Healing at the pool (John's signs)

Question 1

What I am saying does this sign link to?

Answer 1

‘I am the door’

Question 2

What was the superstion surrounding Bethesda?

Answer 2

That the waters can cure the sick; an invisible angel stirs the waters and disabled people nearby rush to the water to be healed

Question 3

Why can the man in the story not reach the waters?

Answer 3

Because he seems to be paralysed

Question 4

How is this sign an example of RT?

Answer 4

Jesus heals the man by speaking a word, showing that he is the true God of healing, not like the pagan fake that people are depending on out of superstition

Question 5

Why do many see Bethesda as a pagan place of worship?

Answer 5

Because it was likely an asclepueion - a bathing pool sacred to the Greek God of healing

Question 6

How does JC test the man’s sincerity?

Answer 6

By asking if he really wants healing or if he is just another sign seeker

Question 7

How does Jesus disregard the Sabbath here?

Answer 7

He heals the man on the Sabbath and tells the man to pick up his mat and walk, this broke the 39th Sabbath rule about not carrying your burden home

Question 8

What is the symbolic meaning behind JC instructing the man to break the 39th Sabbath rule?

Answer 8

Because the man has been paralysed for 38 years; each year of sickness represents a year he has been paralysed by the Sabbath rules. His ability to walk again after he breaks the 39th symbolises freedom from these rules

Question 9

Why does John’s gospel present JC as opposing the Law of Moses?

Answer 9

Because healing people and doing good works is more important than following petty rules

Question 10

How does JC respond when the Jewish priests question him for breaking the Sabbath?

Answer 10

‘My Father is always at work to this very day, and I too am working’ (John 5:17)

Question 11

Why would it be wrong to say that John simply rejects the idea of the Sabbath altogether?

Answer 11

He objects to the way the Jews interpret it. The Sabbath is to be a day off from worldly work where people can focus on God and doing his works; rather than being a day off from any work at all

Question 12

What does this sign show the reader that they need to do?

Answer 12

Shows that they do not need pagan superstition or the regulations of Jewish law; they need to believe in JC instead

Question 13

How does JC justify breaking the Sabbath in the synoptics?

Answer 13

• He calls himself the Lord of the Sabbath
• ‘The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath’ Mark (2:27)

Question 14

What idea does Mark 2:27 encapsulate?

Answer 14

That worshipping God ought to be liberating, not restricting

Question 15

What would happen to 1st century Jews who broke the Sabbath?

Answer 15

They would be ostracised or punished

Question 16

How did the Romans view the Sabbath?

Answer 16

They saw it as a ludicrous excuse for Jewish laziness

Question 17

Who does Brown argue wrote John?

Answer 17

The Johannine Community, a group of Jewish Christians thrown out of the synagogue for their high christology

Question 18

How does Brown explain the hostility towards Jewish law in John?

Answer 18

He claims that the Johannine Community were resentful towards their former friends and neighbours. After being expelled, they convinced themselves that JC disliked Jewish law and presented him as attacking it at every turn. This explains why the Johannine JC is more fierce in his criticism of Jewish law than the JC presented in the Synoptics

Question 19

What did Christian Churches replace the Sabbath with?

Answer 19

The Lord’s day (Sunday) a time when they gathered together for worship and tried to spend their time on religious rather than worldly duties

Question 20

What happened to the Lord’s Day during the protestant reformation?

Answer 20

Puritan Christians began to refer to it as the Sabbath and started to apply some of the OT rules about not working

Question 21

What is the significance of Matthew 22:36-40?

Answer 21

It sums up the idea that focusing on the inner meaning of Jewish Law is more important than following it to the letter. JC is asked what the greatest commandment is and he says that the Law boils down to loving God and loving your neighbour

Question 22

How does this sign link to SE?

Answer 22

SE involves acting upon agape love even if this means breaking moral rules at times. Fletcher points to examples such as this as evidence that this is how JC approached moral problems

Question 23

Make the case that this sign is essential for understanding JC’s identity

Answer 23

• Jesus presents himself as able to break Jewish Law because he is the source of Jewish Law
• JC doesn’t just free people from sickness, but also from the distracting burden of Jewish Law
• JC` draws people’s attention to the deeper meaning of the law, when they tend to focus on the superficial

Question 24

Make the case that this sign is not essential for understanding JC’s identity

Answer 24

• JC and his disciples were all Jews and the first Christians were Jews who kept the Sabbath. This makes it unlikely that JC broke the Sabbath rules or went around encouraging other people to break them
• Christianity hasn’t followed JC’s example on this, creating moral rules just as inflexible as Jewish Law (e.g. the RC approach to abortion or the fact that protestants treat the Sabbath in much the same way as the Jews did)