John 5:14-17 14After these things, Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are healthy! No longer sin, so that nothing worse might happen to you.” 15The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who made him healthy. 16And on account of this, the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath.
The man who had been physically healed needed to be spiritually healed as well. Physical healing, however significant it may be, is not as important as spiritual healing. Verse 14 implies that Jesus intentionally sought out the man who had moved to the temple precincts. No reason is given for the man to be there. Perhaps the Jewish leaders had him brought there for interrogation, or the man had a sense of gratitude toward God for his healing.
Jesus’ words to him are shocking and highlight the point that the man needed more than to be physically healed. Jesus pronounced him healthy (hygiēs) and his body restored to wholeness. Outwardly, he looked well, but on the inside, he had the worse malidy a person could have: sin (hamartane). The text does not say that the man’s sickness was due to sin, although sometimes sin can lead to a physical problem. Rather, the key issue in the man’s life was his relationship to God. Perhaps he had put so much hope in a superstition about the stirred water that it had become his idol. The worse that could happen to him was that he could be eternally condemned for his sin. He needed to repent and get on the right track. The one thing missing in his life was looking to Jesus. It was not enough for him to be healed; he needed to know the Healer.
The man must have heard about Jesus somehow because he recognized Jesus in the temple. The man now faced a decision. He could put his faith in Jesus and stop sinning or he could take advantage of Jesus’ healing and go on in his sinful ways. Unfortunately, John does not record enough of the story for us to know what the man’s decision was. The focus of the story is not so much on the outcome for the man as it is the outcome for Jesus. The expectation when someone experiences the healing touch of God is that the person will repent and have faith in God’s salvation. Physical healing should lead to spiritual healing.
The story shifts to what happened to Jesus as a result of the man’s report to the Jewish leaders. They wanted to know who broke the Sabbath, so the healed man told them. He could have kept quiet and gone on his merry way but perhaps felt threatened in some way by them. Their threat shifted from the man to Jesus as they began persecuting him. The conflict between Jesus and the Jews increases at this point in John’s Gospel. They were more interested in preserving their prideful positions of power and influence represented by their interpretation of Sabbath rules. At this point, it is helpful to jump over to the Synoptic Gospels to see how this conflict over the Sabbath developed in other areas (see Luke 6). Many elements of this story are off-target, but through it all, we see the compassionate Jesus who puts people higher than human rules while remaining faithful to the law of God.
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