For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.” Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him because He not only broke the Sabbath but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God. (John 5:16-18)

Seeking To Kill Jesus

The Jewish leadership hated the man from Nazareth and actively sought the means to have him killed. Their hatred was not just an emotional outpouring of a strong dislike of the man; they hated him with such a passion there was nothing to be done but to murder him. Ironically, they did not consider the desire to kill Jesus a case of murder but religious justification based on the interpretation of the Law of Moses, which they had changed with their customs and laws. The Law of Moses was very strict concerning the Sabbath. During the wilderness wanderings, a man was found picking up sticks on the Sabbath day and was stoned to death by the congregation. The Law prescribed that anyone who profaned the Sabbath would be put to death. A person who did work on that day would be cut off from the congregation.

The Jews charged Jesus with breaking the Sabbath. They wanted to put Him to death for healing a man diseased in his body for thirty-eight years. Jesus was in Jerusalem when He came to the pool of Bethesda and found the man lying next to the pool. Jesus asked him if he wanted to be made well. At a certain time, an angel of God stirred the pool’s water, and whoever stepped into the pool first was healed. The lame man could never make it to the water in time. Jesus told the man to rise, take up his bed, and walk. Immediately, the man was made whole, took up his bed, and walked. The apostle John notes it was done on the Sabbath.

After the lame man was healed, the Jews rebuked him for carrying his bed on the Sabbath. The man told them his healer told him to rise, take up his bed, and walk. Jesus had withdrawn into the multitude, and the man did not know who had healed him. Afterward, Jesus found the man and warned him to live a righteous life or something worse would happen. The man told the Jews it was Jesus who had healed him. It was for this reason the Jews sought to kill Jesus because He healed on the Sabbath. There is an unbelievable ring of hypocrisy in men who are trying to kill someone who can heal any disease and raise the dead.

The Law of Moses never forbade a man from being healed on the Sabbath. On another occasion, when Jesus healed a woman bent over with an infirmity for eighteen years, the ruler of the synagogue declared that healing should only take place on the six days of the week, not on the Sabbath day. Jesus replied that it was necessary on the Sabbath to loose an ox or donkey from the stall and lead it away to water it. Healing on the Sabbath was not an offense demanding the death penalty. The Jews hated Jesus because He was endangering their place among the people and the Romans.

It seems incredible to consider how much hatred drives men to act in the name of God. The Jews had become so immersed in their own laws that they desired to kill an innocent man for doing things that no man could do. It would not take long for the Jewish leaders to have their way with Jesus and murder him on a Roman cross. They succeeded in having Jesus killed, not knowing the act of killing Jesus was the act given to save them. On the day of Pentecost, three thousand people felt the sting of guilt for what they had done. They were guilty of murder in the first degree. There was no excuse. They had no recourse. God offered them mercy and grace and forgave them. The world still has people who want to kill Jesus and will succeed in killing Him in their hearts. They refuse to see the power of His glory revealed in the pages of holy writ. Do you see a Sabbath law broken or a man healed?