Jesus says to him, Arise, take up thy couch and walk.
A man had been ill for thirty-eight years, lying by a pool whose moving water he could never reach in time. Then a stranger spoke a word of command, and in a moment the man had everything the pool had promised and never given.
The man expected help into the water. What came instead was a word, and the cure was total from the first moment.
He never imagined that the stranger, who had shown interest by His question, could be not a helper but the Healer. Jehovah who heals was standing before him. So now came the word — the word of power and of command, "Get up, take up your bed, and walk" (8). Who said that? A voice from heaven? No, a man upon earth, even the Son of Man. Power at once reinvigorated the limbs. He was made whole. It was no gradual recovery working up by degrees to full health. For he took up his bed, and walked.
The pool was real mercy, but it worked on a condition the sick man could not meet — you had to be strong enough to use it.
The pool did not only work now and then. Its help was also incomplete and conditional. Like the law, it required enough strength to use it. He that was quite powerless lay there in vain. Another stepped in before he could be put into the water when troubled by the angel. To will was present with him, but not to do. "O wretched man that I am!" was all he could feel. He needed the only One Who could speak the effective word: "Get up, take up your bed, and walk." Then he obeyed at once, Sabbath though it was. What was an angel's act next to that?
One writer sees in the man a picture of Israel, "under testing; incapable of ever meeting the divine claims of the covenant" (George Davison).
This is the difference between a demand and a gift. The order to get up would be cruelty if the strength to obey did not come with it.
"Get up, take up your bed, and walk" gave the bedridden man at the pool of Bethesda all the power he needed to obey the command. But the law of Moses did not do that. The law came to a man who had no strength to meet its righteous demand, and it cursed him for his disobedience. But grace gives the soul the power it must have, so that he can respond with thanks to the word spoken to him.
The bed is not a detail. The Lord tells the man to pick up the very object that had held him for years, and to need nothing else.
And here the Lord Himself speaks to the poor crippled man of nothing but His own healing power: "Get up, take up your bed, and walk." He was to carry the bed that once carried him, while he lay waiting by the pool. He needed nothing else. He knew the healing of the Son of God, and he was free.
The Lord could have healed him and left him lying there. Instead He sent him walking through the city on the one day when everyone would notice a man carrying his bed.
He picks out a completely helpless and hopeless man. At His command the man carries his bed through Jerusalem on that very Sabbath, and this proves the cure is real. But it was a witness to more than the power of Jesus. It also showed the authority He had as the Son of God to set aside the customs of the law.
Christ's word did the same thing at a grave, and it does the same in a soul that is dead.
"Lazarus, come forth" brought the dead man out of his grave, with the life blood running through his veins and the bloom of health on his face. And when the word of life comes in the power of the Spirit to a soul that is morally dead, that soul is made to live in the life of Christ.
Later in the chapter Jesus speaks of the Son giving life. Another writer points out that the verb there is the one He used at the pool.
Now the Son comes in to give life, "even so the Son gives life to whom He will". … The word "raises" in chapter 5 is the same as the one said to the man at the pool, "Get up, take up your bed, and walk" (see John 5:8 and 21).
- Helpless. The man's problem was not the pool but his own weakness — like the law, it demanded a strength he did not have.
- Word. No water touched him. A spoken command from the Son of God did what thirty-eight years of waiting could not.
- Power. Grace does not only tell a man to rise; it supplies the strength the command calls for.
- Witness. He carries what once carried him. His bed had been the proof of his weakness. Now it walks through Jerusalem as proof of the cure.
- Life. The word that lifted him is the word Christ uses of raising the dead. The same voice still makes a dead soul live.
And immediately the man became well, and took up his couch and walked and on that day was sabbath.
One word from Jesus, and a man who had not walked for thirty-eight years stands up and carries his mat away. John then adds a short note that turns the whole scene into a fight: the day was the Sabbath.
John's wording marks how fast the change came.
Power at once restored strength to his limbs. He was made whole. It was not a recovery that improved step by step until he was fully well. For he took up his bed, and walked. Before he was struck down he could have done all this. After thirty-eight years of forced disability he could do it again — and at once, in front of all the crowd of sick people. He rose up. He carried his bed. He walked.
The mat is the detail to watch. For years it had held a helpless man.
"Get up, take up your bed, and walk." What powerful words! The man is strengthened. Power runs through his long-weakened frame. This is a picture: he now stands on the ground of resurrection. He had known what the weakness of death meant. He is now in the vigour of life. He carries his bed; what was proof of his weakness becomes the witness of the power given to him by Christ.
For thirty-eight years nothing had made this man well. One writer explains why the law could never have done it.
Yet by his confession he admitted that he wanted to be made whole. The word of the Lord made him completely sound at once. The law could not do this for him, because it was weak through the powerlessness of his flesh. The Son of God, now present on earth, did it in an instant as His own work. The man was able not only to walk but also to carry the bed which had once been proof of his helplessness. The Lord told him to do this even though it was the Sabbath.
John's closing note is not a stray detail. Commentators see a clash here between man's idea of rest and God's.
Man does not know what the Sabbath truly means. So he insists on keeping it outwardly, to gain a religious reputation. But while he insists on that outward keeping, he does not care at all about the sin that broke into the rest. The blessing of Sabbath rest belongs to a people who keep the law, not to a people who break it. Man may be content to rest in the presence of sin and the misery it brings. God cannot rest where sin and misery exist. His holiness demands that He deal with sin; His love drives Him to work for the relief of the sinner.
The cure was complete without the mat. One writer asks why the Lord added the order.
A man lay helpless beside Bethesda, waiting for an angel to come down. He found that One greater than all angels was there, who did not need to stir the waters. A word was enough; for power went with it, and the man was healed. But Jesus told him to get up, take up his bed, and walk, Sabbath though it was. Could he not have left his bed there, or at least left it for that day? Yes. But when he acted at the word of the One who healed him, that was a plain testimony, and a very irritating one: God had no fellowship with their Sabbaths.
The reaction came at once, and it did not stop with the man.
The law of the Sabbath was very strict. All kinds of work were forbidden, even picking up sticks and lighting a fire. So the Jews were up in arms at once when they saw the man carrying his bed. He had a ready and sufficient answer. The Man who had healed him had told him to do it, and a little later he could name that Man — Jesus. Their zeal for the Sabbath was so great that from that moment He became the object of their hatred and persecution.
For the crowd this was a broken Sabbath. For the man himself, another writer suggests, it was the opposite.
It was the first true day of rest for him. All his useless efforts after life and health stopped. He rested entirely in the grace and power of Another.
- At once. The cure was total and instant, in front of a whole crowd of sick people.
- A word, not a pool. No angel needed to stir the water. The word of the Son of God healed him in an instant.
- The bed. What had been proof of his helplessness became the proof of the power given to him.
- The Sabbath. God cannot rest where sin and misery exist. His holiness makes Him deal with sin. His love makes Him work for the sufferer.
- True rest. His own rest began the day his useless efforts stopped and he rested in the grace and power of Another.
The Jews therefore said to the healed [man], It is sabbath, it is not permitted thee to take up thy couch.
A man who had not walked for thirty-eight years is on his feet, carrying the bed he had lain on. The first response he meets is not joy but a legal objection. It raises two questions: what was the sabbath for, and who may tell a healed man how to use his new strength?
The day they appeal to had a real place in God's dealings with Israel. But the men defending it had long since drained it of meaning.
The sabbath marks the end of something, not the beginning. God set the seventh day apart, after He had finished the work of creation... There and elsewhere it is called a sign between God and the children of Israel. But early in their history the Israelites had neglected and abandoned this holy command. They had borne the consequences of it... Tradition and a legal keeping of ceremonies, worked out in the smallest details, had taken the place of "the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith." Pride and hypocrisy marked the leaders of the people. They did not want to recognize Him who was Lord of the sabbath.
Notice who does not object. The sick around the pool say nothing. The objection comes from men who had never lain there.
Who among the crowd of sick people would have rebuked him for carrying his bed, though it was the Sabbath day? But the Jews now appeared and rebuked the man. They were strict defenders of traditional teaching, ready, if they could, to stop the Almighty from acting in healing power on that day... They had surely never known what physical weakness was. Had they been cured like this themselves, after feeling for themselves what that man had suffered for thirty-eight years, could they have spoken like that?
Their rule said nothing while the man lay on that bed for years. It spoke up only when he picked it up.
But it was man's sabbath. It was no longer the seal of Jehovah's covenant with the seed of Abraham — as it was once, and will be again — but the badge of man's self-righteousness... It was lawful enough, no doubt, for him to lie on that bed week after week, month after month, year after year. All that time they went on with their empty, worthless, hollow effort at keeping the sabbath. If they had had one ray of spiritual light, they would have seen how glaring the inconsistency was. They were holding on to their traditional ideas about the sabbath in the presence of human misery, disease and degradation.
The law of Moses had held the man for all thirty-eight years and left him where it found him. That settles who may now direct him.
He had now come under new authority. What had the law of Moses done for him? He had been under it for thirty-eight years, bedridden and helpless. It had not healed him. It had given him no ability to carry his bed. What did he owe that law? The power he now had did not come from the law, and the law had no right to control it... His bed that was once the witness of his weakness is now the witness of his power... The One who gave the power was the One to direct it. It is the same with the believer in Jesus: he is not under the law, but neither is he lawless, he is subject to Christ.
The objection assumes God could wait a day. The state of the people around that pool says otherwise.
Was not God showing by this that He must work, and work on the sabbath, if the sinner was to get the blessing he needed as he is? For man was waiting in sin and misery without His blessing. What folly to fuss over the fine points of the sabbath while standing in the ruins of sin! If sinners were to be saved, there was no time to lose. If the Blesser came, would He not give the blessing at once?
The Lord's own reply traces this back to the character of God Himself.
See the blessed and touching way in which Christ met the stupid accusation of breaking the sabbath. He had made the man carry his bed, proving that the life-giving God and Lord of the sabbath was there. They charged Him with it. What is His answer? "My Father is working until now, and I am working." ... Can the holy God of love rest where sin is? God might have destroyed in judgment; but in goodness He cannot rest in sin. He works where sin and misery are.
- Sign. The sabbath began as God's rest after creation, and a sign between Him and Israel. Tradition and detailed rule-keeping had crowded that out.
- Blindness. The men who objected had never known such weakness. The sick around the pool would never have rebuked him.
- Inconsistency. The bed was lawful enough while he lay on it for years; it became unlawful only when it proved that Christ had worked.
- Authority. The law gave him no power to carry that bed, so it had no right to control the power he now had. The One who gave the power decides when to use it.
- Work. God cannot rest where sin and misery are, so the Father and the Son were working. The bed that once showed his weakness now showed his strength.
He answered them, He that made me well, *he* said to me, Take up thy couch and walk.
A man ill for thirty-eight years has just been healed. At once the Jews stop him in the street for carrying his bed on the Sabbath. His whole defence is a person: the One who healed him is the One who told him to carry it.
The objection did not come from the sick people around him.
Who among the crowd of sick people would have blamed him for carrying his bed, even though it was the Sabbath? But the Jews were sticklers for traditional teaching. They were ready, if they could, to stop the Almighty from healing on that day. Now they came and blamed the man... No doubt they had never known what bodily weakness was. Had they suffered for thirty-eight years and then been cured themselves, could they have taken such ground? And how simply he met them! He did not argue against their view of the Sabbath. He did not accuse them of having no pity for those who suffered. He answered them, "The man who healed me, that man said to me, 'Take up your bed, and walk.'" For him that was quite enough. He was satisfied that he had authority to do what he had done.
The strength in his legs came from somewhere, and not from the rule being quoted at him.
This man gets strength to carry his bed, and he carries it... But he had now come under a new authority. What had the law of Moses done for him? He had been under it for thirty-eight years, bedridden and helpless. It had not healed him... His new power did not come from the law, and the law had no right to control it... His bed once showed his weakness. Now it shows his power. Surely the One who gave him this power was the only One with the right to say on what day he should use it. What right had the law to control a power it could not give?... The One who gave the power was the One to direct it.
The law asked for something this man's body could not give.
By his own words he showed that he wanted to be made whole, and the word of the Lord made him completely sound at once. The law could not do that for him, because it was weak through the helplessness of his flesh. The Son of God, now present on earth, did it in an instant. The man was able not only to walk but also to carry the bed which formerly had witnessed to his helplessness. The Lord told him to do this though it was the Sabbath. The Sabbath law was very strict. All kinds of work were forbidden, even picking up sticks and lighting a fire. So the Jews were up in arms at once when they saw the man carrying his bed. But he had a ready and sufficient answer. The Man who had healed him had told him to do it, and a little later he was able to name that Man — Jesus.
The law was not silent toward him. It had only one thing to say.
He had been long enough under Moses without receiving the slightest benefit. If he had been able to keep the law's commandment, he would have needed neither the pool of Bethesda nor the help of the Lord... But he could not do what he justly owed. So Moses can do nothing but accuse him.
At this moment he cannot name the man who healed him. He acts on the word that raised him, and that is enough.
The healed man was simple, and his answer bears the stamp of right and truth. Divine power had worked here beyond an angel's reach or commission, and without any angel at all. That power was his authority to act on the word... The Jews spoke with malice and contempt: "Who is the man?" It is hard to believe they did not know that more than a man was among them, and Who He was. They knew His works, even if they did not know Him; and His works and His ways proclaimed a mission more than human.
The commentators read the scene as a picture of the change from law to grace — not into freedom from all authority, but into obedience to Christ.
The Lord comes along and says to him, "Rise, take up your bed, and walk." He gave him power to walk and carry his bed. In that way He broke the letter of the Sabbath law. The Jews meet him carrying his bed and say, "It is not lawful for you to carry your bed." What is his answer? In effect he says, "I am not under law any more." Where are you? "Well, I am under grace." How is that? "I have come under a new authority."
- Power — the strength to rise came from Christ alone. The law left this man helpless for thirty-eight years and gave him nothing.
- Authority — Christ gave the power, so only Christ can say how and when to use it.
- Answer — he argued nothing and accused no one. Pointing to the One who healed him was defence enough.
- Obedience — he acted on the word before he could even name the Person who spoke it.
- Freedom — the result is not a life with no master. He is no longer under law; he is under grace, and under Christ's authority.
They asked him [therefore],Who is the man who said to thee, Take up thy couch and walk?
These men have just watched a man walk after thirty-eight years of illness. They do not ask who healed him; they ask who told him to carry his bed on the Sabbath.
The question skips the one fact everyone could see.
The Lord speaks only a word: "Get up, take up your bed, and walk." The result follows at once. It was the Sabbath day. These Jews could not help the man. They had no pity for him in his long illness and disappointment. Now the sight of him, safe and sound, carrying his bed on that day shocks them. But they learn that it was his divine Physician who had not only healed him, but had so directed him. At once their malice ignores the kind power of God shown here. They are angry about the imagined wrong done to the seventh day.
They meant it as an accusation. But it lands on the one issue the rest of the chapter answers.
At once these opponents ask, with apparent contempt, "Who is the man who said to you, 'Take up your bed and walk'?" Whatever their thoughts, everything turns on one question: "Who is this Man?" That is still the question. Who is this glorious Person, full of grace and truth, who has come to dwell among men? Every blessing for man depends on the glory of His Person, which the verses that follow set before us so richly.
The healed man had already given his defence. His logic was simple: the strength was not his own, so the law had no right to direct it.
He had now come under new authority. What had the law of Moses done for him? He had been under it for thirty-eight years, bedridden and helpless. It had not healed him. It had given him no ability to carry his bed. What did he owe that law? The power he now had was not derived from the law, and the law had no right to control it... His bed once showed his weakness. Now it shows his power. And surely the One who gave him this power was the only One with the right to say on what day he could use it. "The man who healed me, that man said to me, 'Take up your bed, and walk.'" This was unanswerable. It is the same with the believer in Jesus: he is not under the law, but neither is he lawless — he is subject to Christ.
The setting makes the question ugly. These men had walked past that man for years without protest.
But it was man's sabbath. Once it was the seal of Jehovah's covenant with the descendants of Abraham, and it will be that again. But now it was only the badge of man's self-righteousness. "So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, 'It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.'" It was, no doubt, lawful enough for him to lie on that bed, week after week, month after month, year after year. All that while they carried on with their empty, worthless, hollow efforts at sabbath keeping. One ray of spiritual light would have shown them the contradiction. They held on to their traditional ideas about the sabbath while human misery, disease and degradation stood in front of them.
They wanted a name. And there was a reason the Lord had given a command that would force the issue rather than healing quietly.
He could have healed the man without the smallest outward act to shock their zeal for the law. He told the man in plain words to take up his bed and walk, as well as to get up. There was purpose in it. This passed a sentence of death on their system, and they felt it.
Once the man named Jesus, their hostility had its target.
But he had a ready answer, and it was enough. The Man who had healed him had told him to do it; and a little later he was able to name that Man — Jesus. Their zeal for the Sabbath was so strong that from that moment they hated Him and persecuted Him.
- Question — They ask who gave the order, not who gave the strength. Enmity can look straight at the power of God and change the subject.
- Person — "Who is this Man?" is the real issue, asked in contempt but answered in glory through the rest of the chapter. All blessing for us hangs on the answer.
- Authority — The One who supplies the power is the One entitled to direct its use. The law never gave the man strength, so it had no right to govern it.
- Blindness — Their Sabbath had become a badge of self-righteousness. It let them ignore a sick man for years, then object the moment he stood up.
- Result — The command to carry the bed was deliberate. It passed sentence on their system, and from that day they turned against Jesus.