The healing at the pool and the Son's unity with the Father
Jesus has just asked the paralyzed man whether he wants to be made well, and now the homilist explains the exchange and the Jews' hostile reaction to the healing on the Sabbath.
See his lack of arrogance. He did not say, “Do you want me to heal you?” For he did not wish to speak boastfully or to proclaim himself before the miracles. The man says, “I do want it, but I have no man.” For where there is no friend, there is no man anywhere. “This is also why I ask,” Jesus says, “not so that I may learn—for what sick person does not want to be made well?—but so that you may expose the cruelty of your good citizens, because they did not even give you a hand to throw you toward the spring, something even an enemy would have done if asked. Since until now you have had no man to put you into the pool, look: I, who for your sake became man, heal your suffering even without waters. Rise, take up your mat and go” (John 5:8).
He does not simply command him to carry the mat. What he did with the loaves, he does here as well. Just as there he commands the leftover pieces of bread to be carried, so here too, to make the miracle clear and to free the healing from Jewish suspicion, and to show that he is not some deceiver but a savior and the common physician of nature, he commands him to carry the mat. So the Jews said, “It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your mat” (John 5:10). And he answers, “The one who made me well, that one said to me, ‘Take up your mat and walk’” (John 5:11). So they said to him, “And who is he?” But the healed man did not know. When they learned that it was Jesus who had made him well, they began to persecute him, wanting to kill him.
What then does Christ do? He brings forward the Father, saying, “My Father is working until now, and I am working” (John 5:17). For just as, he says, my Father is not subject to boundaries, does not serve laws, and does not wait for commands, but by his own judgment does whatever he wills, so I also work all things with authoritative authority, equally with the Father. But for this reason they sought all the more to kill him, because he not only broke the Sabbath but also called God his own Father, making himself equal to God (John 5:18).
But while they were raging and going mad, what does Christ do? “Amen, I say to you, the Son cannot do anything of himself unless he sees the Father doing it. For whatever that one does, these things the Son also does in the same way” (John 5:19). Not because he creates some things and I, by imitation, produce other things. For if that were so, there would have to be two heavens, two suns, two seas, two races of human beings, and a double world—one belonging to the Father, the other to me. For it would be necessary that, just as with painters the lines are prescribed and with teachers the letters of the alphabet, so the Father’s creation was prescribed, and I produced mine by imitation.
Greek
Βλέπε αὐτοῦ τὸ ἄτυφον· οὐκ εἶπεν θέλεις σε θεραπεύσω, οὐ γὰρ ἤθελε
μεγαλορρημονεῖν οὐδὲ ἑαυτὸν πρὸ τῶν θαυμάτων ἀνακηρύττειν. Ὁ δέ φησι· θέλω μέν, ἀλλ' ἄνθρωπον οὐκ ἔχω· ὅπου γὰρ οὐδεὶς φίλος, οὐδαμοῦ ἄνθρωπος. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο καὶ ἐρωτῶ, οὐχ ἵνα μάθω– τίς γὰρ ἀσθενῶν ὑγιᾶναι οὐ βούλεται; –, ἀλλ' ἵνα τῶν χρηστῶν σου πολιτῶν τὴν ὠμότητα δείξῃς, ὅτι οὔτε χεῖρα σοι ἔδωκαν προσρῖψαι σε τῇ πηγῇ, ὃ καὶ πολέμιος αἰτηθεὶς ἂν παρέσχεν. Ἐπεὶ οὖν μέχρι τοῦ νῦν ἄνθρωπον οὐκ ἔσχες ἵνα βάλῃ σε εἰς τὴν κολυμβήθραν, ἰδοὺ ὁ διὰ σὲ ἄνθρωπος γενόμενος καὶ ἄνευ ὑδάτων ἰῶμαι σου τὸ πάθος· Ἀναστὰς ἆρον τὴν κλίνην σου καὶ ὕπαγε. Οὐχ 1 ἁπλῶς δὲ αὐτὸν τὴν κλίνην βαστάξαι κελεύει· ὅπερ γὰρ ἐπὶ τῶν ἄρτων ἐποίησε, τοῦτο καὶ ὧδε ποιεῖ. Ὥσπερ γὰρ ἐκεῖ λείψανα τῶν ἄρτων βασταγῆναι κελεύει, οὕτως καὶ ὧδε πρὸς τὸ τρανῶσαι τὸ θαῦμα καὶ Ἰουδαϊκῆς ὑπονοίας τὴν θεραπείαν ἐλευθερῶσαι καὶ δεῖξαι ὅτι οὐκ ἀπατεών τις ἐστίν, ἀλλὰ σωτὴρ καὶ κοινὸς τῆς φύσεως ἰατρός, κελεύει αὐτῷ βαστάξαι τὴν κλίνην. Εἶπον οὖν οἱ Ἰουδαῖοι· Σάββατόν ἐστιν, οὐκ ἔξεστί σοι ἆραι τὸν κράββατον. Ὁ δὲ ἀποκρίνεται· Ὁ ποιήσας με ὑγιῆ, ἐκεῖνός μοι εἶπεν· ἆρον τὸν κράββατόν σου καὶ περιπάτει. Εἶπον οὖν αὐτῷ· Καὶ τίς ἐστιν; Ὁ δὲ ἰαθεὶς οὐκ ᾔδει. Ὡς οὖν ἔμαθον ὅτι Ἰησοῦς ἐστιν ὁ ποιήσαςαὐτὸν ὑγιῆ, ἐδίωκον ἵνα ἀποκτείνωσιν αὐτόν. Τί οὖν ὁ Χριστός; Τὸν πατέρα φέρει λέγων ὅτι Ὁ πατήρ μου ἕως ἄρτι ἐργάζεται, κἀγὼ ἐργάζομαι. Ὥσπερ γάρ, φησίν, ὁ πατὴρ ὁ ἐμὸς οὐχ ὅροις ὑπόκει ται, οὐ νομοθεσίαις δουλεύει οὔτε προστάγματα ἀναμένει, οἰκείᾳ δὲ γνώμῃ ποιεῖ ἅπερ βούλεται, οὕτως κἀγὼ αὐθεντικῇ ἐξουσίᾳ πάντα ἐργάζομαι ἐπίσης τῷ πατρί. Οἱ δὲ διὰ τοῦτο αὐτὸν ἐζήτουν μᾶλλον ἀποκτεῖναι, ὅτι οὐ μόνον ἔλυσε τὸ σάββατον, ἀλλ' ὅτι καὶ πατέρα ἴδιον ἔλεγε τὸν θεόν, ἴσον ἑαυτὸν ποιῶν τῷ θεῷ. Ἀλλ' ἐκείνων λυττώντων καὶ μαινομένων τί ὁ Χριστός; Ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν, οὐ δύναται ὁ υἱὸς ποιεῖν ἀφ' ἑαυτοῦ οὐδέν, ἐὰν μή τι βλέπῃ τὸν πατέρα ποιοῦντα· ἃ γὰρ ἂν ἐκεῖνος ποιῇ, ταῦτα καὶ ὁ υἱὸς ὁμοίως ποιεῖ. Οὐκ ἐπειδὴ αὐτὸς μὲν ἄλλα κτίζει, ἐγὼ δὲ κατὰ μίμησιν ἕτερα ἐργάζο μαι· εἰ γὰρ τοῦτο ἦν, δύο οὐρανοὺς εἶναι ἐχρῆν, δύο ἡλίους, δύο θαλάσσας, δύο ἀνθρώπων γένη καὶ διπλοῦν κόσμον, τὸν μὲν τοῦ πατρός, τὸν δὲ ἐμόν. Ἀνάγκη γὰρ ὡς ἐπὶ τῶν ζωγράφων αἱ γραμμαὶ καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν διδασκάλων τὰ στοιχεῖα προστάσσονται, οὕτως τὴν τοῦ πατρὸς προστετάχθαι κτίσιν ἧς κατὰ μίμησιν εἰργασάμην ἐγώ.