John 5:8Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

The manner of healing also differs. There Christ said, “Son, your sins are forgiven you” (Mt 9:2). Here He first strengthens the body, and afterward applies care to the soul.

There is forgiveness there: “Your sins are forgiven you.” Here there is exhortation and warning, to guard him for the future: “Sin no more,” He says, “sin no more.”

Moreover, the accusations from the Jews are different. Here they condemn work on the Sabbath, while there they accuse Him of blasphemy.

But see how great the wisdom of God is. Christ does not heal him at once, but first disposes him toward Himself by a question, opening in him a ready path for faith.

He not only heals him, but commands him to take up his bed, so that the miracle which had occurred might have still greater credibility, and that no one might consider the event an apparition or a deception.

For if the members of his body had not been firmly and completely strengthened, he could not have carried the bed.

Christ often acted in this way, so as to stop completely the mouths of the shameless.

Thus, in the miracle of the loaves, lest anyone should say that the people were fed in an ordinary way, and that the miracle only seemed to occur, by His dispensation many fragments of bread remained.

To the leper who was cleansed He says, “Go, show yourself to the priest” (Mt 8:4), in order to give a more exact proof of the cleansing, and at the same time to stop the shameless mouths of those who called Him an opponent of God’s law.

He acted similarly when He turned water into wine. He did not simply show the wine, but ordered it to be taken to the steward of the feast.

Thus the steward, admitting his ignorance of what had happened, provided an unquestionable witness to the miracle.

For this reason the Evangelist said, “The steward did not know where the wine came from” (Jn 2:9), thereby expressing the impartiality of his testimony.

In another case, after raising the dead girl, Christ “commanded that she be given something to eat” (Lk 8:55). In this also He gives a sign of the true resurrection.

By all these things He convinced the senseless that He was not some deceiver or magician, but had come for the salvation of the common nature of mankind.

Why, then, does Christ not require faith from the paralytic, as He did from the blind men, to whom He said, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” (Mt 9:28).

Because the paralytic did not yet know exactly who He was.

Christ was accustomed to do this not before miracles, but after them. Those who had seen His power in others rightly heard such a question from Him.

But those who did not yet know Him, and were to know Him through the signs, were questioned about faith only after the miracles.

Therefore Matthew presents Christ asking this not at the beginning of His wonderworking, but after He had already healed many. Then He asks about it, and specifically only of the two blind men.

Thus human nature, like the paralytic, lay sick for thirty-eight years, broken in all the powers of the soul. It did not have sound faith in the Trinity and did not firmly believe in the age to come, that is, in the resurrection and the judgment for all of life. It did not receive healing, for it had no Man to lower it into the pool. That is, the Son of God, who was to heal by Baptism, had not yet become man.

But when He became man, He healed our nature. He commanded it to take up the bed, that is, to make the body light and refined, and to rise above the earth. It must not be weighed down by the flesh and earthly cares, but must rise from indifference to the good and walk, that is, move toward the doing of good.

Christ heals the man on the Sabbath and immediately commands him to break the ordinance under the law. He makes him walk on the Sabbath, and burdened with a bed, though God clearly cries through one of the holy prophets: "Do not carry burdens out of your houses on the Sabbath day" (Jer 17:22). Surely no prudent person will think that by this He compels the man to despise and transgress the divine commandments.

Rather, through this Christ made clear, as in an image, that the Jews would receive healing through obedience and faith in the last times of the age. I think the Sabbath indicates this, as the last day of the week. Those who have already received healing through faith and have passed over to a new life must count the old letter of the law as nothing. They must renounce service veiled, as it were, in shadows, and the useless observance of Jewish rites.

From this occasion, I think, blessed Paul wrote to those who returned to the law after faith: "I say to you, that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing" (Gal 5:2). And again: "You have become estranged from Christ, you who are justified by law; you have fallen from grace" (Gal 5:4).

It seems to me, then, that He gave two commands to the man in whom He found a lack in two things. By giving two orders, He filled, as it were, what was lacking in that sick man.

How, then, do we find in those two precepts of the Lord the two indicated commandments of love?

“Rise,” He says, “take up your bed and walk.” What are those two commandments? Recall them with me, brethren.

They ought to be very well known to you. They should not merely have entered your mind when we entrusted them to you, but should never depart from your hearts.

Think constantly that God and neighbor are to be loved: God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself (cf. Lk 10:27).

This must constantly be thought upon, meditated upon, held in memory, done, and fulfilled.

Love for God comes first in the order of command. Love for neighbor comes first in the order of practice.

For He who commands you this love in two commandments did not command you first to love your neighbor and afterward God. He commanded first God, and afterward your neighbor.

But since you do not yet see God, through love for neighbor you will merit to see Him. Through love for neighbor you cleanse your sight for the contemplation of God.

John said this with perfect clarity: “He who does not love his brother whom he sees, how can he love God whom he does not see?” (1 Jn 4:20).

See, you are told, “Love God.” If you say to me, “Show me Him whom I must love,” what shall I answer except what John himself said: “No one has ever seen God” (Jn 1:18)?

And lest you suddenly think yourself wholly deprived of the contemplation of God, he says: “God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God” (1 Jn 4:16).

Love your neighbor, then, and see within yourself the source by which you love your neighbor. There, as far as you can, you will see God.

Begin, then, to love your neighbor. “Share your bread with the hungry, and bring the wandering poor into your house. When you see the naked, clothe him, and do not hide yourself from your own flesh” (Isa 58:7).

When you have done this, what will you obtain? “Then your light shall break forth like the dawn” (Isa 58:8).

Your light is your God, a dawn for you, because He will come to you after the night of this world.

Certainly He neither rises nor sets, for He always abides. He will be dawn for you when you return to Him, just as He became sunset for you when you turned away from Him.

Thus, when He said, “Take up your bed” (Jn 5:8), He seems to have said to me, “Love your neighbor” (cf. Lk 10:27).

Yet it is still unclear, and, I think, requires explanation, why love for neighbor is entrusted to us in the form of taking up a bed.

Nor should we be offended that the neighbor is expressed through a bed, a thing in some sense foolish and senseless.

Let the neighbor not be angry because he is represented for us through something that has neither soul nor sense.

Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Himself was called the cornerstone, who joined the two in Himself (see Eph 2:14-20).

He was also called the rock from which water flowed: “The Rock was Christ” (cf. 1 Cor 10:4).

What wonder is it if the neighbor is called wood, when Christ is called rock?

Yet he is not called mere wood. Likewise Christ is not called a mere rock, but that rock from which water flowed for the thirsty.

He is not called a mere stone, but the cornerstone, which joins in Himself two walls coming from different directions.

So also you should understand your neighbor not as mere wood, but as a bed. What, I ask you, was done by means of the bed? What, except that the sick man was carried on the bed?

But the healthy man himself carries the bed. For what was said by the Apostle? “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal 6:2).

The law of Christ is love, and love is not fulfilled unless we bear one another’s burdens. As he says, we must forbear one another in love, endeavoring to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Eph 4:2-3).

When you were sick, your neighbor carried you. You have recovered; carry your neighbor. “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”

Thus fulfill, O man, what was lacking in you. Take up your bed.

But when you lift it, do not stand still. Walk. By loving your neighbor and showing care for your neighbor, set out on the way.

And on what way do you walk, if not toward the Lord God, toward Him whom we must love with all our heart, all our soul, and all our mind (cf. Mt 22:37)?

We have not yet come to the Lord, but our neighbor is beside us. Take him up, then, and walk with him, so that you may come to Him with whom you desire to abide forever.

Therefore, take up your bed and walk.

We have been cast out from it into the exile of this world. Therefore, when you hear that it was said to the paralytic, "Take up your bed and go to your house," understand it as though it were said to you: "Govern your flesh in all purity, and return to Paradise as to your own house and original homeland."

The same God who once said, "Let there be light," "Let there be a firmament," "Let the waters be gathered together," and it was so (Gen 1:3, 6, 9), also said this: "Rise." Then the word "Let there be" suddenly produced all things from non-being. Now the word "Rise" corrected the whole disorder and disarray of the paralyzed body.

For greater proof of the miracle that had occurred, the paralytic takes his bed upon his shoulders and walks. He performed the miracle on the Sabbath to show that He is Lord of the Sabbath. At the same time He healed the Jewish superstitions and their senseless rigor about the Sabbath.

But see how great the malice of the Jews is. Unable to say anything about the miracle, they keep silent. Yet they rise up against the paralytic in this way:

By that paralytic one may understand all sick and paralyzed humanity, poor humanity infected by ancestral sin and awaiting healing for itself. Humanity languished, and God looked upon it. Of course, by His almighty power God could have regenerated humanity in one instant and made it holy instead of sinful. The Lord was mighty enough to do this, but the righteousness of God did not permit it. No occasion could be given for Satan to reproach God with injustice.

For the salvation of humanity, a man was needed. For long years people awaited this Man and languished, like the paralytic by the pool of Siloam. And the Man came and redeemed humanity, cleansing it from ancestral sin. But now we have gone astray again. Again we await a man who would lead us to the springs of living water.

Taking pity on the unfortunate man's hopeless condition, Jesus said to him, "Rise, take up your bed, and walk." The healing occurred instantly. The sick man rose, took up the bed on which he had lain, and walked. Now it was the Sabbath day.

The Savior came to the place of suffering humanity and turned His loving attention to the grievous sufferer. The sufferer tells Him about himself, that he had "lain a long time" and had found no "man to put" him into the healing pool. Suppose the sick man had not lain by the pool for thirty-eight years, and suppose there had not been no compassionate man for thirty-eight years. Still, one must admit that if "many years" passed without attention to such an unfortunate man, the picture is not flattering to Jewish or pagan humanity.

People may write much about humaneness, but that does not mean seeing humaneness in experience, or proving one's own humaneness by deeds. Only Christ Jesus proved His love for mankind by deeds. Only with the help of His grace have people become examples of self-denying love for mankind.

"Rise and walk," said the Lord. The sick man "rose and walked." More than this, at the Lord's word he carried his own bed. Such is the word of Jesus. However successfully a skilled physician may treat a patient, one who receives help after a long and serious illness feels weakness and exhaustion for a long time. The heavenly Physician does not heal in this way. He spoke, and the man who had been sick for thirty-eight years became completely whole and carried his bed with him.