The Healing at Bethesda

1After these things there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

2Now in Jerusalem, by the Sheep Gate, there is a pool which in [a]Hebrew is called [b]Bethesda, having five [c]porticoes. 3In these porticoes lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, limping, or [d]paralyzed.[e] 5Now a man was there who had been [f]ill for thirty-eight years. 6Jesus, upon seeing this man lying there and knowing that he had already been in that condition for a long time, *said to him, “Do you want to get well?” 7The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I am coming, another steps down before me.” 8Jesus *said to him, “Get up, pick up your pallet and walk.” 9Immediately the man became well, and picked up his pallet and began to walk.

Now it was a Sabbath on that day. 10So the Jews were saying to the man who was cured, “It is a Sabbath, and it is not permissible for you to carry your pallet.” 11But he answered them, “He who made me well was the one who said to me, ‘Pick up your pallet and walk.’” 12They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Pick it up and walk’?” 13But the man who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away while there was a crowd in that place. 14Afterward, Jesus *found him in the temple and said to him, “Behold, you have become well; do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you.” 15The man went away, and informed the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. 16For this reason the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because He was doing these things on a Sabbath. 17But He answered them, “My Father [g]is working until now, and I Myself am working.”

Jesus’ Equality with God