I decided to take a week of from the blog considering I was preaching on John 4 the upcoming Sunday (yesterday). I thought it would be neat to pick up this weeks’ blog starting right after Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman.

Starting this week with John 5, we see Jesus doing another healing miracle. During another festival in Jerusalem, Jesus comes along and changes everything. Jesus meets a man who scripture says was “blind, lame and paralyzed” (John 5:3). It is unique that Jesus asked the man if he even wanted to be healed. I can imagine the reason that he asked this question was because Jesus knew he had been there for a long time and maybe the man felt comfortable in that type of condition. The man however wanted to be placed into the pool but had no way of getting in here. The simple transformational words of  “get up, take up your bed and walk”. The man walked and told the Jews about the man (Jesus) who had  healed him!

Later on in the passage, John explains that the Jews were seeking to kill Jesus not only because he was breaking the Sabbath but instead because he claimed equality with God (John 5:18). When formulating our theology around Christ, we must accept what the Mormons and Jehovah witness’s reject and that is the Trinity. The simple doctrine of the Trinity in believing that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are 3 persons (not 3 parts) that make up one God is the upmost important to grasp when looking at scripture as a whole. The remainder of John 5 is dedicated to Jesus explaining the authority that he possess and how whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise. The same is said about honor as to honor the Father is to honor the Son and to honor the Son is to honor the Father! There is a link of unity between the two!

I wanted to close with quoting John 5:24 as it is written “Truly, Truly I say to you, whoever hears my voice and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgement, but has passed from death to life”. Following Jesus’ interaction with Nicodemus in John 3, then the Samaritan woman in John 4 and now to the Jews in John 5, how one receives eternal life is the focus of what Jesus is trying to communicate. I am very excited to jump into John 6 next Monday and explore the peak of Jesus’ ministry and popularity.