The Healing at the Pool on the Sabbath (John 5:1-17)

What might the sight have been like with so many invalids lying around?

Why would John record that the man lying there had been an invalid for 38 years?

Do you find it strange that Jesus asked the man if he wanted to be healed? Why would Jesus ask such an obvious question?

Why did the man need someone to put him in the water when it was stirred? “An angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool, and stirred the water: whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was healed of whatever disease he had” (verse 4) does not appear in the best manuscripts and almost certainly was added long after John wrote, yet it tells us the superstition the people likely held.

What might have caused this man to have no one to put him in the water? If the man had no one to put him in the water, what might his life have been like in the early first century? You really have to wonder if this man had clothing, food, shelter, or any help whatsoever. Why would the people have believed the superstition about an angel’s stirring the water and healing for the first person in the water?

Might there have been some selfishness involved in trying to be the first person down in the water?

Why would Jesus instruct the man to get up, take up his bed, and walk?

What is the difference in Jesus’ healing of this man and modern so-called “faith healers?”

Why would Jesus heal a man on the Sabbath?

Why would the Jews care that this man was carrying his bed on the Sabbath?

The former paralytic did not know who had healed him. Why would he so readily obey and carry his bed?

Why would Jesus withdraw on account of the crowd?

What worse could come upon this man than his disability?

What would cause the healed man to go tell the Jews who had healed him?

Why would the Jews be angered that Jesus was healing on the Sabbath?

Did Jesus admit to working on the Sabbath at verse 17?