Undoubtedly to see a man carrying his couch on the sabbath was a strange thing in Judea, and especially in Jerusalem. But it was, of course, by a deliberate injunction on the Lord's part. He was raising a question with the Jews which He knew would bring about a breach with their incredulity. It was a blow purposely struck at their self-complacent observance of the sabbath, when they were blinded not merely by self-will to violate the law but by unbelief against their own Messiah, spite of the fullest proofs of His mission and person. Could God accept the sabbath-keeping of the people in such a state? Here then the Lord commanded an act expressly public on the sabbath-day in Jerusalem.
“The Jews therefore said to him that was cured, It is sabbath, and it is not allowed thee to take up thy couch. He answered them, He that made me well, the same said to me, Take up thy couch and walk” (vers. 10, 11). The healed man was simple, and his answer bears the stamp of right and truth. The divine power that had wrought beyond even an angel's compass or commission, and without it, was his warrant to act upon the word. “They asked him [therefore], Who is the man that said to thee, Take up [thy couch] and walk. But he that was healed knew not who he was, for Jesus withdrew, a crowd being in the place” (12, 18). The Jews spoke with malice and contempt. “Who is the man?” They can scarcely be conceived ignorant that there was more in their midst, and who He was. They knew His works, if they knew not Himself; and His works, as well as ways, proclaimed a mission more than human. The very work before them, and they could not deny it, was beyond an angel; yet they asked the healed person, “Who is the man that said to thee, Take up thy couch and walk?” The Lord had ordered things so that the healed man should know no more; He had passed away unnoticed, a crowd being there.
“After these things Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said to him, Behold, thou art made well. Sin no more, lest some worse thing happen to thee. The man went away, and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well” (vers. 14, 15). It was a gracious, but withal a solemn, word. To live now, to enjoy the life that is now, is not the great matter. No cure, however bespeaking the power and goodness of God, could meet man's underlying need, for sin still remained. A cure was only provisional. The man that was cured, though it was Jesus who cured him, had to be warned “Sin no more, lest some worse thing happen to thee.” He does not appear to have then adequately judged the malice of the Jews. They probably concealed their real feelings. It is often so with men towards Jesus, especially men who have a reputation for religion. They do not believe in Him, neither do they love Him. So the healed man in his simplicity fathomed not their object, but seems rather to have assumed that they were anxious to know his wondrous benefactor. Hence he went off, and brought them word that it was Jesus who had made him well. 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.
But now they knew as a fact what they had, no doubt, suspected from the first—that the sick man had to do with Jesus. I do not say that their informant should not have known better, for they had asked, “Who is the man that said to thee, Take up thy couch and walk?” He told them now that it was, Jesus who had made him well. His heart dwelt on the good and mighty deed that was done; theirs on the word which touched their sabbath-keeping. “And for this the Jews persecuted Jesus, because he did these things on a sabbath (ver. 16). It was the blindness of men, who, lost in forms, knew not the reality of God and consequently knew not themselves in His presence. Sooner or later such men find themselves in collision with Jesus: what will they feel by-and-by?
“But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work” (ver. 17). It was an overwhelming answer. They knew nothing of fellowship with the Father. He (Jesus), not they, could call God “my Father,” and loved to say that He “worketh hitherto.” For the Father could not rest in sin, He would not rest in misery. It is not yet God judging. Therefore was He working as Father, even until now, though only now declaring Himself Father in and by the Son. Even before this however He had not left Himself without witness in Jerusalem itself, as the crowd of expectant sick round the pool of Bethesda attested. But this was only partial and transient. The Son was here to make Him fully known, and known as One who could not keep His sabbath yet, whatever the Jews ignorant of, Him might Wish to say or do. “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” Jesus, the Son, had fellowship, unbroken and perfect, with His Father.
Yet the words were still more offensive than the work they had just seen, and the way in which Jesus had openly caused it to be done and seen clashed with all their prejudices and stirred the depths of their unbelief. For in so speaking His personal glory could not but shine forth.
“My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” “For this therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because be not only broke the sabbath, but also said that God was his own Father, making himself equal with God” (ver. 18). Nor were they mistaken in this inference at least. For as He did expressly charge the healed man to do what He knew would bring things to a rupture, So He did not deny, but confess, that God was His own Father in a sense that Was true of none but Himself. This is the truth; and the truth of all truths most due to God, and the turning-point of all blessing to man. By it the believer knows God, and has life everlasting; without it one is an enemy of God, as the Jews showed themselves that day, and ever since. Blinded, perversely, fatally, blinded men, who, in presumed zeal for His honor, sought the more to kill Jesus, His own. Son, come in infinite love to make the Father known, and to reconcile man to God. But God is wise and infinitely good in His work; for in letting them prove their malice to the uttermost, when the due time was come, in killing Jesus, He proved His own love to the full in atonement, making Christ, who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might become God's righteousness in Him.