John 5:1-29
After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep
Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. In these lay a multitude of
invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 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?” 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.” Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” And
at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath. 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.” But he
answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’ ” They asked him, “Who
is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” 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was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. 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.” The man went away and told
the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was
doing these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”
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. So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I
say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the
Father does, that the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is
doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. For as the Father raises the dead
and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. For the Father judges no one, but has given all
judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son
does not honor the Father who sent him. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who
sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. “Truly, truly, I
say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those
who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in
himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at
this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done
good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.
Jesus said, "Unless you come to me, you will perish." What will you do with this claim?