Notes for Bible 101 February 19, 2007—John 5-6

Review: In John 3:16, we read the Gospel in a single declaratory sentence: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” To grasp what God has done for us humbles us. In Isaiah 59:16, God said through the prophet: “He [God] saw there was no one to intervene, so his own arm worked salvation for him, and his own righteousness sustained him.” God had to send Jesus to die for us because man could not save himself. This was Jesus’ mission; it is what John not only shows us, but explains to us. God’s intervention and salvation is shown in many ways, not the least of which is Jesus’ encounters with individuals such as Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman, both of which we met last week. Tonight we meet others who are changed by their meetings with Jesus. And we also reach a turning point when Jesus’ critics are not just angry, but want to get rid of him.

John 5: Jesus, back in Jerusalem for a feast (it could have been Passover, Pentecost or Tabernacles as these were the three pilgrimage festivals requiring a trip to Jerusalem), and he visits a pool said to have healing properties. The number of people healed there attracted crowds of the lame, the blind and those with chronic diseases. Called Bethesda in Aramaic, John tells us, it was near The Sheep Gate, one of ancient gates in the walls of Jerusalem; this gate was identified in Nehemiah 3 as one of ten gates that the returning exiles repaired and rebuilt. Located at the northeast corner of the city, it was probably named for the sheep coming through to market, and/or sheep brought into the city for sacrifices. The gates all had names and people used them as landmarks: “I’ll meet you by the Water Gate,” for example, much as we say “I’ll meet you at the entrance to the mall on the Penney’s side.” The pool in question was known for a certain “movement of the water”; apparently, the pool’s healing quality was well established and a porch and colonnades had been built around it. Visualize Lourdes and you’ll have an idea of what it must have been like.

Jesus found among the crowds waiting the movement of the water a man who’d been an invalid for 38 years. And Jesus asks him “Do you want to get well?” The man must have been slightly taken aback; he was at a spot famous for healings. Of course he wanted to get well. But what had he done to make sure he’d get well? Apparently, he’d simply waited while others who were quicker or who had help beat him into the water and were healed. The man relates his problems to Jesus, and Jesus then says “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk!” And he did. Until this minute, as readers, we might have thought the man enjoyed being sick. As an invalid, he had a claim on devout Jewish people who were obliged to give alms. He could beg with a clear conscience; he was allowing people to do good. (The pillars of Judaism then and now were keeping the commandments, praying, alms-giving and fasting). Without the income he received from such charitable souls, how would he survive? He doesn’t think about it when Jesus says “get up and walk.” He acts. What a moment in his life. He’s dancing off when some of the Temple leaders see and stop him, recognizing him as the man who’d been an invalid, and they don’t say “Praise God, you’re healed! Instead, they ask him “what are you doing? It’s against Sabbath law to carry your bed.” The man explained that he’d been told to do this. The Sabbath police ask “who is this man?” but Jesus had slipped away. Later, Jesus finds the now-healed man in the Temple and tells him “See you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” Jesus was concerned about his entire being; he was physically made whole at his healing. Now Jesus wants him to consider his spiritual health. And Jesus warns him to continue to be conscious of his need for God’s forgiveness. Then this man who’d been healed told the Jews Jesus had healed him.

John 5:16: By now, a crowd of critics is observing Jesus, hoping to catch him breaking a commandment so that they could point it out to his followers. The Sabbath healing was sufficient for them to confront Jesus. The 10 commandments forbid work on the Sabbath, but the rabbis in their zeal to interpret “work” had identified 39 different activities that constituted work. All were forbidden on the Sabbath: sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. Cooking, sewing, harvesting or planting crops, spinning, weaving, plowing, among other types of work, were off limits for those 24 hours. In addition, a person could only walk 3/5 of a mile on the Sabbath. Notice these “laws” were the traditions the rabbis had handed down; they were not God’s commandments. The commandment which said “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy,” was based on the principle of “resting” on the Sabbath, setting all other non-religious activities aside, to make it different from the other six days.

The critics confront Jesus. “Why did you heal (work) on the Sabbath?” Jesus, who’d been trained in the law, too, said “My Father is always at his work to this very day and I, too, am working.” God works to care for his people around the clock, seven days a week. Psalm 121:4 tells us he never sleeps; “He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep,” so he’s always vigilant, ready to hear our prayers and always watching so that “before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear” (Isaiah 65:24). Nevertheless, the Jews who are offended at Jesus “work” on the Sabbath are even more offended that he calls himself God’s son. This will never do, they say. And we read: “For 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.” Notice that their anger was now the hate that leads to murder. And all because Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath. It was legal, incidentally, under the law and rabbinic interpretation of it, to do good on the Sabbath.

John 5:19-47: Jesus answers his critics in a detailed way in these verses. Essentially, he tells the Pharisees and his disciples that he and the Father are one; what God does, Jesus does. God gives Jesus the strength and the wisdom to act. Jesus obeys his Father. (His implication is that they, the Pharisees and other religious leaders, do not obey God). Further Jesus says God the Father is not going to judge men, but the Son will. In this, he’s warning the Pharisees to open their eyes and minds to the truth. Here is God in the flesh standing before them, speaking to them, working in their midst, but their eyes, ears and hearts are closed to him. Then Jesus explains that belief in him is the key that opens the door to eternal life: “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.” Notice the present tense verbs: hears, believes and has all state that belief in Jesus gives eternal life in our present life. We simply trust Jesus and he changes our position before God. Once we were sinners, unclean and separated from God. Now, standing beside Jesus as our Redeemer, we are seen as clean; God recognizes us as having been “reborn” spiritually. Paul says: “If any man be in Christ he is a new creature; old things are passed away, and all things are become new” (II Cor. 5:17)

More answers to the Pharisees: Jesus says to the crowd “I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.” (v. 25). The “dead” here are “spiritually dead” (including, we can infer, the Pharisees and other critics, hardened to Jesus’ message). Jesus’ gives life spiritually. Remember his conversation with Nicodemus? We are reborn in a spiritual sense, not a physical sense when we are converted (justified, redeemed, made righteous) by faith in Jesus. But Jesus adds that the physically dead “those in their graves” will hear Jesus’ voice at the rapture, the second coming. Judgment then will occur, and notice that Jesus relies on the Father in making judgments. If we believe in Jesus’ sacrifice and accept him as savior, we are changed from “death into life” and our position is secure. And since we are truly changed by this experience, our lives and the fruit we bear as Christians will reflect that change. It is on that basis—on what we’ve done out of gratitude to Christ—that we as Christians are judged. Jesus makes it clear we are not condemned (sent to hell), but our rewards are based on our faithfulness in using the gifts we’ve been given.

Argument for Jesus as the son of God: Jesus continues to talk of evidence for his being sent from God. He states that John the Baptist testified about who he was and that his miraculous signs also testify that he is the Son of God. Further, Jesus says, “The Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent.” The witness or testimony of God came at Jesus’ baptism when the Spirit descended “like a dove” on him and the voice of God came saying “this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased” (the full Trinity was present). But as Jesus says over and over in the gospels: “Let him who has ears hear.” The religious leaders, so entrenched in their piety and tradition, do not hear. And Jesus tells them “Moses wrote about me.” He notes that they search the scriptures, primarily the Torah, the books Moses wrote, but they aren’t really seeing the truth of the scriptures in that they do not recognize Jesus as the one prophesied and promised.

John 6: The feeding of the crowd with five loaves and two fish is the only miracle reported in all four Gospels, making it especially significant. John shows us why. We are familiar with what occurs: a great crowd gathers near the lake side; people have come from all over Galilee to listen to Jesus, be healed and to see for themselves if what others have said about Jesus is true.

John 6:5: Jesus sees the crowd, asks Philip “where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” and John adds that this is a test; Jesus already had a plan. Philip says “Eight months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite.” “It’s hopeless,” he’s saying to Jesus. “Between us we don’t have enough money to even begin to buy a snack for this crowd.” And Andrew tells Jesus a boy has been found with a sack lunch of 5 loaves and 2 fish, but like Philip, he’s telling Jesus how unprepared they are. Jesus says “Tell the people to sit down.” And taking the boy’s lunch, he blessed it and broke the loaves and gave them to his disciples to distribute to the people. We’re told everyone ate until full and then 12 baskets of leftovers were gathered up. As you can imagine, this truly impressed the people and the talk of Jesus being “The Prophet,” or “the Messiah” increased. And Jesus slipped away from them; he feared they were going to make him king. The people’s interest is revealed here: anyone who can feed them should be in control; let’s take Jesus to Jerusalem, and force the Romans out. Jesus wants no part of a revolution.

John 6:16: It’s dark, the crowds have begun to disperse, Jesus is up in the hills praying, and so the disciples get back in the boat to go home. They’ll return to Capernaum without Jesus. They row about halfway across the lake and a storm begins to blow, and then, they look up and see what appears to be a ghost. It’s Jesus walking on the water. John tells us “And they were terrified.” This is one of those personal moments John inserts. He’s in that boat, and he remember shaking with fear. But Jesus speaks to them “It is I; don’t be afraid.” At the sound of his voice they calm down and Jesus gets into the boat and “behold” they are at the shore, tying up, ready to get into their beds in Capernaum. John doesn’t dwell on this miracle on the lake as Matthew and Mark do. Matthew tells us Peter gets out of the boat to walk to Jesus and then, taking his eyes off Jesus, begins to go down. Jesus saves him, asking him “why did you doubt?” And the disciples all are amazed that Jesus has such control of the natural elements, and they are convinced that he is the Son of God. John, though, simply records the incident and their fright. He’s got a different focus for this chapter. And as we’ve seen since John 1, his emphasis is on Jesus, God’s son, the one who gives life to the world: creator, healer, feeder of crowds, and Savior.

John 6:25: The people whom Jesus fed miraculously find him in Capernaum the next day. They want to know how Jesus got back across the lake; they’d hoped to talk him into leading an army to Jerusalem, but Jesus, knowing that was not his mission, eluded them. Now they confront him again, and Jesus says to them “you just want more to eat.” He understands men’s hearts, John told us back in chapter 2. He knows that their concerns are physical (rebelling against the Romans, having food to eat every day) rather than spiritual (putting their faith in and dependence on God). And there follows a sermon about bread, an exchange during which the people remind him that Moses gave them bread in the wilderness. Jesus replies “Moses didn’t do that, God did.” God supplied the manna, and Jesus says the living bread, the bread that’s genuine and from heaven is standing there before them: “”For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” Even in this metaphor the people aren’t hearing Jesus say that HE is the one who gives life; they tell him “give us this bread.” The crowds are tasting, seeing literal bread, the stuff that goes on tables and into bellies. Jesus is saying the bread of life is spiritual: “I am the bread of life.” They ask him for this bread, and Jesus, knowing they are like the woman at the well who wanted water to drink and cook with, explains that the food he offers is spiritual, not physical. “He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. But as I told you, you have seen me and still do not believe.” ( vv.35-36). And he continues, offering them life eternal, “whoever comes to me I will never drive away.”

John 6:38: Earlier, Jesus had told the people “Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life which the son of Man will give you” And the crowd asked “What must we do to do the works God requires? Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” (vv. 27-29) What’s John’s theme? Jesus is life. Jesus speaks of spiritual life; the people are still having a hard time distinguishing between life here in the every day world and the world to come. Jesus tells them “I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.” He does his Father’s will in healing, feeding (bodies and souls) and in teaching. And because he does the father’s will, we have salvation: “For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”

John 6:41: As expected his critics can’t let this go without comment. He’s teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum, but we begin to think about the Jews in the wilderness grumbling against Moses. “The Jews began to grumble about him because he said ‘I am the bread that came down from heaven’ . . . Is this not Joseph’s son?” They don’t see him as anything except a carpenter’s son. Jesus is sharp with them: “Stop grumbling among yourselves.” He’s telling them “I have the answers; you have only to ask.” They learn nothing exchanging their complaints with each other. Jesus is very clear that those who listen and understand, who accept Jesus and who are given eternal life, do so because it is the Father’s work: “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” The religious leaders are unable and unwilling to be drawn to Jesus. But those who believe, Jesus says, have everlasting life.

John 6:48: Jesus repeats that he is the Bread of Life, and adds “the bread is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world.” And that really sparked an argument! Further, Jesus said “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” Jesus had dropped the bomb: Leviticus 17 said no one was to eat blood; animals were to be drained completely because “the life of the animal is in the blood” and the blood was a sacrifice for sin. At this statement by Jesus, we’re told, many said “this is a hard saying” or a “scandalous” teaching. And Jesus doesn’t let up because one hard saying follows another. “The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. Yet there are some of you who do not believe.” And we read shortly after that “many turned back and no longer followed him.” But when he asked the 12 if they would go, too, Peter said “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” Jesus not only assures them that he’s chosen them, but that one of them, however faithful he appears now, will betray him. There have been a couple of hints before about death, but this is the first notion that one of the 12 will sell Jesus out.

Reflect on the first six chapters: Jesus is introduced as the Word made flesh, God himself, creator of the universe. He’s called the Lamb of God; he calls himself the water of life and the bread of life. He identifies himself as doing the Father’s work, the work his Father sent him to do; thus, he is calling himself God’s son. The entire focus of John’s gospel is that Jesus brings life, a heavenly, eternal life, a spiritual life. Water and bread are the stuff of daily life; his words are the stuff of eternal life. And what is our response? Believe and we have life.

Next week: we move on and Jesus continues to stir the crowds and the religious leaders.

Homework for those who want to go deeper:

1. Why does Jesus ask the invalid “Do you want to get well?” (John 5:6) How might this apply to your own life?

2. Jesus tells us that whoever believes in him has “passed from death to life.” (5:24). Read Paul’s explanation in II Cor. 5:17-21.

3. In John 6, John tells the crowd: “The work of God is to believe in the One he sent.” Compared to what the Law demanded, why was this so hard for the crowds to accept?