As In The First Two Signs, the third sign of John speaks about the past, present, and future. No verse says that the healing of the impotent man at the pool of Bethesda is the third sign — at least not in so many words. In fact, the only signs sequentially numbered are the first two. But as we will see in this and future articles, there are good reasons to believe that this gospel encourages us to attach other signs to this short list.
Third sign, John 5
A quick perusal of a few expositions or commentaries on this chapter reveals a variety of views touching everything from the “feast of the Jews,” (v. 1), to the textual authenticity of parts of the narrative. Some are even skeptical of the impotent man’s sincerity. Yet when we consider the history that John encourages us to consider, often our questions can be answered.
After spending some time in Galilee in which Jesus healed the nobleman’s son, he went up to Jerusalem to “a feast of the Jews.” It seems most Bible students agree it was the Passover. If this is true, John records four Passovers covering a full three years of Jesus’ ministry — the first being the Passover after the first sign, and the last just after his crucifixion (2:13; 5:1; 6:4; 18:28).
We are told that by the sheep gate at the pool of Bethesda, with its five porches, there was a crowd of blind, lame, and withered people “waiting for the moving of the water.” They believed that after an angel “troubled” the water, the first one who stepped in would be healed. One man was there who had been sick for 38 years, and it was on him that Jesus fixed his attention, and asked, “Wilt thou be made whole?”
Doubts about some of the words
Many people believe the last clause of verse three through verse four does not belong in the Bible. If we accept the passage as recorded, however, we are not presented with any scriptural contradiction. We should always be cautious when asserting that any given passage is not authentic. In a footnote, the Emphatic Diaglott says that this section of Scripture “is without doubt the addition of some transcriber.” Some find it difficult to believe an angel of God would operate in this way, but it is certainly within the realm of possibility. There is another alternative; it is possible that the spirit is simply providing us with the multitude’s belief about an angel at the pool of Bethesda. Upon first glance there is no hint of this interpretation, but verse 18 seems to allow for it, as we will see later.
Significance of 38 years
The man had been unable to walk for 38 years. Though we are not told how long he had been coming to the pool with his hope of healing, it was at least long enough to experience the disappointment and futility he described in verse 7: “Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me” (John 5:7).
The fact that John includes the number 38 is significant, and helps us begin to understand how we should interpret this sign. On the plains of Moab, Moses spoke to the children of Israel and said: “The space in which we came from Kadesh-barnea, until we were come over the brook Zered, was thirty and eight years” (Deut. 2:14). Numbers records what happened in this 38th year counting from the time of the spies’ “evil report.” It was a year marked by victories over Sihon and Og. It was the same year in which Balaam taught Balak “to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication” (Rev. 2:14). Before Phinehas turned away God’s wrath, 24,000 died in a plague. But this generation of Israel, in the 38th year from Kadesh-barnea, was the same one that entered the land of promise, and “served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that overlived Joshua, and which had known all the works of the LORD, that he had done for Israel” (Josh. 24:31). For Israel, this 38th year was marked by great faith and victory, but also terrible sin and death.
Through his 38 years in the wilderness, marked by the same struggles as that generation of Israel which he represents, the impotent man understood he could not do it on his own. “I have no man,” he said, not knowing the manner of man to whom he spoke.
There must have been something about the way Jesus spoke for the impotent man, so accustomed to his disability, to even make an effort to stand. “Rise, take up thy bed, and walk,” must have been spoken with the same authority that astonished the multitudes he taught, and struck fear into the mob that arrested him. And after nearly four decades of infirmity, he “took up his bed, and walked.”
Healed on the Sabbath day
Jesus could have picked any day to heal this man, but “the same day was the Sabbath.” Having already survived for 38 years in his condition, it hardly appeared the impotent man would die that day without Jesus’ intervention. Neither was this the only time that Jesus healed on the Sabbath: there appear to be seven times when he healed on the day of rest (Matthew 12:13—Mark 3:1-5—Luke 6:7-10; Mark 1:23; Luke 4:33; Luke 13:11-14; Luke 14:3-4; John 5:9; John 9:14).
The Jews accused the healed man of breaking the Sabbath. “He that made me whole, the same said unto me, Take up thy bed, and walk” (John 5:11). We see another example of the Jews’ mentality in their response to the man, “for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh” (Matt. 12:34). Instead of sincerely desiring to know who was capable of such a work (which only God could do), they rather asked who it was that commanded such a brazen infraction of their brand of “lawfulness.”
It cannot be said that either the healed man or Jesus broke the Sabbath. A profaner of the Sabbath could not have been an acceptable unblemished sacrifice for our sins. Neither would the lamb of God command those he healed to profane the sabbath. But the Jews believed otherwise, “and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the sabbath day” (John 5:16).
It is appropriate at this point to notice the way in which the word has recorded the belief of the Jews concerning Jesus’ supposed crime of Sabbath-breaking. Verse 18 says that Jesus “had broken the sabbath.” But Jesus’ guilt was only a reality in the minds of his accusers.
On this same principle, perhaps verses 3 and 4 become clear in their proper context. It was the belief of the Jews that verses 16 and 18 illustrate, and it was the belief of the impotent multitude by the pool that verses 3 and 4 explain. It is fitting that this would be the case, as we consider again the picture of the impotent multitude. The earth’s multitudes have always sought healing and life in pools that never keep their promises. It was from this desperately idolatrous and superstitious situation that both the nation of Israel and this impotent man were called.
Rise up and walk has significance for us
Both the children of Israel and this impotent man received a command filled with meaning that sheds more light on the lesson of this sign. Jesus commanded the impotent man to “rise” (v. 8). This command, though full of practical significance to that man, carried much more: “Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee” (v. 14). Essentially, he was commanded to live after the pattern of his healing. He was to rise and stay risen—to walk.
When we rise from the waters of our baptism, we receive the same command. “Like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:4). Peter speaks of the “worse thing” in II Peter 2:20, when he speaks of those who return to the “pollutions of the world” after having once escaped from them.
God commanded the children of Israel in the same way in their 38th year: “Rise ye up, take your journey” (Deut. 2:24). They hearkened to the command, and, though the rest of that 38th year was marked by success and failure, they entered the land that same year. They did not experience the “worse thing” contained in the cursing of the law because, for the most part, they rose up, and walked with their God.
Sign connected to the resurrection
John’s gospel contains some of Jesus’ most extensive narratives concerning the miracles and we take this as his guidelines to their meaning. It is fitting that we find Jesus discoursing about the resurrection in verses 17-31. In fact, this third sign has everything to do with resurrection — three being its preeminent number. The Lord expounds the resurrection in two phases.
In a certain sense, we pass from death to life now, if we hear his word, believe on Him that sent him, and “love the brethren” (John 5:24; 1 John 3:14). It is in this way that “the hour is coming, and now is,” because “now is the day of salvation” (John 5:25; II Cor. 6:2). But “the hour is coming, in which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life” (John 5:28-29).
How inexpressible will be our joy in that day if we are counted worthy of the resurrection of life. The hour is coming. But though in the future, our resurrection begins now. It is part of the parable of our baptism, by which we are commanded to be “risen with Christ” (Col. 3:1). These words of scripture were written for our learning that we might be comforted, and encouraged about a time when “the body of this death” might be “swallowed up of life” (Rom. 7:24; II Cor. 5:4).
The generation that heard Moses speak on the plains of Moab rose up, entered the land of promise, and served the LORD. It would make sense if the man Jesus healed was of the same moral caliber — he certainly demonstrated that in verse 15. In this verse, it wasn’t Jesus that had told him to take up his bed and walk, rather, he courageously declared before the Jews that it was Jesus who made him whole.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One