4th Sunday of Pascha

Remember your leaders, men who spoke to you the word of God, and considering the results of their conduct, imitate their faith. ⁸Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. ⁹Don’t be carried away by various and strange teachings, for it is good that the heart be established by grace, not by foods, through which those who were so occupied were not benefited.

¹⁰We have an altar from which those who serve the holy tabernacle have no right to eat. ¹¹For the bodies of those animals, whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin, are burned outside of the camp. ¹²Therefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people through his own blood, suffered outside of the gate. ¹³Let’s therefore go out to him outside of the camp, bearing his reproach. ¹⁴For we don’t have here an enduring city, but we seek that which is to come. ¹⁵Through him, then, let’s offer up a sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of lips which proclaim allegiance to his name. ¹⁶But don’t forget to be doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.

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¹³But he who was healed didn’t know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, a crowd being in the place.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