The Torah, the commandments given by God, were always perceived as a guide along the path of righteousness. It is not surprising that Jesus turns...
The Torah, the commandments given by God, were always perceived as a guide along the path of righteousness. It is not surprising that Jesus turns to the Torah, and more precisely to the Decalogue, interpreting its commandments from the point of view of the Kingdom He brought into the world. And from the point of view of the Kingdom, what comes to the fore is not the action as such, but the intention behind it, the intent a person invests in the action he performs. And if the intention is present, the actual fact of performing or not performing the action changes nothing in principle. If, for example, a person hates his neighbor so much that he is ready to kill him, Jesus, as one can see, equates such hatred with murder.
At first glance such an approach may seem too strict. But it must be kept in mind that the inner Torah, about which many learned rabbis and teachers of the Torah spoke in those days, put precisely intention, intent, in the foreground. Getting rid of evil intentions was considered the most important step on the path to acquiring the inner Torah. But the issue is not only the inner Torah as such. The issue is also that intentions have special significance for the Kingdom. After all, the substance of the Kingdom is God's breath, and its fabric is formed by the relationships that bind a person both with God and with Christ, and with neighbors.
The quality of relationships determines not only the quality of a person's life in the Kingdom, but also the very possibility of remaining in it. That is why Jesus gives so much attention to intention: after all, every intention of ours, if we are inhabitants of the Kingdom, concerns not only us and the people toward whom it is directed, but the entire Kingdom as a whole, in all its fullness.
5
5:1 A feast - Pentecost.
5:2 There is in Jerusalem - Hence it appears, that St. John wrote his Gospel before Jerusalem was destroyed: it is supposed about thirty years after the ascension. Having five porticos - Built for the use of the sick. Probably the basin had five sides!Bethesda signifies the house of mercy.
5:4 An angel - Yet many undoubtedly thought the whole thing to be purely natural. At certain times - Perhaps at a certain hour of the day, during this paschal week, went down - The Greek word implies that he had ceased going down, before the time of St. John's writing this. God might design this to raise expectation of the acceptable time approaching, to add a greater lustre to his Son's miracles, and to show that his ancient people were not entirely forgotten of him. The first - Whereas the Son of God healed every day not one only, but whole multitudes that resorted to him.
5:7 The sick man answered - Giving the reason why he was not made whole, notwithstanding his desire.
5:14 Sin no more - It seems his former illness was the effect or punishment of sin.
5:15 The man went and told the Jews, that it was Jesus who had made him whole - One might have expected, that when he had published the name of his benefactor, crowds would have thronged about Jesus, to have heard the words of his mouth, and to have received the blessings of the Gospel. Instead of this, they surround him with a hostile intent: they even conspire against his life, and for an imagined transgression in point of ceremony, would have put out this light of Israel. Let us not wonder then, if our good be evil spoken of: if even candour, benevolence, and usefulness, do not disarm the enmity of those who have been taught to prefer sacrifice to mercy; and who, disrelishing the genuine Gospel, naturally seek to slander and persecute the professors, but especially the defenders of it.