John 5:1 - Printer Friendly

ESV: After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

NIV: Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals.

NASB: After these things there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

CSB: After this, a Jewish festival took place, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

NLT: Afterward Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holy days.

KJV: After this there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

NKJV: After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

Jewish men living in or around Jerusalem were required to attend several festivals within the city each year (Deuteronomy 16:16). This passage does not specifically mention which festival, but for the purposes of the story it makes no difference. Jesus had left the area not long after His conversation with Nicodemus (John 3). The Pharisees were beginning to move against the ministries of both Jesus and John the Baptist. Since that was not the right time for a confrontation, Jesus passed through Samaria on His way to Galilee (John 4:5).

This verse begins with the phrase "after this," which is a reference to the end of chapter 4. Jesus has just healed the son of a court official (John 4:46–54). This was the second of John's seven "signs"—miracles—which are recorded to prove that Jesus in, in fact, God.

The impending miracle presents several contrasts with the healing of the official's son. The prior event was somewhat private, performed at a distance, and on behalf of a man who specifically sought out Jesus for a miracle. The man Christ will heal in chapter 5 will be healed in public, and in person, even though he is unable to seek healing on his own, and almost seems disinterested.

John 5:1–15 contains the third of John's seven ''signs'' of Christ. A man crippled for decades expresses no prior knowledge of Jesus, nor an immediate desire to be healed. Jesus heals the man and tells him to walk. For carrying his mat—working—local religious leaders then confront the man. Yet he still doesn't know who Jesus is. Jesus meets the man in the temple and warns him about the dangers of sin. Once the city's leaders find out that Jesus was responsible for the healing, they will confront Him for violating the Sabbath, and for claiming to be equal with God.

Jesus again returns to Jerusalem, as required for the various feast days. While there, He heals a man who had been crippled for nearly forty years. Since this occurred on the Sabbath, local religious leaders are angry. In fact, they are more upset with Jesus for working on the Sabbath than amazed at His miracle. In response, Jesus offers an important perspective on evidence. Jesus refers to human testimony, scriptural testimony, and miracles as reasons to believe His declarations. Christ also lays claim to many of the attributes of God, making a clear claim to divinity.

Chapters 1 through 4 showed Jesus avoiding major publicity. Here, in chapter 5, He will begin to openly challenge the local religious leaders. This chapter is Jesus' first major answer to His critics in this gospel. The fact that Jesus is willing to heal on the Sabbath sets up a theme of His upcoming disagreements with the Pharisees. Jesus also provides an important perspective on the relationship between evidence and faith, which He will expand on in later chapters. This chapter also establishes a key point made by Jesus' critics: His claims to be God.

The disciple John wrote the gospel of John decades after the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke were written. The author assumes that a reader is already familiar with the content of these other works. So, John presents a different perspective, with a greater emphasis on meaning. John uses seven miracles—which he calls "signs"— to prove that Jesus is, in fact, God incarnate. Some of the most well-known verses in the Bible are found here. None is more famous than the one-sentence summary of the gospel found in John 3:16.