The Healing at the Pool

1Later on, there was anothera festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2Near the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem is a pool called Bethesdab in Hebrew. It has five colonnades, 3and under these a large number of sick people were lying—blind, lame, or paralyzed—waiting for the movement of the water.c 4At certain times an angel of the Lord would go down into the pool and stir up the water, and whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was healed of whatever disease he had.d

5One particular man was there who had been ill for 38 years. 6When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

7The sick man answered him, “Sir, I don’t have anyone to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up. While I’m trying to get there, someone else steps down ahead of me.”

8Jesus told him, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!” 9The man immediately became well, and he picked up his mat and started walking. Now that day was a Sabbath.

10So the Jewish leaderse told the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.

11But he answered them, “The man who made me well told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’”

12They asked him, “Who is the man who told you, ‘Pick it up and walk’?”

13But the one who had been healed did not know who it was, because Jesus had slipped away from the crowd in that place. 14Later on, Jesus found him in the Temple and told him, “Look! You have become well. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” 15The man went off and told the Jewish leadersf that it was Jesus who had made him well. 16So the Jewish leadersg began persecuting Jesus,h because he kept doing such things on the Sabbath.

17But Jesusi answered them, “My Father has been working until now, and I, too, am working.” 18So the Jewish leadersj were trying all the harder 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.

The Authority of the Son

19Jesus told them, “Truly, I tell all of youk emphatically, the Son can do nothing on his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing, What the Father does, the Son does likewise. 20The Father loves the Son and shows him everything he is doing, and he will show him even greater actions than these, so that you may be amazed. 21Just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to those he chooses. 22The Father judges no one, but has given all authority to judge to the Son, 23so that everyone may honor the Son as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.

24“Truly, I tell all of youl emphatically, whoever hears what I say and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged, but has passed from death to life. 25Truly, I tell all of youm emphatically, the time approaches, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear it will live. 26Just 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 judge, because he is the Son of Man. 28Don’t be amazed at this, because the time is approaching when everyone in their graves will hear the Son of Man’sn voice 29and will come out—those who have done what is good to the resurrection that leads too life, and those who have practiced what is evil to the resurrection that ends inp condemnation.q 30I can do nothing on my own accord. I judge according to what I hear, and my judgment is just, because I do not seek my own will but the will of the one who sent me.”

Jesus’ Greater Testimony

31“If I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is not trustworthy. 32There is another who testifies about me, and I knowr that the testimony he gives about me is true. 33You have sent messengerss to John, and he has testified to the truth. 34I myself do not accept human testimony, but I am saying these things so that you may be saved. 35That man Johnt was a lamp that burns and brightly shines, and for a while you were willing to rejoice in his light.

36“But I have a greater testimony than John’s, because the actions that the Father has given me to complete—the very actions that I am doing—testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me. 37Moreover, the Father who sent me has himself testified on my behalf. You have never heard his voice or seen what he looks like, 38nor do you have his word at worku in you, because you do not believe in the one whom he sent. 39You examine the Scriptures carefully because you suppose that in them you have eternal life. Yet they testify about me. 40But you are not willing to come to me to have life.

41“I do not accept human praise. 42I know that you do not have the love of God in you. 43I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me. Yet if another man comes in his own name, you will accept him. 44How can you believe when you accept each other’s praise and do not look for the praise that comes from the only God?v 45Do not suppose that I will be the one to accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom you have set your hope, 46because if you believed Moses, you would believe me, since he wrote about me. 47But if you do not believe what he wrote, how will you believe my words?”