Study Desk

so the Jewish leaders weren't too happy about it. They approached the man and said, "You can't be carrying your bedroll around on the day of rest. That is against our laws."

The man shot back, "That fellow who healed me told me to, so that's what I'm going to do."

So the Jewish leaders started nit-picking Jesus about healing a man on the day of rest.

So Jesus tried to explain himself to the knot-heads. "The Son doesn't do anything on his own. He only works beside his Dad and does the things he does.

"But it isn't me who will criticize you in front of God. Moses is going to do that, not me. Yes, the same Moses you put so much hope in.

If you put so much stock in what Moses said, you would believe me because he wrote about me.

The crowd finally made it up the hill so Jesus said to Phil, "Where can we get food for all these folks?"

"Have everyone sit down," Jesus said. So about five thousand men (not counting women and children) all sat down on the grassy slope.

After everyone had eaten their fill, Jesus told his cowboys, "Gather up the leftovers so that nothing goes to waste."

Jesus knew they were fixing to try to make him their king, so while they talked, he rode off into the hills by himself.

They pondered this for a second and then someone shouted out, "Well, show us a miracle so that we know you are the Top Hand. We want to see what you can do. I mean, our ancestors got to eat bread from heaven while they rode across the desert.

If you want people to follow you, you can't hide out in the country where no one can see your great power. Since you are so powerful, go show yourself to the world."

So, y'all go ahead and go to the festival, but I won't go before my time."

You say that you circumcise on the Sabbath so that the child will follow the teachings of Moses, but then you get mad at me for healing a man's whole body on the same day. You cut off a piece of man on the Sabbath and call it holy, but I make them whole, and you call me possessed.

He's standing right here, so why aren't they doing something? Maybe it's because he is the Top Hand?

So the crowd was split and divided about who Jesus really was.

So Jesus finally said, "When you have finally strung me up on the cross, then you will know that I AM he. I only do what my Father says for me to do.

No, the reason you don't understand me is because your real father is the devil. He wants to kill me and so do y'all. He was a murderer in the beginning, and his bastard children act just like him. He has always despised the truth because he couldn't handle it. He lies because it's who he is. He is the father of lies.

When I tell y'all the truth, you can't handle it either, so you don't believe me.

The unbelievers said, "Now there is no doubt that you have a demon inside you. Even Abraham died, and so did the prophets. But you are telling us now that if we do what you say, we won't ever die?