“Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.”
At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath. — the immediate healing demonstrates Jesus' power over physical infirmity. But John adds the crucial detail: it was the Sabbath. This transforms the healing into a Sabbath violation, moving from mercy to legal controversy.
Church Fathers on John 5:8
After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
The feast of Pentecost. Jesus always went up to Jerusalem at the time of the feasts, that it might be seen that He was not an enemy to, but an observer of, the Law. And it gave Him the opportunity of impressing the simple multitude by miracles and teaching: as great numbers used then to collect from the neighboring towns.
The pool by the sheep-market, is the place where the priest washed the animals that were going to be sacrificed.
Read all 19 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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