4th Sunday of Pascha

seeing it is God who said, “Light will shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

⁷But we have this treasure in clay vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves. ⁸We are pressed on every side, yet not crushed; perplexed, yet not to despair; ⁹pursued, yet not forsaken; struck down, yet not destroyed; ¹⁰always carrying in the body the putting to death of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. ¹¹For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus may be revealed in our mortal flesh. ¹²So then death works in us, but life in you.

¹³But having the same spirit of faith, according to that which is written, “I believed, and therefore I spoke.” We also believe, and therefore we also speak, ¹⁴knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also through Jesus, and will present us with you. ¹⁵For all things are for your sakes, that the grace, being multiplied through the many, may cause the thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.

After these things, there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ²Now in Jerusalem by the sheep gate, there is a pool, which is called in Hebrew, “Bethesda”, having five porches. ³In these lay a great multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, or paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water; ⁴for an angel went down at certain times into the pool and stirred up the water. Whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was healed of whatever disease he had. ⁵A certain man was there who had been sick for thirty-eight years. ⁶When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had been sick for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to be made well?”

⁷The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I’m coming, another steps down before me.”

⁸Jesus said to him, “Arise, take up your mat, and walk.”

⁹Immediately, the man was made well, and took up his mat and walked. Now that day was a Sabbath. ¹⁰So the Jews said to him who was cured, “It is the Sabbath. It is not lawful for you to carry the mat.”

¹¹He answered them, “He who made me well said to me, ‘Take up your mat and walk.’ ”

¹²Then they asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your mat and walk’?”

¹³But he who was healed didn’t know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, a crowd being in the place.

¹⁴Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “Behold, you are made well. Sin no more, so that nothing worse happens to you.”

¹⁵The man went away, and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.