Teachings and Healings

Then He prayed, "I praise you and agree with you Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for you have hidden your truths from the intellectuals full of self admiration and false prudence, but have revealed them to little children. You planned it that way and that plan is well pleasing in your sight."

Then he said to the people, "Everything was entrusted to me by my Father. No one knows the Son fully and intimately except the Father. Likewise, no one knows the Father fully and intimately except the Son. And the Son may reveal the Father to anyone He chooses.

"Come to me all of you who are tired of hard labor and spiritual frustration and I will give you rest. Take my yoke and learn from me - I am meek and humble - and you will find rest; for my yoke is easy and the burden I put on you is light."

At that time and place people did not sit at the table as we do. Each diner was provided with a kind of couch where they lay on their side to eat their food. This is how the woman could stand behind Jesus and wash his feet. She didn't have to climb under the table.

One of the Pharisees invited Jesus to a meal so He went to the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table. Now a woman of the city who was a sinner found out that was dining in the Pharisee's house. She brought an alabaster box of expensive ointment and stood at His feet behind Him weeping. Then she began to wash his feet with her tears and wipe them with her hair. She kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment.

When the Pharisee who had invited Him saw what she was doing thought to himself, "If this man was really a prophet he would know who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him; a sinner."

Jesus perceived what he was thinking and said to him, "Simon, I have something to say unto you."

And he replied, "Master, tell me."

"There was a certain creditor who had two debtors, one owed him five hundred dollars, and the other fifty. When they had nothing to pay, he forgave them both. Tell me, which of them will love him most?"

Simon answered, "I suppose he who had the greatest debt."

And He said unto him, "You have judged correctly."

Then He turned to the woman and said to Simon, Look at this woman. I came into your house but you didn't give me any water to wash my feet. She has washed my feet with tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not greet me with a kiss, but this woman has been kissing my feet. You did not anoint my hair with oil but this woman has anointed my feet with precious ointment. Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven for she loves much. But to whom little is forgiven, he loves little."

And He said to her, "Your sins are forgiven."

And the others at the meal began to think to themselves, "Who is this that forgives sins also?"

He said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you, go in peace."

After this there was a feast, the fall festival season, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. There near the sheep market is a pool called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five plazas. There lay a great multitude of afflicted people; blind, crippled, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water. From time to time an angel went down into the pool, and stirred the water. Whoever was the first to step in when the water was stirred was healed of whatever disease afflicted him.

A man was there who had been afflicted thirty-eight years and when Jesus saw him lying there and knew how long He said, "Do you want to be made well?"

The crippled man answered him, "Sir, when the water is stirred I have no man to put me into the pool. While I am trying to get there someone else go in before me."

Jesus said to him, "Get up. Pick up your pad, and walk."

Immediately the man was healed and took up his pad, and walked. That day was the Sabbath.

The Jews told the man who was healed, "It's the Sabbath day: it is not lawful for you to carry your bed-roll."

He answered them, "He who healed me told me, "Take up your pad and walk."

They asked him, "Who said to you take up your pad and walk?"

But the man didn't know who it was. There was quite a crowd there and Jesus had gone away. Afterward Jesus found the man in the temple, and said to him, "Listen, you have been healed. Don't sin any more, or something worse might happen to you."

The man then went and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. The Jews persecuted Jesus and tried to find a way to kill him because he had done these things on the Sabbath.

But Jesus told them, "My Father is always working and I work too."

So the Jews plotted more intensely to kill Him, not only because He had broken their rules controlling the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, thus making Himself equal with God.

Then Jesus and told them, "Most truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing Himself except what His Father shows Him. Whatever the Father does the Son does exactly the same. For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him everything He does. He will show him even greater things so that you will be amazed. Just as the Father has the power to raise the dead so the Son will resurrect whoever He wishes.

"The Father judges no one but has committed all judgment to the Son, so that all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. Anyone who doesn't honor the Son dishonors the Father who sent him. Most truly I tell you, anyone who hears my words, and believes on He who sent me has everlasting life and will not be condemned. He has passed from death unto life.

"Most truly I tell you, the hour is coming, and even now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and they who hear will live. Just as the Father has life inherent in himself, He has given to the Son to have life inherent in Himself. He has given Him authority to execute judgment as well, because he is the Son of man. Don't be amazed at this. The hour is coming when all that who in their graves will hear his voice and rise up to life. Those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.

"I am not able to do anything by myself; as I hear I judge, and my judgment is just because I am not seeking my own will. I seek the will of the Father who sent me.

"If I testify of myself, my witness is not true. There is someone else who testifies of me and I know that the witness He testifies of me is true.

"You sent to John, and he testified the truth. But I'm not talking about the testimony of man. (But these things I say to you that you may be saved.) John was a burning and a shining light and you were willing for a season to rejoice in his light.

"But I have greater witness than that of John. The works which the Father has given me to finish bear witness of me that the Father has sent me. And the Father himself, who sent me testified of me. But you have not heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape.

"You do not have His word living in you because you have not believed the one He sent. Search the scriptures. In them you think you have eternal life, they testify of me. You are not willing to come to me to receive everlasting life. I don't receive or accept honor from men but I know you do not have the love of God in yourselves.

"I have come in my Father's name and authority, but you will not accept me, yet if someone else comes in his own name you will accept him. How can you believe the truth when you receive honor from each other but don't seek the honor that comes only from God?

"Don't think that I will accuse you to the Father, there is one who accuses you already: Moses, in whom you trust. If you believed Moses, you would have believed me, for he wrote of me. If you don't believe his writings, how can you believe my words?"

Life of Christ Part Sixteen - Parables

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