John 5: 9-18, Healing on the Sabbath

Jesus has just instructed a man, lame from birth, to get up and walk.

John 5: 9-13, Healing on the Sabbath
At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.

The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 
10 and so the Jewish leaderssaid to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”

11 But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”

12 So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?”

13 The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.

This dramatic miracle of Jesus occurs, as many others do, on the seventh day of the week, the Jewish Sabbath.  On the Sabbath one is to rest, not work.  Apparently carrying a mat is work. (So is healing someone!)  When one should be excited and awed by this wonderful miracle, the religious leaders are jealous and upset.

The healed man does his best to answer the questions of the leaders, but he is also pretty clueless as to the identity of his healer.

If the man had been lame by the pool all his life, shouldn't the religious leaders know of him by now?

John 5: 14-18, Conversation
Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” 
15 The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.

16 So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. 
17 In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” 
18 For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

Jesus meets up with the healed man later.  I presume the "stop sinning" statement has something to do with the man moving on to a positive lifestyle?  The man reports to the leaders as to the idenity of his healer and they begin to verbally attack Jesus.

Apparently in his answer, Jesus identifies himself with God ("My father and I have the same task") and so Jesus is accused of blasphemy.  The writer wants the reader to know that Jesus has equated himself with God.

In the remainder of the passage Jesus gives a lengthy response to the accusations against him.  We will cover that next time.