After these things Jesus finds him in the temple, and said to him, Behold, thou art become well sin no more, that something worse do not happen to thee.
Jesus healed a man at Bethesda, then went looking for him and found him in the temple. His words there raise two questions: how is this man's sin linked to his long illness, and what is the "worse thing" a healed man still has reason to fear?
The Lord took the first step. One writer sees the man's presence in the temple as a sign that gratitude had already stirred.
So the Lord goes after the man He healed, and finds him in the temple. It would seem that his heart was touched by the blessing he had received, for he goes at once to the temple to praise God. The Lord warns him that behind the sickness of the body there had been the indulgence of sin, and that sin brings its governmental consequences.
The exact wording matters. Jesus does not credit the man's faith here. He points him to the plain fact of his cure, and then to his responsibility.
I note here that it was not faith in Jesus in this case, but the exercise of Jesus' power in His own will, flowing from Himself. So we read that the man did not know Jesus. He still did not know Him afterwards, until Jesus met him in the temple and spoke to him. Therefore Jesus treats him as still under the discipline of the Law. "See" — take notice of this — "you are well." He does not say, Your faith has saved you, or anything like it. Then: "sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you."
The same writer places the whole scene inside God's dealings with Israel as a nation, where health and blessing were signs of His favour:
So, dealing with His people in government, He says to the man, "Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you." This was Jehovah acting in grace and blessing among His people. But it came in earthly things — the signs of His favour and love — and it belonged to His government in Israel.
One writer is careful here. He says only that the man's illness may be traced to particular sins, and he points to cases in both Testaments.
It may be said that this man's illness came on him as punishment for particular sins he had committed. God sent such judgments in this life while He governed the people of Israel, as Scripture shows in many places... In New Testament times the same thing happened in the assembly at Corinth. Many there were sick and some had even died, because of their sin (1 Cor. 11:30; see also James 5:14-16). The Lord recognised this kind of affliction — a judgment — in the case of the helpless man of Bethesda.
A healed body is not a saved soul. The warning is kind and serious at once.
It was a gracious, yet solemn word. To live now, to enjoy this present life, is not the main thing. No cure could meet man's underlying need, however much it showed the power and goodness of God. Sin still remained. A cure was only provisional.
Christ saw further than the illness He had cured. One writer draws out what that says about our efforts to relieve suffering.
His care for people did not stop where man's care stops. He saw a worse thing, far beyond the human misery He had just cured. There were still death and judgment ahead of the man who had been so wonderfully delivered... This is the sad mistake of such kindness: the goal it aims at, even if reached, stops short of deliverance from "the worse thing." Grant it everything it aims at, and the root of the evil still remains untouched.
The man then told the Jews who his Healer was. Commentators differ over what that shows. One reads him gently:
So the healed man in his simplicity did not see through their aim, but seems rather to have assumed that they were anxious to know his wonderful benefactor... There is no ground, I think, to suppose that he shared the feelings of the Jews, or wished to betray Jesus to those who hated Him.
Another writer judges him far more severely:
With the single exception of Judas Iscariot, there is probably no more contemptible character in the Gospel narrative than this man. Jesus healed him by pure grace, and he tries to save his own worthless skin at his Healer's expense.
- Sought. The cure was not the end. Jesus sought the man out to deal with the sin behind the sickness.
- Told, not commended. Jesus points him to the fact — you are well — not to his faith. The power that healed him was Christ's own.
- Traced. Behind the long illness lay sin. Sin brings consequences under God's government, as Corinth later learned through sickness and death.
- Provisional. A cure meets the symptom, but sin remains. That is why every effort to relieve human misery stops short of the real need.
- Worse. The thing still ahead of a healed man is death and judgment — the one danger a restored body cannot outrun.
The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.