To listen and obey Jesus' word brings life

In the story where jesus heals a crippled man near the sheep gate, Jesus sees a crippled man. He notes this man has been waiting many years for healing, thirty-eight years to be precise, and he asks the man if he wants to be made well. The man explains that there’s no means to heal him because no one will assist him into the healing pool. Jesus tells him to stand up, take his bed and walk. And that’s what the man does.

The crippled man is hyperlinked with the tribes of Israel who wandered in the wilderness for thirty-eight years until every member of the first generation had died (Deuteronomy 2:14). The crippled man is like a representative of that generation who, from continued failure to trust and listen, were exiled again from the life of the Promised Land, the new Eden. Jesus healing the man is mapped onto the entry of the children into the Promised Land as though, in offering healing to this one person, he offers a return from exile to Eden to all Israel.

Those who listen to Jesus and trust in the Father who sent him receive God’s own life. They are like dead people who are brought back to life. For Jesus to claim that those who listen to his word receive life is comparable to the LORD’s covenant which He gave Israel in the wilderness. Just as the LORD’s words, if the children of Israel listened and obeyed them, would give them life, so Jesus' word gives life (Deuteronomy 4:1). Jesus is the prophet like Moses (Deuteronomy 18:15-19) who will speak all that the LORD has given him, and his words will be like a new covenant to bring the Eden blessing to Israel (Deuteronomy 30:15-16).