““Get up,” Jesus told him, “pick up your mat and walk! ” Instantly the man got well, picked up his mat, and started to walk. Now that day was the Sabbath,” John 5:8-9 HCSB
“Jesus said to him, “Get up, pick up your pallet and walk.” Immediately the man became well, and picked up his pallet and began to walk. Now it was the Sabbath on that day.” John 5:8-9 NASB
• Jesus told this guy to do something that this guy could not do…without Jesus.
“so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “This is the Sabbath! It’s illegal for you to pick up your mat.””
John 5:10 HCSB
• Was this true or false?
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy: You are to labor six days and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. You must not do any work — you, your son or daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the foreigner who is within your gates. For the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and everything in them in six days; then He rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and declared it holy.” Exodus 20:8-11 HCSB
“He replied, “The man who made me well told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ” “Who is this man who told you, ‘Pick up your mat and walk’? ” they asked. But the man who was cured did not know who it was, because Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there. After this, Jesus found him in the temple complex and said to him, “See, you are well. Do not sin anymore, so that something worse doesn’t happen to you.” The man went and reported to the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.” John 5:11-15 HCSB
“Therefore, the Jews began persecuting Jesus because He was doing these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus responded to them, “My Father is still working, and I am working also.” This is why the Jews began trying all the more to kill Him: Not only was He breaking the Sabbath, but He was even calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.” John 5:16-18 HCSB
• I think the point Jesus made was that God can work on the Sabbath and therefore He could also work on the Sabbath because God was His Father. Jesus could work on the Sabbath all He wanted and could tell others to work on the Sabbath if He so chose to do so.
“Then Jesus replied, “I assure you: The Son is not able to do anything on His own, but only what He sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, the Son also does these things in the same way. For the Father loves the Son and shows Him everything He is doing, and He will show Him greater works than these so that you will be amazed. And just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so the Son also gives life to anyone He wants to. The Father, in fact, judges no one but has given all judgment to the Son, so that all people will honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Anyone who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.” John 5:19-23 HCSB