 After this there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha, which has five porticoes. In these lay many invalids-- blind, lame, and paralyzed. (Joh 5:1-3)

 One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. (5:1) › Is his illness acute or chronic? › Does chronicity mean more or less urgency? › The healing is an elective intervention.

 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, "Do you want to be made well?" The sick man answered him, "Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me." (5:6-7)

 Jesus said to him, "Stand up, take your mat and walk." (5:8)  At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk. (5:9) › Which is the important detail?

 Now that day was a sabbath. (5:9c)  So the Jews said to the man who had been cured, "It is the sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your mat." (5:10)  Now it was a sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes.(9:14).

 “The timing of the event now stands at the center of the reversal.” - Jo-Ann Brant, John (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2011), 104.  “This is the point of the story for John [in ch. 5], as also at 9:14 where Jesus healed the blind man.” - J. H. Bernard, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel According to St. John, vol. 1 (ICC; Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1928 [repr. 1993]), 232.

1.Heal the man but tell him to leave the mat. 2.Heal the man later. 3.Other And we can't help but wonder, "Why does Jesus heal this man on the Sabbath? Couldn't he have been more politic, more discreet? Why did he not wait just one more day?" - Pidcock- Lester, “John 5:1-9,” 62.

1.It happens by intent and not by accident. 2.It happens on the Sabbath by intent and not by accident. 3.The mat is part of the intent – the mat and the Sabbath.

 John 5:10-13 So the Jews said to the man who had been cured, “It is the sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.” But he answered them, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Take up your mat and walk.’” They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take it up and walk’?”  Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had disappeared in the crowd that was there.

 "Stand up, take your mat and walk." (5:8)  He took up his mat and began to walk (5:9)  "It is the sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your mat." (5:10)  "The man who made me well said to me, 'Take up your mat and walk.'" (5:11)

 Therefore the Jews started persecuting Jesus, because he was doing such things on the sabbath.  But Jesus answered them, "My Father is still working, and I also am working." (5:17)  For this reason the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because he was not only breaking the sabbath, but was also calling God his own Father, thereby making himself equal to God. (5:18)

 John 7:1 After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He did not wish to go about in Judea because the Jews were looking for an opportunity to kill him. › ἐ ζ ή τουν α ὐ τ ὸ ν ο ἱ Ἰ ουδα ῖ οι ἀ ποκτε ῖ ναι (7:1) › ἐ ζ ή τουν α ὐ τ ὸ ν ο ἱ Ἰ ουδα ῖ οι ἀ ποκτε ῖ ναι (5:18)

 Jesus answered them, “I performed one work, and all of you are astonished. Moses gave you circumcision (it is, of course, not from Moses, but from the patriarchs), and you circumcise a man on the sabbath. If a man receives circumcision on the sabbath in order that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because I healed a man’s whole body on the sabbath?” (7:21–23)

 Many of them were saying, "He has a demon and is out of his mind. Why listen to him?" Others were saying, "These are not the words of one who has a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?" (10:20-21)  Jesus replied, "I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these are you going to stone me?" The Jews answered, "It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you, but for blasphemy, because you, though only a human being, are making yourself God." (10:32-33)

 When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man's eyes, (9:6)  "The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and said to me, 'Go to Siloam and wash.' (9:11)  Now it was a sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. (9:14)  He said to them, "He put mud on my eyes. Then I washed, and now I see." (9:15)

 But Jesus answered them, 1. "My Father is working until now, 2. and I also am working" (John 5:17). 3. “We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; 4. night is coming when no one can work” (John 9:4).

Sabbath Verbs in John  “My Father is working”  “I am working” (5:17) Sabbath in the Torah  God rested on the seventh day (Gen 2:2)  God rested from all the work (2:3)  The Lord …rested the seventh day (Ex 20:11)  On the seventh day he rested (Ex 31:17

 Does the rest of God in the Torah and the work of Jesus in John expose a conflict in the very heart of the Sabbath?  Could the rest of God in the Torah and the work of Jesus in John signify something other than a contradiction?

Genesis “God rested on the seventh day” REST John “My Father is working until now and I am also working” WORK REVELATION

 Why insist on healing on the Sabbath – except to harness the revelatory intent of the seventh day?  God’s rest at creation and God’s work ‘until now’ meet in the motif of revelation.

 And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done (Gen 2:2)  κα ὶ συνετ έ λεσεν ὁ θε ὸ ς ἐ ν τ ῇ ἡ μ έ ρ ᾳ τ ῇ ἕ κτ ῃ τ ὰ ἔ ργα α ὐ το ῦ ἃ ἐ πο ί ησεν  "It is finished." Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. (19:30)  ὅ τε ο ὖ ν ἔ λαβεν τ ὸ ὄ ξος [ ὁ ] Ἰ ησο ῦ ς ε ἶ πεν, Τετ έ λεσται,

 I do not mean to denigrate the resurrection or ‘the eighth day’ theology that goes with it. The cross and the resurrection are a seamless garment, but as focal images go the focal image of the cross will in my reading take precedence over the resurrection. To the extent that the Sabbath and Sunday are rivals of sort, a theology and a symbol that are anchored in the cross will not be at a disadvantage to a theology and a symbol that are anchored in the resurrection. I say this even as I am looking for the best place to anchor hope.