Jerusalem
Jesus and those who follow him finally get to see Jerusalem. After the usual Songs of Ascents, they enter by the Gennath Gath, passing through the Towers Pool.
But it looks odd that some lowly travelers enter into the Upper City (it's actually midwest of the city), where the rich people and those of status live. Here is the Palace of Herod, now empty. There used to live that infamous Herod the Great, who about 30 years ago attempted to put an end to the life of the Messiah. Since then no one has been threatening Jesus' life.
That will change during this stay in Jerusalem.
Now Jesus will have to pass the "Upper City" and get to the Temple Mount.
Pool of Bethesda
The feast of Weeks is generally known among the Jews as when God gave the Law—actually the eternal Ten Commandments—through Moses to the children of Israel. Here people from many places in the world come for this feast of the Law—the Written Law and not the Oral Law, which did not exist then, contrary to the claims of the Pharisees.
Jesus knows that the interpretations of the Elders favored by the Jewish authorities are incorrect, that the expansion of the Law is merely tradition, and that these leaders of the people care too much about these man-made traditions, and even more than the Law of God himself!
As Jesus goes around one Sabbath, he passes north of the Temple and east of the Antonia Fortress, where Pilate governor of Judea would stay when at Jerusalem. And most likely he is sick of having to stay here just to swell any attempts of rebellion.
Now here Jesus notices the Sheep Market, closed because it's the Sabbath day. Jesus has no problem with that. Business is work, and to do business on the Sabbath day would be to transgress.
As he meditates on the Word of God, he finds himself by the Pool of Bethesda, the one with five porches and entrances. Bethesda means "house of mercy"—or maybe "the flowing water". There is that pool: 360 feet long, 120 feet wide, and 80 feet deep. Then he sees to his amazement lots of invalids looking longingly at this pool. There are blind, lame, paralyzed.
Jesus longs to heal all these people. But a quick look at the Temple Mount makes him pause. There are people heading there for the morning. Jesus knows that vast healing would lead countless people to him, and the priests won't be at all happy about it. That today is the Sabbath would make this case worse. They have added extra rules about the Sabbath that made it not a blessing but a burden.
Jesus, however, sees a man there, sick for 38 years. His legs are unresponsive, making him lame in his feet. He was here many days waiting for the water to stir up on its own. He, like the other sick ones here, is of the belief that whoever steps in first after the stirring up would be healed.
Jesus understands that this helpless man was in this position for so long. As the man sighs of agony, Jesus says to him, "Do you wish to be cured?"
The man turns to Jesus and says, "Oh, yes! But—"
Turning back at the water, the sick man said, "I have no one, Sir, to put me into the bath when there is a stirring of the water, and, while I am getting to it, someone else steps down before me."
Jesus kneels down and merely says to the man, "Stand up, take up your mat, and walk!"
The man takes on faith, despite not knowing who this is. Perhaps this man is a Prophet! He gets up, and he does it without any pain. In truth, this is a miracle!
Restored thus, the man gets down again to take up his mat and quilt—this being his bed—to roll up. Then he looks around for the person who healed him, but he has slipped away in the crowd that was around, not wanting any attention to be called.
The formerly sick man fears that he might not recognize his Healer if he sees him again. Going on his way, the man is heading for the Temple Mount. As he goes, he meets with some Pharisees and recounts to them about his healing.
But he doesn't go far in the story when he is interrupted by a Pharisee who coldly asks, "Why are you carrying your mat and quilt today?"
"Huh?" asks the man.
Another Pharisee says, "This is the Sabbath; you must not carry your mat." A rabbinical code states you cannot carry an object from one area to another on the Sabbath day.
The man in his joy over being healed after a 38-year disease on the legs has already forgotten the day of the week! But the man shows no shame for obeying the command of his Healer, who no doubt is from the very God. Boldly stating, then, "The man who cured me told me to: to carry my mat and walk!"
"It's sacrilege," comments a Pharisee. The others agree. But only is this Healer a breaking of their (not God's) law on working on the Sabbath day, but he has the nerve to bid the man take up his bed, at a sense of burdens.
Another Pharisee asks the man, "But who's that man who told you to do such a thing as that, picking up your mat and walking?"
"I... don't know," says the healed man.
"Then find out who this person is," says a Pharisee.
The Temple in Jerusalem
The recently-healed man is among the faithful in the Temple courts, thanking God for having received mercy after so many hard years. Jesus is passing through the courts when he spots that man he healed only a while ago. So he goes to the man and reveals himself as Jesus the Healer. Indeed he has been healing people in these very courts two Passovers ago. Then he warns, "You are cured now; do not sin again, or something worse may happen to you."
The man is overjoyed at meeting his Healer. He later goes straight to the Pharisees and, ignorant of their suspicion about Jesus, tells him as bright as day who has healed him—Jesus the Healer.
Knowing for certain now that Jesus is the one who healed this sick man on the Lord's Day, the Pharisees immediately head to the Sanhedrin to tell them of what Jesus just did.
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Caiaphas is just speaking with Annas and the others when some Pharisees come in. "Caiaphas, we come with a report. And believe me, you must hear this."
Caiaphas turns to these Pharisees. "Go ahead."
One Pharisee says, "Earlier this day, the Sabbath, that Jesus of Nazareth went to the Pool of Bethesda and healed a lame man. If that's not enough, he even had the man pick up his bed and walk!"
"But that's... breaking the Sabbath!" calls Caiaphas. "Now he must be stopped!"
"What's more, he defies our traditions and laws," adds Annas, now seeing things according to his son-in-law.
"So bring this man before us!" says the high priest.
So they made a charge of Sabbath-breaking. Thus they are harassing Jesus, in bringing him before the Sanhedrin—the Chamber of Hewn Stone. "What do you have to say for yourself?" they ask.
"My Father works to this very hour, and I work also." This is Jesus' answer.
"Ahh! He's calling God his very own Father!" exclaims a Sadducee. "He's worthy of—"
"In truth, I tell you," continues the Nazarene, "the Son can do nothing of himself; he does only what he sees the Father doing; whatever the Father does, the Son does also." Then Jesus explains that he gives life, just like the Father. "Just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he pleases."
Jesus also says, "God has entrusted the work of judging entirely to his Son, so that everyone may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. The person who does not honor the Son fails to honor the Father who sent him."
Caiaphas shows rage as Jesus affirms the resurrection. Being a Sadducee, Caiaphas wouldn't believe in the resurrection. And Jesus says in addition that "the person who listens to my message and believes him who sent me, has eternal life, and does not come under condemnation, but has already passed out of death into life."
The priests rage. Could they dare, they would kill the Son of God on the spot. But no. Jesus says he's the Judge of the earth, and that there will be two sorts of resurrections—one for eternal life and another for eternal death.
Then Jesus says he wouldn't testify for himself since he has witnesses on his side. He started with John the Baptizer—alas, now in Macherus prison—and then to his miracles, then his Father in heaven. Jesus denounces the proud rulers of the Jews, saying, "You have neither listened to his voice nor seen his form; and you have not taken his message home to your hearts, because you do not believe him whom he sent. You search the Scriptures because you think you find in them eternal life; though it is those Scriptures that bear testimony to me, you refuse to come to me to have life."
The priests recognize that never have the Israelites seen God's form. And when God spoke that day on Mount Sinai, 50 days after their deliverance from Egyptian bondage, they were so horrified they begged Moses the then-prophet that they hear his voice no longer. So since this is Pentecost, when the Jews celebrate the giving of the Law at Sinai, Jesus just has to remind them of this. And he saying this implies that he has heard God's voice—considering Jesus' baptism—and seen his form—considering Jesus' preexistence—, is considered by the chief priests as blasphemy.
And speaking of Moses...
"Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father; your accuser is Moses, on whom you trust."
Some gasp. Caiaphas exclaims, "You dare say—"
Jesus turns to leave the Sanhedrin. But he casts one last look at the assembly and concludes, "For, had you believed Moses, you would have believed me, for it was of me that Moses wrote; but, if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my teaching?"
Then Jesus heads out the door, never to return to the Chamber.