“Now it was the Sabbath on that day. 10 So the Jews were saying to the man who was cured, ‘It is the Sabbath, and it is not permissible for you to carry your pallet.’ 11 But he answered them, ‘He who made me well was the one who said to me, ‘Pick up your pallet and walk.’ 12 They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Pick up your pallet and walk’? 13 But the man who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away while there was a crowd in that place. 14 Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, ‘Behold, you have become well; do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you.’ 15 The man went away, and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. 16 For this reason the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because He was doing these things on the Sabbath. 17 But He answered them, ‘My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.’ 18 For this reason therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God’” John 5: 10-18.
There was a rabbinic prohibition against carrying your bed on the Sabbath. When Jesus ordered the man to take his mat this gave the authorities an excuse to question why he “works” on the Sabbath. When confronted with this apparent infraction of the Rabbinic laws Jesus justifies His actions based on calling God His Father, thus making Him equal with God. In other words Jesus justified his actions based on His revelation of His Supreme Authority! Jesus was God! That’s why He healed! He is equal to God and always works on the Sabbath. This is the reason “the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God” John 5:18.
But as we have seen before John calls the miracles of Jesus “signs” rather than “miracles” because they have a deeper meaning than the mere healing, in this case. Jesus wanted to change the man so that he could live free of sin. Jesus later caught up with the man and told him: “Behold, you have become well; do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you” John 5:14. There was a common belief among the Jews that sin and sickness were intertwined. But Jesus clearly is saying that sin causes something more deadly that physical disease — it causes eternal death. So all the more reason Jesus told the man to avoid sin “so that nothing worse happens!” Again this just points to the real miracle. Jesus wants the man to come to know Jesus so that he will follow Him and avoid sin.
The true miracle is Jesus’ forgiveness of the man’s sins and His call to “sin no more.”
Pray that you may have the grace and faith to see the “signs” in your life when God calls you to live a deeper, holier, sinless life for Him and with Him.
Oh dear Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner. Help me to see the signs of Your presence in my life so that I may live without sin and be as faithful to You and loving to others as possible. And this I pray in Your name, Amen.
From the Bible:
“Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil” 1 John 3:4-9.
“Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body” 1 Corinthians 6:18-20.
“For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins” Hebrews 10:26.
“What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it” Romans 6:1-2?
“So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin”
James 4:17.
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