SAINT NICHOLAS

Byzantine Catholic Church
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23300 King Drive, Clinton Township, MI 48035   *   +1-586-791-1052   *   stnicksbyzantine@yahoo.com

The Sign Given on a Sabbath

       Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish feasts. Now in Jerusalem, by the Sheep Gate, there is a pool that in Hebrew is called Bethesda. It has five porticos, and in these a large number of invalids used to lie, people who were blind, lame, and paralyzed, waiting for the movement of the water. For occasionally an angel of the Lord would come down into the pool and stir up the water. The first one into the pool after each such disturbance would be cured of whatever disease he had.

       A man who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and was aware that he had been ill for a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to get well?” The invalid answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up. While I am still on my way, someone else steps into the pool ahead of me.” Jesus said to him, “Rise! Take up your mat and walk!” Immediately, the man was cured, and he took up his mat and began to walk.

      Now that day was a Sabbath. Therefore, the Jews said to the man who had been cured, “Today is the Sabbath. It is not lawful for you to carry your mat.” He replied, “The man who cured me said to me, ‘Take up your mat and walk!’ ” They asked him, “Who is the man who told you to take it up and walk?” But the man who had been cured did not know who it was, for Jesus had disappeared into the crowd that was there.

      Later, Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you have been made well. Do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you.” The man went away and told the Jews that Jesus was the man who had made him well.

      Every Jewish feast is a memorial of what God has done for his people in deeds that manifest his power to create and restore. It is in this setting that the evangelist places an important action of Jesus, which leads to a debate over the meaning of the action: Is God himself at work here?

      Jesus, the Son of God, claims a power that belongs to God alone. In addition, by breaking the Sabbath precept, Jesus proclaims the end of the old covenant. The incident is perhaps to be connected with the feast of Pentecost, which, according to Jewish tradition, commemorates the promulgation of the Law on Sinai. This would make Jesus’ action even more eloquent.