Jesus Heals on the Sabbath (Part 2)
January 6
Ordinarily, today would be a “free day” from our Bible reading and devotional, but I wanted to circle back and elaborate further on John 5. A friend asked me about a statement regarding the man Jesus encountered at the Pool of Bethesda.
Yesterday, I said:
“This man was disabled for thirty-eight years. John doesn’t tell us if this man has been disabled all of his life or if his disability is due to an injury. Because we aren’t told anything else about his infirmity, I don’t want to speculate….
“After healing him, Jesus found the man in the Temple and said to him, “See, you are well. Do not sin anymore, so that something worse doesn’t happen to you.” John 5:14 (CSB) Perhaps Jesus is thinking along the lines of what He later said in Matthew 12:43–45. Regardless, Jesus is warning the man to humbly accept his healing and not presume he can continue to live a life of sin.”
There’s something very important here that we need to underscore, and it truly is a key to grasping the gravity of God’s message in John 5. My friend noted that John frames this man’s thirty-eight-year disability quite differently from another man’s disability only a few chapters later in John 9. (We’ll get to John 9 later in our journey, and say more about that chapter then.)
Here, though, John could have told us that this man had a congenital disability, but he didn’t. Jesus saying to the man, “See, you are well. Do not sin anymore, so that something worse doesn’t happen to you,” tells us directly that this man’s disability was due to sin—a sin in the man’s own life, a sin the man chose.
Elsewhere, Jesus warns (as we also briefly noted yesterday)
43“When an unclean spirit comes out of a person, it roams through waterless places looking for rest but doesn’t find any.
44Then it says, ‘I’ll go back to my house that I came from.’ Returning, it finds the house vacant, swept, and put in order.
45Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and settle down there. As a result, that person’s last condition is worse than the first. That’s how it will also be with this evil generation.” (Matthew 12:43–45 (CSB))
Ultimately, of course, all sickness, disease, and disability trace back to sin’s introduction into the world by Adam and Eve. Their choice to reject God’s clear instruction about the Forbidden Tree was an attempt to find life and meaning apart from Him, and it was high treason. This act brought a death sentence upon them and all mankind. (Romans 5:11; 6:23a)
Now, Satan’s temptation was simple, and his schemes haven’t changed since. He merely suggested that Eve (and thus, Adam, because he was standing next to her) could not trust what God said. “Did God really say…?” (Genesis 3:1) This seemingly simple challenge and their agreement with it, however, brought about disastrous consequences: Death. Misery. Wrath. Separation from God. The curse. So, what is Jesus trying to drive home to us in John 5?
No, John didn’t tell us what the man’s sin was, nor did he need to tell us. By not telling us, John said something quite loudly: “It doesn’t matter what the sin was because all sin is deadly.”
Application
Obviously, not all disability or illness is an act of discipline from God because of sin. Job’s “friends” made the mistake of believing this insidious religious lie, set to accusing an innocent man of all kinds of terrible things, and it earned them a stern rebuke from the Lord.
But God wants us to understand that sin is sin, all sin is serious, and all sin has consequences. There is no such thing as a “little” sin, any more than a rogue, pre-cancerous cell is “little”. As believers, we should take sin just as seriously as Jesus does and, if we suspect that we are experiencing consequences as a result of it, we should repent quickly. (Matthew 5:29–30)
Consider all that John is saying, and make plans to follow up with me in my devotional on John 9 coming on January 11.
© Copyright 2026 Craig Beaman