1. After this, Jesus went to Jerusalem for a religious festival.
2. Near the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem there is a pool with five porches; in Hebrew it is called Bethzatha.
3. A large crowd of sick people were lying in the porches — the blind, the lame, and the paralysed.
5. A man was there who had been ill for 38 years.
6. Jesus saw him lying there, and he knew that the man had been ill for such a long time; so he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”
7. The sick man answered, “Sir, I have no one here to put me in the pool when the water is stirred up; while I am trying to get in, somebody else gets there first.”
8. Jesus said to him, “Get up, pick up your mat, and walk.”
9. Immediately the man got well; he picked up his mat and started walking.The day this happened was a Sabbath,
10. so the Jewish authorities told the man who had been healed, “This is a Sabbath, and it is against our Law for you to carry your mat.”
11. He answered, “The man who made me well told me to pick up my mat and walk.”