John 5:12Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

The paralytic acted in this way. But see how maliciously they behaved. They do not ask, “Who is He who healed you?” They are silent about that.

Instead, they display in every way the apparent transgression: “Who is the Man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?”

Let us consider how great an evil envy is, and how it blinds the eyes of the soul against the very advantage of the one possessed by it.

Just as madmen often turn swords against themselves, so the envious, intent only on harming the one they envy, lose their own salvation.

They are worse than wild beasts. Beasts attack us either from lack of food or because they have first been provoked by us.

But the envious, even when benefited, often treat their benefactors as enemies.

The Jews do not ask him, "Who healed you?" but, "Who told you, Take up your bed?" Thus they willingly shut their eyes to the good, while constantly putting forward the supposed violation of the Sabbath.

The soul of the Jews is insatiable in murder. They inquire about the One Who gave the command, wishing to bring Him also to account together with the man miraculously healed.

For it seems to have grieved them that only the man just freed from inescapable nets and snatched from the very gates of death was being accused concerning the Sabbath.

In his defense, the man named to those reproaching him the Cause of his healing: "He who healed me said to me, Take up your bed and walk" (Jn 5:11).

"Was I not obliged to carry out the command of the One from Whom I received health?"

And they said to him, "Who is the Man who said to you, Take up your bed and walk?" (Jn 5:12).

After healing the sick man, Jesus Christ hid Himself because of the crowd. This was partly to avoid praise from the well-disposed, and partly to lessen the envy of the senseless.

Often the mere appearance of a hated person can stir up violent rage.

Behold the malice of the Jews. The paralytic answered them that the One Who healed him had commanded him to do this. They pass over the healing in silence and judge only the taking up of the bed.

They do not say, "Who made you well? Who is your physician?" Instead they ask, "Who is the Man who said to you, Take up your bed and walk?"

They leave aside the great and wondrous deed, and press the supposed violation of the law. They wish to conceal the miracle, but bring into the open what appears to be a transgression of the law.

Among the other sick who lay by the pool, waiting for the wondrous stirring of the water, there was a man who had been ill for thirty-eight years.

When Jesus Christ saw him and addressed him with warm compassion, the sick man said with sorrow that he had no one to put him into the pool when the water was stirred.

Then the Lord said to the paralytic, "Rise, take up your bed, and walk." At once the sick man felt himself completely whole. He immediately rose, took up his bed, and walked.

Since this was on the Sabbath, in the eyes of unreasonable zealots for the law, Jesus Christ had twice violated the law of Sabbath rest. First, He had performed a healing on the Sabbath. Second, He had permitted the healed man to carry his bed that day.

Therefore, when the former sick man told them that the One who had healed him was Jesus Christ, they became greatly embittered against the Lord. They even sought to kill Him.

The Jews, as the Evangelist John calls the Pharisees, Sadducees, elders, members of the Sanhedrin, and in general the Jews in authority who formed the party hostile to Jesus, had seen the paralytic many times as he suffered for thirty-eight years. Yet they did not marvel or rejoice when they saw him healthy. They did not ask, "How did this happen?" They were indignant that he had dared to break the Sabbath rest by carrying his bed, and they immediately rebuked him.

The healed man put them to shame, saying: "He who healed me, He said to me, 'Take up your bed and walk.' He who had authority to free me from a thirty-eight-year infirmity undoubtedly could also command me to carry my bed on the Sabbath. If this is a sin in your opinion, then ask Him who told me this."

Struck with perplexity over who this bold violator of the Sabbath could be, the lawyers again paid no attention at all to the miraculous healing.

They asked him, "Who is the Man who said to you, Take up your bed and walk?" That is, who gave the unlawful command for which He could be subjected to trial and punishment?

"Who is that Man?" There is a shade of contempt toward the One Who performed the miracle; cf. Jn 9:16. The miracle itself did not draw their attention as much as the supposed violation of the Sabbath law. Such blindness!

Verses 12-13. The healed man's answer did not please the clever men, though it agreed with their statute. They guessed who this Prophet was. But even if a dead man had risen from the grave, they would not have become better because of it.

Wishing to see in the healed man a witness and accuser against the Prophet, they ask him, "Who exactly is this Man?" The healed man answered according to conscience that he did not know Him, since the wondrous Physician had quickly hidden Himself in the crowd.

It seems impossible to doubt that the Pharisees and scribes watched every action of the Lord Jesus closely. They saw, either themselves or through their spies, that the healed man had taken up his bed.

They knew very well that the Lord Jesus had healed the sick man. But they probably wished to gain in the healed man a lawful witness before the Sanhedrin.

For them, the fact of healing was nothing, while observance of the letter of the law was everything. Yet above all stood their malice against the Lord.