I was reading John this morning for my hermeneutics paper and I was struck by this passage:

John 5:5 One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” 7 The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” 10 So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.” 11 But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.'” 12 They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” 13 Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. 14 Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.” 15 The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. 16 And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. 17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.” 18 This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

Jesus heals a man who had been paralyzed for 38 years and they were persecuting Him for it? Because He healed on the Sabbath? This is amazing when you think about it. The healing was a witness to who He is, the Messiah. The Jew rejected this sign and all the other signs that God gave them to witness to the truth of what Jesus said. He came in the name of the Father, and yet they did not know Him or accept His witness.
Also, John’s commentary is interesting in that he knew what Jesus was saying when He called God, Father — that Jesus was equal to the Father. Throughout the Gospel of John, Jesus equates Himself to God and this is what drove the Jews to have Him killed. He was a blasphemer. We learn from this that Jesus clearly saw Himself as one with God.
Having rejected the witness of the sign, they have no reason to believe the words of Jesus that He was from the Father. If we reject the sign of Christ’s resurrection, we have no reason to believe that Jesus is the Son of God. The resurrection is a testimony to the truth that Jesus is the Son of God and died and rose again for the salvation of His people.
I am going to write more on this later today or tomorrow.
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