Jesus Gives You Permission (John 5:10-47)

The Dissidents Guide to John, Part 9

A Reason to Give a Speech

After Jesus heals a man by the pool in Bethesda on the Sabbath, everything shifts. The man who had been sick for 38 years picks up his mat and walks, just as Jesus instructed — and immediately finds himself in trouble.

“It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.” (John 5:10)

There is no sense of awe and wonder at this miraculous act of restoration. Instead, the healing becomes a scandal. The religious leaders are upset, not necessarily about the restoration itself —though, it would have been uncomfortable to welcome him into temple fellowship after decades of seeing him as a beggar, they are upset that the healing happened on the Sabbath. It violated the order. It challenged the system.

And so, instead of awe and celebration, there’s anger a confrontation.

This is what sets the stage for what is called the Divine Son Discourse; one of several theological monologues scattered through the Gospel of John. These discourses are an important tool for the dissident reader.

What Is a “Discourse”?

John’s Gospel is structured like a drama: action, then reflection. Its like a cast member in a play pausing to address the audience with an explanation to what they’ve just seen, or perhaps a bit of theological rumination to be gleaned from the story. And it’s in these long theological speeches — discourses — where the early Christian community interprets the life and teaching of Jesus.

The discourses are not verbatim sermon transcripts, and they’re not off-the-cuff replies. Think of them more like deeply considered theological reflections — moments when the story fades to black, and Jesus steps into a spotlight to speak directly to John’s audience.

There are seven major discourses in John:

1. New Birth (John 3)

2. Water of Life (John 4)

3. Divine Son (John 5)

4. Bread of Life (John 6)

5. Light of the World (John 7–8)

6. Good Shepherd (John 10)

7. Farewell Discourse (John 13–17)

Each one interrupts the narrative to explain something fundamental. The Divine Son Discourse (John 5:19–47), which follows the healing at the pool of Bethesda, addresses a central question:

“Why would Jesus — someone claiming to come from God — break God’s own Sabbath laws?”

Sabbath-Breaking as Theological Statement

Jesus is accused of two things in this chapter: breaking the Sabbath, and making himself equal with God —not a small charge in first-century Judaism.

So how does Jesus respond?

Not by apologizing. Not by backtracking. But by launching into a 29-verse theological argument that defends not only his own actions — but also the radical behavior of the early Christian movement.

Let’s walk through it.

1. Jesus Only Does What the Father Does (John 5:19–23)

“The Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing.” (v.19)

This is not just a defense — it’s a claim that Jesus isn’t acting alone but rather, He’s mirroring the divine will of God. In the ancient world, this would call to mind the image of a son apprenticing under his father, learning the family trade.

Jesus, the divine apprentice, is saying: “Everything I do — including healing on the Sabbath — reflects the very work of God.”

And if God is still working, even on the Sabbath, then so is the Son.

2. To Believe in Him Is to Cross from Death to Life (John 5:24–30)

“Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life… and has crossed over from death to life.” (v.24)

Here Jesus redefines religious authority. They thought their religious leaders had spiritual authority to tell them what God did and did not want, that their way was the eternal path, the way to Gods world. Jesus wants them to watch him, listen to him; he has something to show them about what God actually wants and how we ought to live.

Jesus can see that even the religious leaders are living for the temporal, for wealth and power and Babylon’s trinkets. But Jesus has shown a new path — in his way, his words, his vision — that moves someone from temporal life into eternal life that brings the heaven of Gods presence to our world, just as he taught us to pray.

This is a confrontation with the prevailing religious view of the day, which said judgment and resurrection were reserved for the rule-followers.

Jesus flips the life of Gods people, measuring it by relationship, not regulation.

3. Scripture, John the Baptist, and the Father All Point to Jesus (John 5:31–40)

Jesus lays out his witnesses. He knows he can’t simply testify about himself. Jewish law required multiple witnesses to confirm truth. So this is where he names his witnesses:

• John the Baptist testified.
• God the Father testifies.
• The Scriptures testify.

This may not be an argument that connects with you, but for Johns audience it was a deeply important thing to say. Let me explain to you this way; if you’ve ever been chastised by a person in religious authority —say a pastor— for some action that you intended out of love, but they interpreted as disobedience, you’ve probably heard them call upon the witnesses that mean a lot to us, like Paul, or some reformer/famous theologian/preacher, or my personal favorite: “two-thousand years of church history.”

Jesus can play their game just as well as them, and he uses their most trustworthy witnesses (John the Baptist, The Father, Scriptures) to argue that he is doing exactly what God intended for Israel to do; to love the marginalized and the poor, to heal the sick, restore the broken, and fetch all who have lost their way so that they can be restored to God.

And if scriptures actually point to Jesus, instead of the religious authorities, then Jesus represents a threat to the structures they’ve come to depend upon.

This isn’t just about their inability to see.
It’s about a refusal to listen — because

4. Pride Blinds You (John 5:41–44)

“You accept glory from one another but do not seek the glory that comes from the only God.” (v.44)

The deeper issue isn’t just misunderstanding. It’s misalignment. The leaders want recognition. Status. A place in the system.

But Jesus doesn’t play their game. He’s not self-promoting. He’s not trying to “win” religion. He’s interested in healing people — and honoring those the system overlooks.

It’s like saying “You can’t truly follow me if what you’re chasing is approval from the very system I’m disrupting.”

5. Even Moses Would Take My Side (John 5:45–47)

To really drive it home, Jesus brings in Moses — the very figure these leaders claim to follow.

“If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me.” (v.46)

Jesus isn’t saying Moses wrote his name down. He’s saying the story of Moses — the liberation from Egypt, the call to justice, the wilderness journey — all of it points to him. The entire arc of Scripture bends toward Jesus and the radical love he embodies.

Jesus Is Our Argument

The early church knew exactly what they were doing when they wrote down and preserved these stories and teachings of Jesus. They weren’t just defending Jesus’ right to heal on the Sabbath; they were defending their own acts of justice and mercy that defied religious norms.

The Divine Son Discourse gave Christians throughout history the permission to:

• Break Sabbath to heal the sick.

• Help slaves escape unjust captivity.

• Hide Jewish families during the Holocaust — even when “good Christians” said not to.

• Welcome Samaritans, Gentiles, women, lepers, and the poor — even when the gatekeepers disapproved.

• Love and care for everyone regardless of legal status, nation of origin, orientation, race, creed, or any other man-made separation.

Jesus was their excuse. Jesus is our excuse.

If our actions can’t be rooted in the way of Jesus, then no rulebook, no system, no Bible verse can make it right. Jesus gave us fruit to cultivate and tables for people to gather at because he wanted us to understand that the promised land is much closer than we think, but our own religious systems often keep us from getting there.

James Cone once wrote:

“The wilderness is where the people of God cry out, close to the land of promise but still surrounded by injustice.”

Leonardo Boff added:

“The promised land lies just beyond reach—not because God has delayed, but because Pharaoh still rules in new disguises.”

John’s Gospel is saturated with suffering — and with the insistence that the kingdom of God is not far off. Jesus doesn’t promise heaven later. He promises life now:

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So when the rules say “don’t” even though we know what is good and right — Jesus is our excuse.

And that’s the only one we need.