disciples that it is “lawful to do well on the Sabbath day.”
3. The spirit of unenlightened traditionalism is ever the same. The wrong it has wrought in the Christian Church is matter of history. Especially evident was its baleful influence before Reformation times. And it still appears in various forms among the Churches, forming the chief barrier to Christian unity and a powerful drag on Christian activity.
4. The only cure for it is to open our minds to the teaching of the Spirit, to the word and example of Christ; and thus living in His Spirit we shall “discern the things that are more excellent, being filled with the fruit of righteousness,” etc. (Philippians 1:10-11).
John 5:16. True Sabbath-keeping.—Here, as elsewhere in the Gospel history, Jesus gives us an example that we should follow in His steps. He did not abrogate the Sabbath law; He simply freed it from traditional incrustations and showed it in its true light, as intended for the good of man, and not to be a burdensome yoke (Mark 2:27), as Jewish rabbinical enactments made it. But in order that it may bring to men the blessing intended, a certain method of observance must be complied with.
I. We must desire to honour God in its observance.—
1. This must be done by first observing the primary meaning and purpose of the Sabbath. It is for rest—rest from ordinary and daily occupations. The necessity for such a stated period of rest from labour is arrived at by reason and experience, as well as revealed.
2. It is for worship. Our Lord gave us a clear and unmistakable example in reference to this (John 5:14 and Luke 4:16, etc.). Men have a spiritual being as well as a material frame, and it too must be appropriately nourished. And on this day in God’s worship this end is achieved in an especial fashion.
II. We must not neglect works of mercy and kindness to others.—
1. Works of mercy are not to be neglected on that day. Our Lord has here also shown us the way. But in reference to works of necessity we must ever enquire whether we seek to do them from merely self-interested motives, or from love to God, and for His honour.
2. Hence Sabbath desecration would be avoided were Christians everywhere to obey the law of love in reference to Sabbath-keeping—love to God, who ordained this day for man’s higher good; and love to our neighbour, which will not only urge us to come to his aid with works of mercy and kindness on the Sabbath, but will prevent us from unnecessarily disturbing his Sabbath rest.
John 5:16-18. Evil designs against Jesus.—Here for the first time in this Gospel history “the shadow of the cross” falls athwart our path. Hitherto our Lord had appeared to the Jews more in the light of a prophet with revolutionary ideas. But as in His activity He came into clearer opposition to many of their traditional customs and ideas, and especially now when He made a claim which, were it admitted, would entitle Him to make such changes as He had given an indication of in His activity, in their blind hatred they resolved to kill Him. This was, as we may say, “the beginning of the end.” The evil seed, sown by the wicked one, and permitted to lodge in the hearts of those Jews, began then to germinate and grow up, until at last those miserable men were filled with its bitter fruit.
I. The answer of Jesus to the Jews who accused Him.—
1. It was an answer that fully vindicated His claim to pronounce on the interpretation of the Sabbath law and all the other laws of Israel. And it especially vindicated His activity on this occasion, for doubtless the attack on the man who was healed was simply a cover for an attack on his Healer (Luke 13:14).
2. By His words, “My Father,” etc., He defines His position to the Sabbath law. He points out that in accusing Him they accuse the Father. God’s works of beneficence never cease; His care and love of man never intermit. If they did, where were the race of men? And thus Jesus, whose work on earth is to carry out the high purpose of divine love in the salvation of man, must continue His saving work uninterruptedly.
3. But in doing this He was violating no divine law. He was rather emphasising the merciful purpose of that law. Just as the Father does not break that Sabbath which followed His creative work by His loving and providential care of His people, so the Son does not break His Sabbath law for men in working works of beneficence and love and mercy.
4. From this we infer that Christ’s disciples and ministers best serve Him by following in this His blessed example. On His day we are to cease from ordinary occupations, but only that we may more fully realise and engage in His work, in seeking the redemption of our fellow-men.
II. Their interpretation of the claim of Jesus.—
1. They understood clearly what Jesus meant by the words He had spoken. Not only had He, according to their ideas, broken the Sabbath, but (which in their eyes was even worse) He had claimed equality with God as entitling Him to interpret and determine what was the law of the Sabbath. Not only by His teaching and example was He leading men to neglect the traditional observance of that law, but He had said in effect that God was His Father, which was blasphemy in their view.
2. This is one of the many and clear declarations, from which there is no escape, of our Lord’s divine Sonship set forth in this Gospel, which indeed makes it to many “a savour of death.” Many are offended at this claim just as those Jews were, and in their dogmatic enmity they seek to “slay” this witness to that great truth, and thus in reality to crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, etc. (Hebrews 6:6).
III. The inception of their evil designs.—
1. Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill Him, etc. In place of enquiring earnestly whether His zeal for God’s honour (John 2:14-18), and the divine authority He evidently possessed in the realm of nature, did not bear out His claim, and whether the witness of John to Him as the Messiah was not, therefore, heaven-inspired, their hostility became only more bitter and determined. What a sequel to a work of divine mercy and grace!
2. How can it be accounted for save on the supposition that most of those men had lost all true spirituality of mind and heart, whilst their religion had become a cold, dead formalism? Indeed it was so. Their idea of God and His law was utterly defective; they conceived of them as shorn of their highest attributes—judgment, mercy, truth, and love (Matthew 23:23; Luke 11:42); and Jesus had afterward to point them sorrowfully to the source of their evil thoughts of Him and their wicked designs against Him (John 8:41).
3. Much of enmity to the gospel as a divine revelation is excused on the plea so finely expressed by the poet: “There lives more faith in honest doubt, believe me, than in half the creeds.” And more than a half truth is here expressed. Had these Jews simply come to Jesus “perplexed in faith,” seeking for more light, like Nicodemus or Thomas, they had gone away believing. But they confronted Christ with bitter enmity, because they elevated their ideas to the position of infallible truths. So many of the bitterest attacks on the gospel and divine revelation are the result, not of “perplexed faith,” but because men come to them not seeking light, rather indeed to judge them according to some standard already set up and fixed by their own reason or prejudice.
HOMILETIC NOTES
John 5:1-18. The immediateness of divine help.
I. The divine aid is often delayed.—
1. Whilst we see that His power and grace help others (John 5:1-4).
2. Thus we ourselves often remain in our misery (John 5:5).
II. But although it is delayed yet it will be given at the proper time.—And this help comes:
1. From Jesus, the true helper in time of need, who graciously draws near to us (John 5:6).
2. And who comes when no man has pity upon us (John 5:7).
3. And who comes unexpectedly and gloriously (John 5:8-9).
III. The help experienced, so full of power and grace, should animate us.—
1. To do what our Helper commands us regardless of the judgment of the world (John 5:10-13).
2. To bring our thankoffering to God (John 5:14). Jesus found him in the temple.
3. To begin a new consecrated life in the Lord (John 5:14): sin no more.
4. Not to bring down new punishment on ourselves through thoughtless conduct (John 5:14): “lest some worse thing befall thee.”
5. To magnify Jesus as our Helper, and to make Him known to others (John 5:15).—Translation from F. G. Lisco.
John 5:14-15. Causes of evil.—Concerning the cause of his disease, we are not left in any doubt; the Redeemer’s own lips have told us what it was: “Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.” So we see there was a strange connection between this bodily malady and moral evil, a connection that would have startled all around if it had been seen.
1. No doubt the men of science, versed in the healing art, would have found some cause for his malady connected with the constitution of his bodily frame; but the Redeemer went beyond all this. Thirty-eight years before, there had been some sin committed, possibly a small sin, in our eyes at least, of which the result had been thirty-eight years of suffering; and so the truth we gather from this is, there is a connection between physical and moral evil, more deep than we have been accustomed to believe in. Often when we have been disposed to refer the whole to external causes, there has been something of moral disorder in the character which makes that constitution exquisitely susceptible of suffering, and incapable of enjoyment. Thus we see that external suffering is often connected with moral evil; but we must carefully guard and modify this statement, for this is not universally the case.
2. We must remember this when we see cases of bodily suffering; we must consider that there is a great difference between the two senses in which the word “punishment” is used. It may be a penalty, it may be a chastisement; one meaning of punishment is, that the law exacts a penalty if it is broken—notice having been given that a certain amount of suffering would follow a certain course of action. All the laws of God, in the physical world, in the moral world, or in the political world, if broken, commonly entail a penalty. But there is another kind of law, written in the hearts of men, and given to the conscience, when the penalty is awarded as the result of moral transgression, and then it becomes a chastisement, and the language of Scripture then becomes the language of our hearts. It is the rod of God that hath done all this.
3. There is another thing that we must bear in mind, that there are certain evils which fall upon man, over which he can have no control. They come as the result of circumstances over which he has no power whatever.
4. The punishments of God are generally not arbitrary; each law, as it were, inflicts its own penalty. It does not execute one that belongs to another. So, if the drunkard lead a life of intoxication, the consequence will be a trembling hand and a nerveless frame; but if he be drowned in the seas when sailing in the storm, he is punished for having broken a natural law, not a moral law of God.
5. There is one thing more. It is perfectly possible that transgressions against the natural laws of God may, in the end, become trespasses against His moral law, and then the penalty becomes chastisement.—From F. W. Robertson, Brighton.
ILLUSTRATIONS
Wilt thou be made whole?—To judge from appearances merely, was there ever a question less necessary than that which the Son of God asked this impotent man? Here was one who had suffered for thirty-eight years, lying among other sick people beside the wonderful pool. He was waiting impatiently for the time when some one would assist him to go down into the pool at the moment when its waters were moved by the angel of the Lord. He yearned for the advent of some kind fellow-mortal to perform this good office for him. He was miserable, and complained that he had not yet been able to find such an one. In short, he desired nothing more ardently than to be healed. No other thought, no other care, so occupied him. Why then ask him, “Wilt thou be made whole?” “But,” says St. Augustine, “this was not without reason. This impotent man was a type of all sinners. And he himself as a sinner could not be healed ere he was converted, according to the method of the Saviour of men, who did not heal men’s bodies without at the same time sanctifying their souls.” Now, however desirous this man might be of healing, perhaps he was not equally desirous of his conversion. And it was for this reason that Jesus Christ, who knew that the one depended upon the other, and who would not accord the one without the other, asked him before everything else: “Wilt thou be made whole?”—Bourdaloue.
The value of the Sabbath.—On the Sabbath this act of healing had taken place. On being expostulated with regarding His acts of healing on the Sabbath our Lord had defended His works of love with man; counter-arguments—e.g., that a man is better than a beast which is led out to be watered on the Sabbath; and that surely on a day of blessing it is lawful to do and to receive good, because the Sabbath was made for man; and whether what David was permitted to do when he had need, what the priests alone could do on the Sabbath, might not be permitted to the Lord of the Sabbath. His kingly authority, however, He demonstrated by this very miracle, and the self-consciousness with which He declared Himself equal with the Father: “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work”—unconditionally, continually, whether on the Sabbath—and where were our rest without God’s work?—or in the night, for “the Keeper of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps.” Among our people[2] dominates the opposite error to that of the Jerusalem Jews. Not an over, but an under, estimation of the value of the Sabbath rest. Not an observance according to the letter of Sabbath sanctification, but a negligence of the heavenly gift; not an idolatrous reverence of church buildings, but a prevailing neglect and contempt of churches, especially in our large cities. And yet (a fact worthy of notice) it was just in the temple that Jesus found the man who had been healed, and thus had further dealing with him. And so it is still. It is in the house of God where the man who has recovered from sickness, after long absence pays his vows in the presence of God’s people—where he who has been preserved through God’s grace learns to prepare himself to meet evil days.—Dr. R. Kögel
[2] This refers especially to Germany, but is not without application to us.