Healing at the Pool
51After this, there was a Jewish festival, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
2Near the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem there is a pool, called Bethesda[] in Aramaic,[] which has five colonnades. 3Within these lay a large number of sick people—blind, lame, or paralyzed—who were waiting for the movement of the water. 4For an angel would go down at certain times into the pool and stir up the water. Whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was healed of whatever disease he had.[] 5One man was there who had been sick for thirty-eight years. 6When Jesus saw him lying there and knew he had already been sick a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” 7“Sir,” the sick man answered, “I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up. While I'm going, someone else goes down ahead of me.”
8Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9Instantly the man was healed. He picked up his mat and walked.
That day was the Sabbath. 10So the Jews told the man who had been healed, “This is the Sabbath! You are not permitted to carry your mat.”
11He answered them, “The one who made me well told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’”
12Then they asked him, “Who is the man who told you, ‘Pick it up and walk’?” 13But the man who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.
14Later Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “Look, you are well now. Do not sin anymore so that nothing worse happens to you.”
15The man went back and reported to the Jews that it was Jesus who made him well.
God's Son
16So the Jews began to persecute Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. 17But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working right up to the present time, and I am working too.”
18This is why the Jews tried all the more to kill him, because he was not merely breaking the Sabbath, but was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
19Jesus answered them directly, “Amen, Amen, I tell you: The Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing. Indeed, the Son does exactly what the Father does. 20For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he is doing. And he will show him even greater works than these so that you will be amazed. 21For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to those he wishes.
22“In fact, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, 23so that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. 24Amen, Amen, I tell you: Anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He is not going to come into judgment but has crossed over from death to life.
25“Amen, Amen, I tell you: A time is coming and is here now when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who listen will live. 26For just as the Father has life in himself, so also he has granted the Son to have life in himself. 27And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man.
28“Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice 29and will come out. Those who have done good will rise to live, but those who have practiced evil will rise to be condemned. 30I can do nothing at all on my own. I judge only as I hear. And my judgment is just, for I do not seek my own will, but the will of him who sent me.
31“If I were to testify about myself, my testimony would not be valid. 32There is another who testifies about me, and I know that his testimony about me is valid. 33You sent to John, and he has testified to the truth. 34The testimony I receive is not from man, but I am saying these things so that you may be saved. 35John was a lamp that was shining brightly, and for a while you wanted to enjoy his light. 36But I have testimony greater than John's. For the works that the Father gave me to carry out, the very works that I am doing, these testify about me that the Father has sent me. 37The Father who sent me—he is the one who has testified about me. You have never heard his voice or seen his form. 38And you do not have his word remaining in you, because you do not believe the one he sent. 39You search the Scriptures because you think you have eternal life in them. They testify about me! 40And yet you do not want to come to me in order to have life.
41“I do not accept honor from people. 42But I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God within you. 43I have come in my Father's name, yet you do not accept me. If someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him. 44How can you believe while you continue to accept glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?
45“Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. The one who accuses you is Moses, on whom you have set your hope. 46For if you believed Moses, you would believe me, because he wrote about me. 47But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe what I say?”