John 4.43-5.17

What to look for:
-Healing of the Official's Son: Jesus healed a royal official's son in Cana of Galilee by simply telling the man his son would live, demonstrating His power and eliciting belief from the official and his household. 4:46-54
-Healing at the Pool of Bethesda: At the pool of Bethesda, Jesus healed a man who had been disabled for thirty-eight years, instructing him to pick up his mat and walk. 5:1-15
*Controversy on the Sabbath: Jesus' act of healing on the Sabbath led to conflict with Jewish leaders, who began persecuting Him for breaking the Sabbath law. 5:16
*Second Sign in Galilee: The healing of the official's son was noted as the second sign Jesus performed after returning to Galilee from Judea. 4:54
*John uses the term "signs" to refer to Jesus' miracles, which are meant to reveal His identity as the Son of God and inspire belief. The first sign mentioned in John's Gospel had been the turning of water into wine at the wedding in Cana. By noting that the second sign occurred after Jesus left Judea and came into Galilee, John emphasizes that Jesus' ministry was not limited to the religious center of Jewish life.

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43 And after the two days He went from there into Galilee.
44 For Jesus Himself bore witness that a prophet has no honor in his own country.
45 So when He came to Galilee, the Galileans received Him, having seen all the things that He did in Jerusalem at the feast; for they themselves also went to the feast.
46 Then He came again to Cana of Galilee where He had made the water wine. And there was a royal official whose son was sick at Capernaum.
47 When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to Him and was asking Him to come down and heal his son; for he was about to die.
48 So Jesus said to him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will never believe.”
49 The royal official said to Him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”
50 Jesus said to him, “Go; your son lives.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started on his way.
51 And while he was still going down, his slaves met him, saying that his son was alive.
52 So he inquired of them the hour when he began to get better. Then they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.”
53 So the father knew that it was at that hour in which Jesus said to him, “Your son lives”; and he himself believed and his whole household.
54 This is again a second sign that Jesus did when He had come out of Judea into Galilee.

CHAPTER 5

1 After these things there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porticoes.
3 In these lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered, [waiting for the moving of the waters;
4 for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water; whoever then first, after the stirring up of the water, stepped in was made well from whatever sickness with which he was afflicted.]
5 And a man was there who had been sick for thirty-eight years.
6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been sick a long time, He said to him, “Do you wish to get well?”
7 The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I am coming, another steps down before me.”
8 Jesus said to him, “Get up, pick up your mat and walk.”
9 And immediately the man became well, and picked up his mat and began to walk. Now it was the Sabbath on that day.
10 So the Jews were saying to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.”
11 But he answered them, “He who made me well was the one who said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’”
12 They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Pick up your mat and walk’?”
13 But the man who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away while there was a crowd in that place.
14 Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “Behold, you have become well; do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you.”
15 The man went away, and disclosed to the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.
16 And for this reason the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because He was doing these things on the Sabbath.
17 But He answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.”

*[Some mss do not include vv. 3b–4]