The importance of placing the Sabbath healings in John in the context of the lifetime of Jesus rather than at some later point cannot be exaggerated. Given that all the Gospels report controversial Sabbath healings, it should not be difficult to make that call. Jesus knew that it would be controversial, but he went ahead anyway because it was part of his revealing mission. Our topic for this lesson is the wonderful story of the healing of the man who had been ill for thirty-eight years. It will be difficult to find a more important Sabbath text than this one (John 5.1-18).
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