NOTES for Joh 5:1-15
1 After this there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. |
2 Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches. |
3 In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. |
4 For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. |
5 And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. |
6 When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole? |
7 The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me. |
8 Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk. |
9 And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked: and on the same day was the sabbath. |
10 The Jews therefore said unto him that was cured, It is the sabbath day: it is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed. |
11 He answered them, He that made me whole, the same said unto me, Take up thy bed, and walk. |
12 Then asked they him, What man is that which said unto thee, Take up thy bed, and walk? |
13 And he that was healed wist not who it was: for Jesus had conveyed himself away, a multitude being in that place. |
14 Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee. |
15 The man departed, and told the Jews that it was Jesus, which had made him whole. |
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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.
Readings for 17 March 2026
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