He Shows Goodwill Tells the Good Story 5

WORKING ON THE DAY OF RESTING

1A short time later Creator Sets Free (Jesus) went again to Village of Peace (Jerusalem) to another traditional feast for all the tribes of Wrestles with Creator (Israel).

2In Village of Peace (Jerusalem) near the Sheep Gate, there is a water hole with five covered porches called House of Kindness (Bethesda) in our tribal language. Under these porches 3lay a great number of people who were sick, blind, or could not walk or stand. They were waiting for the swirling of the water, 4because from time to time a spirit-messenger would go down into the water hole and make the water swirl. Then the first one to get into the water would be healed.

5A man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight winters. 6Creator Sets Free (Jesus) saw him lying there and knew that he had been sick for a long time.

He asked him, “Do you want to be healed?”

7“Honored One,” the man answered. “When the water swirls, there is no one to help me into the water, and someone else gets there first.”

8“Get up!” Creator Sets Free (Jesus) said to the man. “Roll up your sleeping bundle and walk.”

The man felt his body begin to change. Strength rushed into his legs and arms.

9Right then the man was healed! He got up, rolled up his bundle, and walked.

Creator Sets Free (Jesus) healed this man on the Day of Resting. 10The strict traditional Tribal Members saw the healed man carrying his bundle.

“It is the Day of Resting,” they said to him. “Tribal law forbids you to carry your sleeping bundle.”

11He said to them, “The one who healed me instructed me to take up my bundle and walk.”

12“Who is the man who told you this?” they asked.

13But the man who was healed did not know who he was. Creator Sets Free (Jesus) had left because too many people were there.

14Later on, Creator Sets Free (Jesus) saw the man in the sacred lodge.

“Look! You are healed,” he said to him. “Now that you have been set free, do not use your freedom to walk a path that leads to broken ways, or something worse may come to you.”

15The man went back to the strict traditional people and told them it was Creator Sets Free (Jesus) who had made him well again. 16Because of this, the tribal leaders were giving Creator Sets Free (Jesus) trouble and wanted to put him to death, because he was doing this on the Day of Resting.

17Creator Sets Free (Jesus) made it clear to them, “My Father has been working, so I am working also.”

18This made them want to kill him all the more, for he not only showed no regard for the Day of Resting, but he also was making himself out to be equal with the Great Spirit—calling him his own Father.

EQUAL HONOR BELONGS TO THE SON

19“I speak from my heart,” he said to them, “the Son only does what he sees the Father doing, for the Father and the Son do the same things. 20The Father loves the Son and shows him everything he does. He will show him great and powerful medicine, things that will fill you with wonder. 21You will see the Son give life to whomever he wants and bring the dead back to life again—just like the Father does.

22“The Father does not make the final decision about anyone. He has given that decision to the Son. 23He did this so all will honor the Son in the same way they honor the Father. The ones who do not honor the Son do not honor the Father who sent him.

24“I speak from my heart. The ones who listen to me and trust the one who sent me have the life of the world to come that never fades away. The final decision about their end has been made, for they have already crossed over from death to life. 25The time has now come when the ones who are spiritually dead will hear the voice of Creator’s own Son, and all who hear it will live. 26Just as all life comes from the Father, in the same way he has made all life come from the Son.

27“I speak from my heart. The final decision about everyone has been given to the Son. It is his right, because he is the True Human Being.

28“Do not look so surprised! For the day is dawning when the dead and buried will hear his voice and come out of their graves. 29The ones who have done good will rise to a new life, but the ones who do what has no worth will rise to face the final decision about their end.

FATHER AND SON

30“I do nothing on my own. I listen to my Father before I decide about anyone. What I decide is right because I am not seeking my own way but the way of the one who sent me. 31If I am the only one who speaks for myself, then my words are empty, 32but there is another who speaks for me, and what he says is true.

33“You sent messengers to Gift of Goodwill (John), and he told you the truth about me, 34-35but I do not need a human being to speak for me. Gift of Goodwill (John) shined like a burning torch, and for a short time you were glad to walk in his light. Now, to be set free from your broken ways, you must listen to me. 36My words carry more weight than his and are proven by the things I do. I have done the things the Father sent me to do. That is all the proof that is needed.

37“The Father is the one who sent me, and he is the one who speaks for me. But, since you have never seen his form or heard his voice, 38you do not trust the one he sent, so his words have no root in you.

39“You search the Sacred Teachings, for you think they will give you the life of the world to come—but they tell my story. 40Why do you refuse to come to me for this life?”

The tribal leaders had heard enough! They just shook their heads and started to walk away.

41 Creator Sets Free (Jesus) said to them, “I came representing my Father, yet you show me no respect. But I am not looking for honor or respect from you, 42for I know you are empty inside, and the love of the Great Spirit has no place in you. 43But you will honor the one who comes representing himself. 44If you only look for honor from each other, and not from the only Creator, how will you believe?

45“I have not come to tell the Father how wrong you are. It is Drawn from the Water (Moses), the one you have put your hope in, who will do this. 46If you trust him, then you should trust me, for he told my story. 47But if you do not believe his words, how will you ever believe mine?”

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