John 5:1-15

Jesus Heals a Disabled Man

1 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a Jewish feast.
2 In Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate is a pool. In the Aramaic language it is called Bethesda. It is surrounded by five rows of columns with a roof over them.
3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie down. Among them were those who were blind, those who could not walk, and those who could hardly move.
5 One person who was there had been disabled for 38 years.
6 Jesus saw him lying there. He knew that the man had been in that condition for a long time. So he asked him, "Do you want to get well?"
7 "Sir," the disabled man replied, "I have no one to help me into the pool when an angel stirs the water up. I try to get in, but someone else always goes down ahead of me."
8 Then Jesus said to him, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk."
9 At once the man was healed. He picked up his mat and walked. The day this happened was a Sabbath.
10 So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, "It is the Sabbath. The law does not allow you to carry your mat."
11 But he replied, "The one who made me well said to me, 'Pick up your mat and walk.' "
12 They asked him, "Who is this fellow? Who told you to pick it up and walk?"
13 The one who was healed had no idea who it was. Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.
14 Later Jesus found him at the temple. Jesus said to him, "See, you are well again. Stop sinning, or something worse may happen to you."
15 The man went away. He told the Jews it was Jesus who had made him well.
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