5:11,12
The man tries to deflect the “blame”, saying that the man who healed him told him to take up his mat. Now why should the fact that Jesus had healed him be significant here? It is that it implied that this man was special, anointed by God, so he had some authority and the man was only obeying someone who had authority.
The Jewish leaders inquired as to who this man was that had healed him. Notice that they are more interested in the fact that Jesus had told him to carry his mat than that He had healed him! We do need to be very careful that in seeking to protect the truth we do not end up sinning and so distorting the truth. It is so easy for us to do this.
5:13-15
The man had no idea who it was. Jesus had slipped away very quickly after healing the man. The man was no doubt so amazed that he could now walk that he hadn’t had time to inquire as to who Jesus was.
Later on Jesus found the man,and tells him “stop sinning, or something worse may happen to you”. Some see this as implying that the man’s condition was directly related to some particular sin, but the context doesn’t seem to really support this. When Jesus healed the paralysed man who had been lowered through a roof He contrasted saying “be healed” with forgiving sins. It seems to make more sense to take this as Jesus highlighting the really important matters. It was good that the man could now walk, but it would be no good if he just walked into hell! He needed to repent of his sins.
Now it is definitely not the case, and not Biblical, to say that all sickness are a direct result of sin. Equally it is unbiblical to say that sickness is never a direct result of sin. But today we have a tendency to venerate those who are suffering or the poor. Whether you are rich or poor, whether you are healthy or ill, you are still a sinner, and sin is your biggest problem.
The man then went and told the Jewish leaders who had healed him. Now why did Jesus act in this way? Was He trying to engineer confrontation with the Jewish leaders?
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