Passover to Pentecost – John 5         Week 7 Day 1

Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. John 5: 1 (NIV)

Given the location of this story it is probable that this feast is Pentecost.  There is an Exodus connection with this healing.  The man who was healed had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.  This is the actual time the children of Israel wandered in the desert.  Please, between the construction of the Tabernacle and moving to the spot to send the spies out it was two years into the journey.  God actually spotted them two years when He pronounced the forty years of wandering.  (God is merciful.)

“Do you want to get well?” may seem like a strange question to an invalid. The man however did not answer, yes!  Instead he gave all of the reasons he could not get the water to work.  Jesus skips the “baptism” and just tells him to get up and walk.   If this was on the actual feast day it would have been Shabbat or no work.  This is why the Jews were really angry.

Verses 14 and 15 parallel the reaction of the grumbling Children as the months passed by and manna was the mainstay of their diet.  They were receiving a miracle every day, and they were not happy.  Jesus told the man to stop sinning or something worse may happen to him.  It seems like the man is trying to get even for being called down, or at least he trying to make brownie points with the Jews.

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