John 5:15Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

See how here also he keeps the same feeling of gratitude.

He does not say that Jesus is the man who told him, "Take up your bed," because the Jews constantly presented this as a crime.

Rather, he continues his defense by declaring who his Healer was, trying to draw others and bring them near to Him.

He was not so insensible that, after so great a benefit and exhortation, he would betray his Benefactor and say this with evil intent.

Even if he had been a wild beast, inhuman and stony, the benefit and fear would have been enough to restrain him.

The threat still sounded in his ears. Therefore he feared lest he suffer something worse, since he had such great proofs of the Physician's power.

Having learned who Jesus was, see how prudently he tells the Jews about Him. He does not say, as they wished to hear, that Jesus said, "Take up your bed." Instead he says, "He healed me," which they did not wish to hear, since they accused Him of violating the Sabbath.

He points Jesus out to the Jews, not so that in their impiety they might dare to do Him some evil, but so that they too, if they wished to receive healing, might know the wondrous Physician.

That this was his precise purpose you can see from this. He does not come like some accuser with the report that Jesus commanded him to walk on the Sabbath.

Rather, he reports that He is the One "who made him well." By this he did nothing other than point to the Physician.

After that man saw Christ and learned that Jesus was the cause of his recovery, he did not remain indifferent to bearing good news of the One he had seen.

"The man went and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him." He brought them the news, but they remained senseless. He preached about his salvation, but they did not seek their own salvation.

He went and reported it, not with evil intent, in order to betray Him, but out of gratitude, in order to reveal his benefactor.

The benefit and the threat were sufficient to keep him from betrayal.

Having received the greatest proof of his benefactor's power, the healed man would not only have been ashamed, but also afraid, lest he suffer something still worse.

Moreover, if he had wished to betray Him, he would not have said, "Jesus is the One who healed me."

He would have said, "Jesus is the One who told me, 'Take up your bed and walk.'"

The Jews wanted to know not who healed him, but who told him, "Take up your bed and walk."

Yet he passed over the supposed offense in silence and revealed his benefactor. Thus this man was grateful, open-hearted, and in no way deserves reproach.

Behold the prudence of the paralytic. When he came to the Jews, he said absolutely nothing about taking up the bed, which had scandalized them.

He only declared the name of the One Who healed him. "Jesus," he said, "is my Physician. Jesus healed my incurable illness, freed me from many years of paralysis, and made me whole and healthy."

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.

Having learned who his Healer was, the former paralytic immediately told His enemies about Him. But he did this with no evil intent and not in order to betray his Benefactor.

He thought that by pointing to Jesus as the One who had performed such a miracle on him, he would draw even His enemies to Him.

But he was mistaken. The more miracles Jesus performed, the more fiercely the malice of His enemies blazed up. The more senselessly they thirsted for His blood.

They seized on the fact that the former paralytic carried his bed on the Sabbath by Jesus' command.

This violation of Sabbath rest, terrible according to their notions, seemed to them sufficient grounds to kill Jesus.

They only sought an opportunity to take Him quietly, away from the crowd of people who might defend Him.

But he proved unworthy of so great a benefaction. Having learned who his benefactor was, he wished to clear himself of guilt for violating the Sabbath.

Therefore "he went and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him." This was exactly what His enemies needed.

"He went and told the Jews," and so forth: he did this from a good desire, to make the wonderworker's name manifest, and from gratitude to the Lord, as Chrysostom and Theophylact say.

He probably did not suppose that the representatives of the people were so blind. Here "the Jews" has the same sense as in Jn 1:19 and Jn 2:18, 20.

Instead of glorifying the wonderworker and believing in Him, they began to persecute Him for the supposed violation of the Sabbath.

Verse 15. "He told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well." Since the healed man had not previously shown himself timid (Jn 5:11), now too he tells the Jews about the Physician, "proclaiming his benefactor as one who is grateful" (Zigabenus).

If he had wanted to say what was pleasing to the Sanhedrin, he would have said, "Jesus commanded me to take up the bed," since this was what they questioned him about in the Sanhedrin.

It would be very difficult and painful to suppose that the man benefited by the Lord, and himself recounting his healing, went to the Jews in order to hand over his benefactor.

One may suppose that the Jews pretended not to believe his healing. They threatened him with punishment and even death for violating the law of the Sabbath.

Such a decree did exist. See tractate Shabbat, fol. 95, and Sanhedrin, fol. 58, col. 2, cited in the English edition Genesis with a Talmudic Commentary by Hershon, London, 1883, pp. 84, 91.

The references to the Talmud indicate the Babylonian Talmud according to the Amsterdam edition of 1744.

In his simplicity, the healed man confirms the truthfulness of his story by pointing to the Healer, whom he had not known at first.