Jesus returns to Jerusalem for another religious festival, during which time he performs a miraculous healing and offers a long discourse on his identity and spiritual authority. While walking in Jerusalem near the pool of Bethesda, Jesus and the disciples encounter a man who had been unable to walk for 35 years. Together with other people in a similar condition, he sits and waits by the pool every day for the waters to be stirred up, because local legend has it that this is a sign of angelic visitation, and that the first person in the water will be healed. He had never succeeded in getting in the water, though, so his condition remained the same. Jesus confronts him with a direct question—“Do you want to be healed?” (5:6)—and follows this up with a command: “Get up, take up your bed, and walk” (5:8). The man is healed immediately and walks away.

This dramatic healing soon attracts the attention of the religious authorities in Jerusalem, who criticize Jesus because the healing occurred on the Sabbath, and Jesus’s command to the man to pick up his bed and walk was in direct violation of the Sabbath observances.