John 5

¹After these events, there was a festival of the Judeans, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ²Now in Jerusalem, by the Sheep Gate, there is a pool called Bethesda in Aramaic, which has five roofed colonnades. ³In these lay a multitude of those who were weak, blind, lame, and paralyzed. ⁵A certain man was there who had spent thirty-eight years in his state of weakness. ⁶When Jesus saw him lying there and realized he had already been in this condition for a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to become healthy?”

⁷The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up. While I am trying to get there, someone else steps down ahead of me.” ⁸Jesus said to him, “Get up, pick up your sleeping mat, and walk.” ⁹Immediately the man became healthy; he picked up his mat and began to walk. Now that day was a Sabbath. ¹⁰So the Judeans said to 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 one who made me healthy—that man told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’” ¹²They asked him, “Who is the man who told you, ‘Pick up your mat and walk’?” ¹³But the man who had been cured did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was in that place.

¹⁴Afterward, Jesus found him in the Temple and said to him, “See, you have become healthy. Stop sinning, so that nothing worse happens to you.” ¹⁵The man went away and reported to the Judeans that it was Jesus who had made him healthy. ¹⁶Because of this, the Judeans began to harass Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. ¹⁷But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I too am working.” ¹⁸Because of this, the Judeans were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he loosening the Sabbath, but he was also calling God his own Father, making himself equal to God.

¹⁹Jesus then addressed them, saying: “Truly, truly I tell you, the Son is able to do nothing on his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son does likewise. ²⁰For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he himself is doing. And he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed. ²¹For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he wishes. ²²For the Father judges no one, but has given the authority of all justice-execution to the Son, ²³so that everyone may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. The one who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.

²⁴Truly, truly I tell you, the one who hears my word and trusts the one who sent me has the life of the coming Age. Such a person does not come into judgment but has already crossed over from death into life. ²⁵Truly, truly I tell you, an hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. ²⁶For just as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. ²⁷And he gave him authority to execute justice, because he is a Son of Humanity. ²⁸Do not be amazed at this, for an hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice ²⁹and come out—those who have done good to a resurrection of life, and those who have practiced evil to a resurrection of judgment.

³⁰I can do nothing on my own. I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, because I do not seek my own will but the will of the one who sent me. ³¹If I testify about myself, my testimony is not valid. ³²There is another who testifies about me, and I know that the testimony he gives about me is true. ³³You sent messengers to John, and he has testified to the truth. ³⁴Not that I receive human testimony, but I say these things so that you may be saved. ³⁵He was the lamp that was burning and shining, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.

³⁶But I have a testimony greater than John’s. For the works that the Father has given me to complete—the very works I am doing—testify about me that the Father has sent me. ³⁷And the Father who sent me has himself testified about me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, ³⁸and you do not have his word remaining in you, because you do not trust the one whom he sent. ³⁹You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have the life of the coming Age; yet they are the ones testifying about me. ⁴⁰And yet you do not want to come to me so that you may have life.

⁴¹I do not receive honor from humans. ⁴²But I know you—that you do not have the love of God in yourselves. ⁴³I have come in the name of my Father, and you do not receive me; if another comes in his own name, you will receive him. ⁴⁴How are you able to trust, when you receive honor from one another and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God? ⁴⁵Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, in whom you have placed your hope. ⁴⁶For if you trusted Moses, you would trust me, for he wrote about me. ⁴⁷But if you do not trust his writings, how will you trust my words?”