The Gospel of John

The 3rd Miracle; The Sign of Grace

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Conversations, Panels and Sermons

Lesson: 13- 70

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Track: 013

Dictation Name: RR197G13

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This is the confidence that we have in Him that if we ask anything according to His will He heareth us. Having these promises let us draw near to the throne of grace with true hearts in full assurance of faith. Let us pray.

Almighty God our Heavenly Father, we give thanks unto Thee that Thy hand is ever upon us for good. That though we often cry and complain about Thy ways, Thy purpose for us is all together righteous, all together holy and all together good. Teach us and give us as we know Thy truth joy therein. Grant that we establish our lives not upon our wants and wishes but upon Thy word, Thy truth and Thy son. Bless us now as we give ourselves to the study of Thy word. In Christ’s name, Amen.

Our scripture this morning is John 5:1-16. The 3rd Miracle; The Sign of Grace. John 5:1-16.

“After this there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

2 Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches.

3 In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water.

4 For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.

5 And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years.

6 When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole?

7 The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me.

8 Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.

9 And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked: and on the same day was the sabbath.

10 The Jews therefore said unto him that was cured, It is the sabbath day: it is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed.

11 He answered them, He that made me whole, the same said unto me, Take up thy bed, and walk.

12 Then asked they him, What man is that which said unto thee, Take up thy bed, and walk?

13 And he that was healed wist not who it was: for Jesus had conveyed himself away, a multitude being in that place.

14 Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.

15 The man departed, and told the Jews that it was Jesus, which had made him whole.

16 And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the sabbath day.”

We can see by this time that John is selecting certain episodes from the life of our Lord in order to present us with a series of miracles that set forth a meaning far beyond themselves that are illustrations of the meaning of our Lord’s coming, of His person, His life, His work. These are meant for our instruction. They also give us a horrifying portrait of the reality of the conflict. Because our Lord healed a man on the Sabbath they decided to kill Him and all around us we see the same kind of mentality in church and state and everywhere. This is an unusual episode also because of the setting: the pool of Bethesda. There were a number of such pools in ancient Jerusalem. Then as now people went to such spas for their sometimes real benefits. Now it is hard for us to think of Jerusalem as full of pools such as it is hard for us to think of the surrounding country side of forested and of streams running constantly. There are a number of places in the world where once very, very lush terrain now is desert. Many a people have seen their homeland turned into a desert by oppressors, most notable of all the Turks. They turned every area they conquered into a wasteland. This particular pool has been discovered and excavated; it is on the property of the White Fathers near Saint Anne’s Church in Jerusalem. It was a large pool; it was between a hundred and sixty five and two hundred and twenty feet wide by three hundred and fifteen feet long.

And it had a central partition, so it was really one pool divided into two. There were colonnades on the four sides and at the partition. We are told that an angel at times troubled the water and that the first one to step in was healed. Modernist scholars are agreed that this statement was not a part of the original text but very clearly they do not want to believe in this. Of course there is not much they will accept as historical in this gospel or in the others and yet the (unknown) to the authenticity of this verse is very real. Some scholars have been courageous enough to call attention to it, William Hendrickson for example, sees it as probably historical while others such as Leon Morris sees possibly natural factors as responsible for the troubling of the waters. So the scholars are afraid to stick their neck out although it’s an authentic verse. Very clearly the temptation has been a real one to discard the angel. This is a very unusual kind of miracle but that does not mean that we should drop it or overlook it. If we try to understand this miracle and sign we will hopefully come to know the significance of every part of it. This miracle can be dated because the feast was on a Sabbath day and we know that in 29 A.D., the first day of the Feast of Purim, it was March 19. Now the feast of Purim goes back to the book of Easter, we read about in Esther 9:17-18 and it was a time of rejoicing over the victory over God’s enemies and gifts were given to one another and according to Esther 9:19-22 also to the poor. If the common conclusion of the scholars that this feast of the Jews was Purim, then our Lord was giving a gift to a poor man, an undeserving man, a gift of healing .

Whether or not it was Purim it was a gift but Purim makes it especially appropriate. Returning to the presence of the angel, this was unusual, it has little in the ways of parallel elsewhere in the bible and yet particular attention is called to it. Why would God send an angel, we need to ask, to supply miracles to a soon to be doomed nation? Calling attention to a particular mercy and an opportunity before judgment? We need to ask if there is a parallel between this cripple and Judea. Both are very close to the source of all healing and both are very, very far from it. The man was partially paralyzed or partially crippled. His infirmity we are told was one of thirty eight years standing, it could have been a condition which began in his childhood. He might now be no more than a man in his forties, Jesus asked him ‘wilt thou be made whole?’ J. Steven Hart very ably summed up the exchange and I quote:

“Christ does not receive a direct answer, the man feels himself blamed and makes a grumbling excuse for not even trying the effect of the water. He tried in the past often enough but he never got through the crowd in time and he lost hope and gave up the attempt. He has accepted the life of a professional beggar which he finds sufficient to bring him a sustenance, wage, of goods and clothing and of a lodging somewhere near though he may do some chores also to earn that. He came to Bethesda now for the sake of social intercourse with people like himself. Christ sometimes asked for faith in his applicants, this time it is hope that is lacking. He has reconciled to idle poverty though he will not acknowledge that he prefers it to work, for that might deprive him of the alms he expects to receive. The external malady is but the sign of the spiritual one and it’s unfortunate cause though it should not have been an effective one.” Unquote.

Well Hart is right! The answer to the question ‘wilt thou be made whole?’ should have been a quick and spontaneous yes! We do not know how long this cripple had been there at the pool, thirty eight years after his malady and how many years after coming to Bethesda he had not yet gotten into the pool in time. If you had been there would you not have made sure to get there in time to be at the edge of the pool and fall in at the appropriate moment? No not this man. He was enjoying that way of life. Now in verse sixteen we see that the leaders, the religious leaders, see this miracle as a total affront and they decided then on his death. Death for healing someone on the Sabbath. At the same time it was for John the third sign. The parallel between Israel or Judea and this cripple is a very important one, both were close to the source of healing, neither truly wanted it. In Luke 16:31 our Lord says of the ungodly:

“And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.”

They were not to be persuaded by an angels miracles nor by Christ nor by His resurrection. Why should they believe when their faith was opposed to God and in the name of God. By healing this man our Lord so angered the religious and civil leaders that they sought His death. The greater the good the greater the hatred on the part of the ungodly. They will only have God on their terms, meaning God as their slave or not at all. The more we grow in grace the sharper the line of division from others, the more their hostility against us.

They may know very little about us but they sense what we are. But Jesus healed the man even though the man did not ask for healing. He told him rise, take up your bed or pallet and walk. Then the cripple was at once stopped from working on the Sabbath by carrying his bed. He was as yet ignorant of Jesus, Jesus finding him told the man behold thou art made whole, sin no more or stop from your sinning lest a worse thing come unto thee. We are not told the nature of this man’s sinning but whether it had a particular form or was a general condition of his mind what we do see is this: the cured cripple went at once to the leaders and identified Jesus as his healer and that tells us what a sorry character he was. This healing was an act of grace. All Christ’s miracles were but this particularly so because it was not even asked for. In Luke 17:11-19 we are told of ten lepers whom Christ healed in order to report to the priests in order to be certified as healed, only one of the ten came back to Jesus to thank Him. Here the angel in the pool’s turbulence and Christ at the pool’s side gave special grace to Judea and it was rejected. Christ’s life and work was a far greater miracle and a revelation of God than the simple troubling of the waters but the people in both cases rejected God the healer nor were they truly interested in healing.

Our Lord’s miracles and sign was simply this: be healed or perish. Be healed or perish! Jerusalem rejecting the healer was given over to destruction, the sign to our world and to our time is the same, be healed by Christ or perish. In Isaiah 57:18-21 we read:

“ I have seen his ways, and will heal him: I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners.

19 I create the fruit of the lips; Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, saith the Lord; and I will heal him.

20 But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.

21 There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.”

The contrast is very clear between a do nothing Sabbath and a Sabbath surrendered to God’s healing and working. It is like the difference between night and day. Earnest Heighten [sp?] said of this miracle that the religious leaders are, quote:

“Unmoved by the miracle, either in this point or by what follows. They are concerned only with the observance of the Sabbath laws.” Unquote.

When Jesus healed the man sick with palsy of whom Matthew in 9:2 tells us he said, son be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee, the statement repeated to other men whom He healed. Here the remark differs, behold thou art made whole, sin no more or cease from sinning lest a worse thing come upon thee. This warning could have been made to all Israel even as it is now applicable to the whole world. In Hart’s words our Lord’s warning had reference to the crippled man’s sin, the sin of helplessness, hopelessness and lack of moral energy that we have noted in him. This is our failing in our time too often. This miracle is a sign of God’s sovereign grace, it can heal the undeserving and it can heal those who have no interest in it.

To depend on ourselves is to depend on nothing. Our mainstay and our only hope is God’s sovereign grace to the undeserving. When that grace is external only there is no hope. When it is given to the whole man it means redemption. At every point this episode reveals the supernatural but the people would not see it. In verse six we see that our Lord knew the man and his history before He spoke to him. He also knows us and the very hairs of our heads are all numbered we are told so that we are totally in His providential care and grace. This grace was extended to this cripple and it set forth to Israel the sign of its covenantal mercy if they would hear but they would not. Next Sunday we shall continue our study of this episode in the remaining verses of this chapter and we shall see indeed how the leaders of the people responded to this great miracle and their reaction of the man healed. Let us pray.

Our Father, the wonders of Thy grace and mercy surround us and fill our world and yet too often we will not see. We see the power of the enemy, we see the darkness but we will not see the light. Oh Lord God open our eyes that seeing we may see and our ears that hearing we may hear and that we may do that which Thou wouldst have us to do. Grant us this in Christ’s name, Amen.

Are there any questions now about our lesson?

[Unintelligible Question]

[Rushdoony] Yes. God chose only this one pool to send His angel to and He was merciful in spite of their disinterest in His mercy. So indeed this is an example of God’s sovereign and electing grace and mercy and in particular to someone who is undeserving, who really is not interested in it, because can you imagine your own reaction if somebody said do you want to be healed? The words would come out of your mouth almost before our Lord was through talking but he has a long winded excuse just as today many people on welfare who could work have every kind of excuse. And just as many people who have problems in various spheres who do everything except the right thing to solve their problems, they aggravate them. It’s because they will not be made whole.

[Unintelligible Question]

[Rushdoony] We’ll come to that next week [laughs]. Any other questions or comments? ]29:07]

I think you perhaps by now can see the pattern that John is developing. He selects certain things because He wants to tell us more about God, Christ and the Holy Ghost and about ourselves. So that John’s gospel is a revelation not only of the trinity but of us. And as we look at these people whether it is Nicodemus or this man God is telling us ‘are you like this also?’ Examine yourself because it is all important that knowing the Lord you know yourself and the more we know of God truly the greater our understanding of ourselves. It was only after he had become a Christian that Paul saw himself truly as a sinner and a fearful sinner. Any other questions or comments, yes?

[Unintelligible Question]

[Rushdoony] there have been investigations of some of those seeming miracles in the Philippines and elsewhere and the results are very sorry. It’s fraudulent. And the miracles in our Lord’s day were miracles that revealed who and what He was. The bible is not a long history of miracles, there is only a few times in all of history that we see miracles. In biblical history we see it in the day of Moses, then in the time of Elijah and Elisha and then our Lord’s day. And that’s it. And each time for a specific purpose.

In Moses’ day it was for a judgment upon Egypt and a judgment upon Israel that they failed to see God’s power and mercy and did not obey Him. It was again a time of judgment in Elijah and Elisha’s day and again in our Lord’s day. So those are the three periods alone in history where we see these things happening and now having the record of those we are told what the ways of God are like and that His patience with us will not endure forever so we need to take heart concerning the future knowing that God is merciful and yet knowing that His judgment can be an act of mercy also at times. Any other questions or comments, did I cover all that your question asked?

Well if not let us bow our heads in prayer.

Our Father we thank Thee for the marvelous revelation of Thyself and Thy word. We thank Thee that things visible and invisible are opened up unto us and that we are made the recipients of great and marvelous truths. Revelations of Thy being through Thy word. Make us joyful therein, fill us with faith and hope and love of Thee and of our fellow members in Christ. And now go in peace, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost, bless you and keep you, guide and protect you, this day and always, Amen.