John 5:3-13

³Crowds of sick people were lying in these porches—those who were blind, lame, or paralyzed.

⁵One man who was there had been sick for thirty-eight years. Jesus looked at him, knowing he had been lying there for long time, and asked him,

⁶“Do you want to be healed?”

⁷“Sir,” the sick man answered, “I don't have anyone to help me get into the pool when the water is stirred. While I'm trying to get there, someone always gets in before me.”

⁸“Stand up, pick up your mat, and start walking!” Jesus told him.

⁹Immediately the man was healed. He picked up his mat and started walking. Now the day that this happened was the Sabbath.

¹⁰So the Jews said to the man who'd been healed, “This is the Sabbath! It's against the law to carry a mat!”

¹¹“The man who healed me told me to pick up my mat and start walking,” he replied.

¹²“Who's this person who told you to carry your mat and walk?” they asked.

¹³However, the man who'd been healed didn't know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the surrounding crowd.