John 5:1-18 influencing fellow-citizens to overcome fear

 I read the Bible with the perspective that Jesus affirmed Genesis 1, especially Genesis 1:28, which commends humankind to independently provide safety& security to the living species and to the earth. I call it responsible-human-independence (RHI). In recent weeks, my theory has matured:  God's love, the Holy Spirit, Jesus’ peace, Satan, heaven/hell, and soul are six mysteries that believers can accept and take-comfort-in according to their responsible-resolutions. I listen to responses to the theory hoping to improve it. Nevertheless, I think it is each citizen’s duty to take responsibility for safety& security in their way of living. Because some fellow-citizens can& may choose to be tyrants (arbitrary-dependents, criminals, and elite takers), civic-citizens must fund law, law enforcement, and statutory-justice development.

John 5:1-18 NIV

The Healing at the Pool

5 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. ² Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. ³ Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. ^[4] [V 4 purged in recent translation.] ⁵ One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. ⁶ When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

⁷ “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”

⁸ Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” ⁹ At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. [Today, Jon Parks, preaching at UBC listed “cure” possibilities, including that the man was psychologically invalid and thus living in error.]

The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, ¹⁰ and so the Jewish leaders said 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. [According to Parks, the man acted without expectation that Jesus was a healer. Therefore, it is possible the Jesus’ command convinced him to act rather than maintain fear. I have a similar situation at age 79 and intending to skateboard. Because my bones are brittle, I do not take risks, so my learning rate is slow. However, I do not need to let fear keep me from working toward my goal. Time constraint may mean that I only reach a minimal attainment, but that will be OK with me.]

¹⁴ 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.” [The dictionary holds “sin” to be religious fault. However, Parks’ sermon or Parks directly helped me interpret it as human error in John 5 context. That is to be psychologically bound to a perceived infirmity is simple error. Research led to the ancinet Greek meaning, "fail of one's purpose, or go wrong.] ¹⁵ The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well. [Persuaded him from fear?] [With Jon Parks’ leadership and my Greek-word-research, I think this John-5 story is an example of Jesus affirming Genesis 1:28. Civic-citizens (like Jesus) practice, facilitate, and encourage RHI, and thereby influence fellow citizens to develop order and prosperity on earth. That is, when civic-citizens see the opportunity to encourage a dependent citizen to reform, they humbly act.]

The Authority of the Son [These paragraph headings are a form of political influence.]

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. [The theological squabble between Jewish leaders and Christians represses/obfuscates the lesson about civic citizens trusting mutual encouragement. Viewed from Genesis-1 RHI, both sides are in error.]