(John 5:1-16).

This event is narrated only by St. John, who reports in his Gospel about each of the Lord's coming to Jerusalem on feast days. In this case, it is not entirely clear on which feast Jesus came to Jerusalem, but it is more likely that it was either Passover or Pentecost. Only in this case does it turn out that the Lord's public ministry lasted three and a half years, as the Holy Church accepted it from ancient times, guided precisely by the chronology of the Fourth Gospel. Thus, about six months passed from the Baptism of the Lord to the first Pascha, described in the 2nd chapter, then a year to the second Pascha, mentioned in the 5th chapter, another year to the third Pascha, which is spoken of in the 6th chapter, and another, third, to the fourth Pascha, the one before which the Lord suffered.

At the Sheep Gate, so called because sacrificial cattle were driven to the temple through it, or because there was a market near it where these animals were sold, on the northeast side of the city wall, on the way through the Cedar Stream to Gethsemane and the Mount of Olives, there was a pool called in Hebrew – Bethesda, which means "house of mercy" or the mercy of God: the water in this pool was collected from a healing spring. According to Eusebius, as early as the fifth century after the birth of Christ, five porticoes of this bath were shown. The healing spring attracted many sick people of all kinds. However, this was not an ordinary healing spring: it manifested its healing power only at times when the Angel of the Lord descended into it, disturbing the waters, and then only the one who was the first, immediately after the water was disturbed, could be healed; Apparently, water only showed a healing property for a short time, and then immediately lost it.

Here, at the pool, there was a paralytic, who had been suffering for 38 years and had almost lost hope of ever being healed. Moreover, as he explained to the Lord, not having a helper with him, he was not able to use the power of the miraculous spring, not having the strength to move on his own quickly enough to immerse himself in the font as soon as the water began to stir. Having been merciful, the Lord instantly heals the unfortunate with His one word: "Get up, take up your bed and walk." In this way He showed the superiority of His saving grace over the means of the Old Testament.

But since it was the Sabbath, the Jews, by which name St. John usually means the Pharisees, Sadducees and Jewish elders, who were hostile to the Lord Jesus Christ, instead of rejoicing for the unfortunate man who had suffered for so long, or being amazed at the miracle, were indignant that the former sick man dared to violate the commandment of Sabbath rest by carrying his bed and made a remark to him. The healed man, however, not without some audacity, began to justify himself that he was only carrying out the command of Him who had healed him, and Who, in his eyes, had sufficient authority to exempt him from the observance of too petty Sabbath ordinances. With a tinge of contempt, the Jews ask the former patient, "Who is the Man who dared to allow him to violate the general rules?"

Blazh. Theophylact: "This is the meaning of malice! They do not ask Who healed him, but Who commanded him to carry his bed. They are not interested in what leads to surprise, but in what is condemned." Although they did not know for sure, they could well guess that the Healer was none other than the hated Jesus of Nazareth, and therefore did not even want to talk about the miracle. But the healed man could not give them an answer, for he did not know Jesus.

Probably, the healed man soon went to the temple to offer gratitude to God for his healing. Then Jesus met him with the significant words: "Behold, you are healed; sin no more, lest something worse happen to you." From these words it is especially clear that illness befalls a person as a punishment for his sins, and the Lord warns the healed against repeating his sins, so that an even greater punishment does not befall him. Recognizing his Healer, the former sick man went and announced Him to the Jews; not with evil intent, of course, but to raise the authority of Jesus Christ. This caused a new attack of anger among the Jews, and they "sought to kill Him because He did such things on the Sabbath."

On the Equality of the Father and the Son

(John 5:17-47).

To the Jews' plots to kill Him for breaking the Sabbath, Jesus answered them: "My Father does to this day, and I also work." These words contain Jesus' testimony about Himself as the consubstantial Son of God. All the following words are only a development of this basic idea of the Lord's answer to the Jews, who wanted to kill Jesus even more because He called Himself the Son of God: "Verily I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, except He see the Father doing: for what He does, the Son does likewise." It is natural for him, as the Son of God, to follow the commandment given to Adam and his descendants, but following the example of God the Father. And God the Father, although He rested on the seventh day, did so from the works of creation, and not from the works of providence. Correctly understanding from the words of the Lord that He teaches about His equality with God the Father, the Jews began to accuse Him, who, in their opinion, was worthy of death for breaking the Sabbath and blasphemy. Verses 19-20 reveal the doctrine of the unity of the actions of the Father and the Son, in relation to the usual ideas of the son imitating the father, and of the father loving the son and teaching him his works. In the words "The Son can do nothing of Himself" there is nothing of Arianism, but only, as St. Chrysostom says, that the Son does nothing contrary to the Father, nothing alien to Him, nothing incongruous, contrary to the will of the Father. "And he will show more works than these, so that you will be amazed," i.e., like the Father, the Son can not only heal the paralytic, but also raise up the dead (5:21).

At first, we are talking about the spiritual resurrection, about the awakening of the spiritually dead to a true, holy life in God, and then about the general bodily resurrection, and both of these resurrections are in close internal connection with each other. Man's perception of true life, spiritual life, is the beginning of his triumph over death. As spiritual disorder can be the cause of death, so the true life of the spirit leads to eternal life, which conquers death as inevitable.

With spiritual resurrection the Lord combines His other great work – judgment. This means, first of all, the moral judgment in the present life, which will inevitably lead to the final universal Dread Judgment. Christ appeared, as Life and Light, into a spiritually dead world immersed in spiritual darkness. Those who believed in Him were resurrected to a new life and became light themselves; but those who rejected Him remained in spiritual death, in spiritual darkness. That is why the judgment of the Son of God over people continues throughout life, which will eventually end with the last Last Judgment. And thus the destiny of men is eternally in the full power of the Son of God, and therefore it is proper to honor Him as well as the Father, for "he who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him." Verses 24-29 contain a further depiction of the life-giving activity of the Son of God. Obedience to the words of the Savior and faith in His messengership is the main condition for the perception of true life, in which there is also a pledge of bodily blissful immortality. The words "He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death unto life" mean: He will not be judged. "The time is coming, and it has already come, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and when they have heard, they will live" – here again we are talking about the spiritual revival as a result of Christ's preaching, since the Son is the source of the life He borrowed from the Father (5:26). The power of judgment also belongs to the Son, because for this purpose He became man, being by nature the Son of God (5:27). This authority of the Son of God as Judge will culminate in a universal resurrection and righteous retribution (5:28-29). This will be a righteous judgment, since it will be the result of the complete agreement of the will of the Judge with the will of the Heavenly Father (5:30).

In verses 31-39, Christ testifies with all emphasis to His divine dignity. In doing so, He refers to the testimony of John the Baptist, who was highly respected by the Jews, but He also says that He has an even greater testimony than John: it is the testimony of His God the Father, the testimony of the signs and wonders which His Son performs as if on His Father's commission, as they are part of the plan for the salvation of men, which the Father has given Him to fulfill. God the Father bore witness to His Son at the moment of His baptism, but He gave an even greater witness to Him as the Messiah through the prophets in the Old Testament Holy Scriptures, and the Jews do not heed this Scripture, because the Word of God has not taken root in their hearts, and therefore does not dwell there: they do not hear the voice of God in His writings and do not see His face in self-revelation there. "Search the scriptures, for you think through them to have eternal life; but they bear witness to Me." Further, Christ reproaches the Jews for their unbelief, saying that He does not need glory from them, since He does not seek glory from people, but grieves for them, because not believing in Him as God's Messenger, they reveal in themselves a lack of love for God the Father, Who sent Him. Since they do not love God, they do not accept Christ, who has come with His commands, but when another, falsely named Messiah comes, with his self-invented teaching, they will accept Him even without any signs.

Since the time of Christ, the Jews have had more than 60 such false messiahs, and the last of them will be the Antichrist, whom the Jews will accept as their expected Messiah. The reason for the unbelief of the Jews is that they seek human glory, and it is not the one who rebukes them, even if he has the right to do so, that pleases them, but the one who glorifies them even without any right to do so. At the end of His speech, the Lord deprives the Jews of the last foundations on which they had built their hopes. He says that none other than Moses, in whom they trust, will be their accuser at the judgment of God. And he will accuse them of not believing in Christ, for he wrote about Him. This refers to both the direct prophecies and promises about Christ in the books of Moses (Gen. 3:15, 12:3, 49:10; Deut. 18:15), and the whole law, which was the shadow of the good things to come in the Kingdom of Christ (Heb. 10:1) and the nurturer (tutor) in Christ (Gal. 3:24).