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The Parable of the Sower and the Mystery of the Kingdom

Bolts. And in his teaching he said to them listen behold. A sower went out to sow and as he sowed some seed fell along the path and the birds came and devoured it. Other seed fell on rocky ground where it did not have much soil.

Immediately it sprang up since it had no depth of soil and when the Sun rose it was scorched and since it had no root it with other seed fell among thorns and the thorn grew up and choked it and it yielded no grain.

And other seeds fell into good soil and produce grain growing up and increasing yielding thirty fold and 60 fold and a hundred fold. And he said he who has ears you hear let him hear when he was alone those around him the twelve about the variables and said to them to you has been given secret of the kingdom of God.

But for those outside everything is in parables so that they may indeed see not perceive may indeed hear but not again let they should turn and be free. And he said to them do you not understand this parable.

How to understand all the parables. Or so's the ones along where the word is when they hear comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. And these are the ones sown on rocky ground. The ones who when they hear the word immediately receive a joy and a root in themselves but endure for a while.

Then when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word immediately they fall away. And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and those desires for other things enter in and choke the word and it proves unfruitful.

But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit thirty fold and sixty fold and a hundred fold. And he said to them is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket or under a bed and not on a stand.

For nothing is hidden except to be made manifest. Nor is anything secret except to come to light. If anyone has ears to hear let him hear. And he said to them pay attention to what you hear with the measure you use it will be measured to you and still will be added.

More will be added to you or to the one who has more will be given. The one who has not even what he has will be taken away. And he said the kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground.

He sleeps and rises night and day and the seed sprouts and grows. He knows not how the earth produces by itself first the blade then the ear then the full grain in the ear. But when the grain is ripe at once he puts in the sickle because the harvest has come.

And he said with what can we compare the kingdom of God. Or what parable shall we use. For it is like a grain of mustard seed which when sown on the ground is the smallest of all the seeds on earth. Yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.

With many such parables he spoke the word to them as they were able to hear it. He did not speak to them without a parable but privately to his own disciples. He explained everything on that day when evening had come he said to them let us go across to the other side.

And leaving the crowd they took him with them in the boat just as he was. The other boats were with him and a great windstorm arose and the waves were breaking into the boat so that the boat was already filling.

But he was in the stern asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him teacher do you not care that we are perishing. And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea peace be still. And the wind ceased.

And there was a great calm. He said to them why are you so afraid. Have you still no faith. And they were filled with great fear and said to one another who then is this that even the wind and the sea obey him.

Prayer for Illumination and Introduction to John’s Gospel

Let's pray father we see that we need to be informed illuminated instructed by you to understand your word. These are more than just words on a page but rather they are. They express truth eternal truth truth regarding your son and the way of salvation in him.

Help us our Lord not only to understand these things cognitively but we pray that we would be able to see the relevance of them the importance of them the value of them and that we would embrace them wholly.

Now father as we open your word in John's gospel may the blessed Holy Spirit instruct us inspire us and move us that we might believe you on you more clearly and fully and that we might walk with you more righteously.

For we pray in Jesus name amen. Well let's turn over to John's gospel Matthew Mark and Luke John. And today we begin with John chapter 5. Took us a while to get through John chapter 4. Today's the 30th Sunday that we've been in John's gospel.

We've gotten through four chapters and so what we're we're talking about maybe a two-year study altogether maybe depending how it goes. I'm finding the study to be very rich and encouraging. I enjoy studying for it and I hope I just pray you know that we can convey to you a little bit of what you know we glean and learn from it.

It's the Word of God. Well here in John chapter 5 verse 1 and following we have yet another journey of Jesus from Galilee to Judea. He seems to be going back and forth. And whereas the synoptic Gospels Matthew Mark and Luke largely record his ministry in Galilee John's gospel for the most part records his ministry in Judea and so he's going back and forth.

It was seen between Galilee and Judea. And here he's journeying from Galilee to Jerusalem. And we see that in Jerusalem he encountered much opposition arising when conflict surfaced after he graciously healed a lame man.

And it is in the first portion of this chapter John 5 that we read of the account of Jesus healing this man who had been invalid for 38 years. What precipitated the hostility of the Jewish leaders is that Jesus did this and gave instruction to the man on the Sabbath day.

And as John's gospel unfolds we'll see the increasing hostility tension and opposition of the Jewish leaders in Judea. This story this account of Jesus healing the lame man on the Sabbath is not found in the other Gospels in the synoptic Gospels.

But this is not unusual for John's gospel contains a number of episodes that have no parallel in the other Gospels. The one miracle that is found in all four Gospels is the feeding of the five thousand which we will arrive at in the next chapter.

An early church writer had declared that this was actually John's original intention of writing this fourth gospel he desired to inform his readers of things that were not found in the other Gospels that had already been written.

And so the first church Dorian Eusebius of Caesarea in the early fourth century he wrote a church history the first church history. And in this history Eusebius quoted or cited Clement of Alexandria who lived in the toward the end of the second century.

And this Clement of Alexandria wrote this about John's gospel. And Clement of Alexandria was a disciple young man under the ministry of Polycarp and Polycarp apparently was on John the Apostle. So we're really talking about a couple of spiritual generations here and this is what Clement wrote.

But that John last of all conscious that the outward facts had been set forth in the Gospels was urged on by his disciples and divinely moved by the Spirit composed a spiritual gospel. The point is that you know there were many of the other things were already told in the synoptic Gospels Matthew Mark and Luke but he was divinely inspired moved by the Spirit and urged by his disciples to write this gospel and so he was to write this gospel but he also it says gave wrote it as a spiritual gospel.

In other words he desired to set forth spiritual truth not just describing or defining or relating the miracles but giving the spiritual significance and meaning of those. And we have that in a measure here in John chapter 5 and in fact we've already pointed out how there are seven signs or seven miracles major ones that John covers in his gospel.

And it would seem that each one of these miracles after they were performed led to a discourse a sermon by Jesus the miracle gave way to the sermon. And so there are not only seven signs seven miracles but there are seven discourses major discourses of Jesus in John's gospel.

And we have one of them here in John chapter 5 that we will we will get to let's read the first 15 verses of this chapter of John 5 after this and I'm reading here from the New King James Version and if you have an ESV or NIV you might follow along.

You'll find some interesting divergences that we'll talk about here shortly after this there was a feast of the Jews and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool which is in is called in Hebrew Bethesda having five porches.

In these lay a great multitude of sick people blind lame paralyzed waiting for the moving of the water for an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water. And then whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was made well of whatever disease he had.

Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity 38 years when Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been in that condition a long time. He said to him do you want to be made well. The sick man answered him sir I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up while I'm coming another steps down before me Jesus said to him rise take up your bed and walk.

And immediately the man was made well took up his bed and walked. And that day was the Sabbath. The Jews therefore said to him who was cured it is the Sabbath. It's not lawful for you to carry your bed.

He answered them he who made me well said to me take up your bed and walk. And then they asked him who is the man who said to you take up your bed and walk. But the one who was healed did not know who it was for Jesus had withdrawn a multitude being in that place.

And afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him see you've been made well sin no more lest a worse thing come upon you. The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who made him well.

Textual Variants in John 5 and the Pool of Bethesda

And of course we have to stop the episode there but really the effects of it continue on into the chapter. We first want to speak about a few things of the text itself a few considerations. The English translation of this account we read is from the New King James Version of the Bible.

And if you happen to read along in the English Standard Version the SV or the New International Version the NIV you probably noticed a few significant differences not just in wording but in content. And so we need to address these somewhat.

We need to address the reasons for these variations between the translations before we consider the account itself first we might say a word about verse 2 the New King James Version the SV and the NIV I have before you now there in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool which is called in Hebrew Bethesda having five porches.

But if you look at the SV and the NIV translation it doesn't say in Hebrew but rather it says in Aramaic. We see the New King James Version recorded the name of the pool Bethesda to have been in a Hebrew name and yet the NIV and ESV says Aramaic.

The problem here in contrast in many places is not a different reading in different Greek manuscripts for their Greek text reads the Greek word is a Bryce T that would be a Greek word which should be translated Hebrew.

You can almost see it there it now you look at that Greek word in the parentheses and the first letter is e epsilon. It's capitalized but there's a little breathing mark little apostrophe just before and because it's shaped in that direction that that's an H sound is clearly Hebrew.

It's Hebrew not Aramaic. Why did these two more modern English translations use the word Aramaic. Well it's because Aramaic was the language of the common people in Judea and Galilee. Jesus's native tongue was probably Aramaic as well all the people.

And it had been Aramaic since the Jewish exiles had returned from the Babylonian captivity back in the 6th century BC and so for five six hundred years they've been speaking Aramaic. Both Hebrew and Aramaic have the same alphabet.

You know there's a few portions of Aramaic in the Old Testament parts of Daniel parts of Ezra and if you or I looked at those texts you wouldn't tell any difference because it's the same alphabet Hebrew Aramaic but it's kind of like our you know English language and German language two different languages but the same alphabet and so is Hebrew and so is Aramaic.

Aramaic was the language of the Babylonians that the Jews adopted during their exile. But the Greek word in verse 2 indicates that the name of this pool was in Hebrew not Aramaic and so in my opinion the ESV and the NIV should not have translated as Aramaic even though that was the native tongue.

This the name of this pool apparently got you know went back to its Hebrew original and so I think in this detail the New King James Version is the correct English translation. It was written in Hebrew.

Now in John chapter 5 verse 3 there's another issue of the text. There is a phrase in the New King James Version which is not included in the ESV and the NIV and that phrase in the New King James Version is it right at the end of the sentence sentence reads in those in these lay a great multitude of sick people blind lame paralyzed and then I have it in bold and italic waiting for the moving of the water and but if you were following in the ESV or the NIV you didn't hear those words when I or it's not in your text before you you heard me read them from my New King James Version but you did that they're not in the Bible in the ESV and the NIV and I think the ESV and the NIV were right in not including that phrase waiting for the moving of the water that was found in or put in by a later Greek scribe copying that he made that change later much later than John originally wrote this gospel.

Another more significant difference between the New King James Version as well as the King James and all the newer English translation is John chapter 5 verse 4. It provides an explanation why this invalid man was at this pool of Bethesda and so it sets the explanation it reads this way.

For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water and then whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was made well of whatever disease he had. Now that's in the New King James Version.

But again if you were reading along in your ESV and NIV there's no verse 4 in your translation. Is there. It goes right from verse 3 to verse 5. Verse 4 is not included in the English Standard Version or the NIV.

They just pass from verse 3 under verse 5 leaving off verse 4. Why did they do this. Well the reason is that verse 4 in the New King James Version is only found in later Greek manuscripts was not original with John.

It was one of these glosses or inclusions by some scribe attempting to explain matters more fully probably in an effort to explain what is later stated in verse 7. The New King James Version as well as the King James translation is based on many more manuscripts than say the ESV or the NIV and the newer translations are based on much older but far fewer Greek manuscripts.

In other words when the King James translation was made into English published in 1611 the Greek text that stood behind the New Testament of the King James was really only based on a handful of Greek manuscripts and those Greek manuscripts were much later.

The new translations however are based on much older manuscript but they're far fewer in number. Actually although the translators of the King James only had a handful they represented thousands of manuscripts that we have available for us today and so the text behind the ESV and the NIV actually dates older and scholars believe that those older manuscripts should be preferred to the newer one.

You know prior to the invention of the movable type printing press in 1439 by Gutenberg all manuscripts of course were hand copied by scribes and so for 1 ,400 years the Greek New Testament the way you got a copy was a scribe manually transcribed them.

And sometimes those scribes would make mistakes. Sometimes they were motivated to hurry their their work because there was a quite a bit of money involved in making these copies of particularly New Testament books and so they would inadvertently make mistakes.

But sometimes they would purposely make additions. One common intentional addition a scribe would make is attempting to harmonize the Gospels he's copying say Mark's Gospel and he's familiar with Luke's Gospel but he sees some detail that Mark didn't include and he'd put it into Mark's Gospel to make a harmonization between the Gospels and it was an intentional change.

The scribes thought that they were actually doing service to the scriptures when in actuality they were they were doing a disservice weren't they. And of course once a change was made by a scribe got into his text that text became the original for another copy.

And so once a change was made these these changes would would fall in place down through the centuries and so the newer text say down into the 14th 15th century contained all these changes and modifications made by scribes since the early centuries and so that's why you'll read scholars opinion that many of these older manuscripts should be preferred to the newer one even though there's so many of the newer ones now where the King James translators only had a handful of Greek manuscripts standing behind the Greek text since 1611 we now have about 6 ,000 manuscripts New Testament manuscripts not all complete but parts some books and whatnot.

But we have many more Greek manuscripts available to us today for study than what the King James translators had back in the early 17th century. And so for the most part with some exceptions the newer translations of the ESV and the NIV are actually more accurate than say the new King James Version and some of these points of details.

And yet having said that we should realize that that all of these variants that exist change nothing as far as the substance of teaching in the Bible they may change a few details here there but there is no teaching that's adversely affected by these differences in in Greek manuscripts we have a faithful Bible before us and in fact I would argue with the recovery of manuscripts and the scholarly study of them that our English translations today like the ESV is a more accurate Bible closer to the original that John wrote than what's been available for the last 2 ,000 years.

I happen to appreciate and value very highly the New King James Version for its style and the manner that's writing that when some of these minor issues surface I feel that it requires some explanation on our part and so verse 4 in the New King James Version and the King James sets forth an explanation why this man was waiting at the poolside.

He wanted somebody to put him into the water when the water was stirred because it says an angel came down stirred the water and whoever got in first was healed. The problem with verse 4 is that it states it as though it were a matter of fact whereas if you look at just verse 7 it explains the reason that man was there but it really does not substantiate that it was a true happening.

We would argue that it was just superstition that those people were there at those pools and waiting for the stirring of the water. The pool of Bethesda was never located for quite a long time until the early part of the 20th century and then it was determined that this pool of Bethesda was probably actually two pools as large as a football field if you can imagine that and it was discovered by the monastery of st. Anne's in old Jerusalem size of a football field perhaps about 20 feet deep and it had these five porches and people would lay there.

The scriptures say multitudes were there and Jesus came through on this occasion and he found this man and he healed him out of all that multitude. Well let's begin to look at the details of the passage and now we're toward the bottom of page 3 of your notes.

The Literary Structure of the Healing Account

We showed in earlier portions of this gospel that individual episodes commonly called pericope, apericope or pericope for plural like this one follows a common discernible four-stage literary pattern and verses 1 through 15 follows this pattern.

First you have an opening an introduction or setting of the episode the pericope and then secondly a conflict is set forth and that's what we have in verses 6 to 10. It involves here not only this man's need of healing but also it took place on the Sabbath day so the conflict emerges.

And then thirdly you have a resolution of the conflict. That's not really a resolution here but the difficulty is removed from the from the man who was healed and how it's placed on Jesus. He did it on a Sabbath.

That's how the conflict was resolved. And then fourthly you had the conclusion or interpretation in verses 15 through 18 which tells of the man identifying Jesus to the Jewish authorities. It was Jesus that healed me.

He's the one that told me to take up my bed and walk. We read in verse 1 after this there was a feast of the Jews and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. This is a generic feast. There's no definite article in front.

It doesn't say the feast. Doesn't say the Passover doesn't identify any feast in particular but we read that because of this feast Jesus and his disciples arrived from Galilee and they went because of the feast.

We don't know what feast and therefore we don't know what time of year that this took place. We already mentioned in verse 2 again how it reads. Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool which is called in Hebrew Bethesda having five porches.

The name of this pool is Bethesda. And of course Bethesda is a name adopted by many hospitals in the English world isn't it. And I went online to do a research and there are numerous hospitals here in America named Bethesda.

Bethesda literally means house of mercy. Although I noticed this morning as I was looking in my new Reformation or my Reformation study Bible it has a different translation. It has house of grace or steadfast love.

They replaced mercy for those for those terms I think probably house of mercy is a correct one. It's understandable that hospitals are named after the place where our Lord healed this man of his infirmity.

And there was a multitude of sick people laying about these pools of Bethesda. Verse 3 reads. And these lay a great multitude of sick people blind lame and paralyzed again I put in brackets here waiting for the moving of the waters because that was not originally with John when he wrote this gospel.

And this list seems to encompass all manner of sickness infirmity. There are multitudes of these broken hurting suffering people lying about with little hope except the false hope they put in this imagined stirring of the water by an angel.

Here we then see more adequately all the wretchedness the misery the broken lies that form the result of sin among men. This must have been a miserable place multitudes of them lying about. We see the helplessness of this man as well to deal with the effects of sin apart from the mercy and grace of God in Jesus Christ.

All sickness of course is ultimately a result of sin in the world. That doesn't mean that every sickness a person has can be attributed to a specific sin. That's wrong and that's corrected. That idea is corrected of course later on in John's gospel regarding the blind man.

But ultimately if there was no sin in the world there'd be no sickness in the world. It's one of the effects of sin. Again we showed how verse 4 should not be regarded as original as one wrote with the abundance of evidence that pagan religion regularly used healing shrines with water as a regular component.

It's not unlikely that this tradition in other words the addition of this verse. It's not unlikely that the tradition is rooted in folk legend possibly even a popular Jewish tradition although such folk practices would not have been supported by the Jewish establishment.

Theeson he was a commentator is probably correct when he suggested in this scene Jesus is in competition with the ancient healing sanctuaries even beyond its origin. This edition was almost certainly added to explain verse 7.

In other words what he's saying is what we have in this event is Jesus the true healer the true answer to sin. He's coming into a place where they had it all wrong with regard to the nature of their maladies and what caused it.

And Jesus comes through and basically shows what's true in the face repudiating everything that is ineffectual that is not true. We then read in verse 5. Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity 38 years.

The text does not tell us how old the man was. He had this infirmity for 38 years. It only records how long he had suffered and he had suffered long with this difficulty. And yet he was still hoping somewhat apparently to be delivered from his problem.

But that measure of hope was based on uncertainty and was itself therefore very weak and less than inspiring to the man. You can imagine how frustrated he was if he thought that he could be healed to be the first one into that water when the water was stirred by the way those twin pools were fed by a conduit.

They found those conduits or remnants of them. But probably the pool was fed by an underground spring as well. And it would be this because of this underground spring that every once in a while the water would bubble up and they attribute it to an angel moving the water and they thought the first one in would be healed.

It was a false hope generated on a false belief. And there's a lot of people that way. Aren't they. Aren't they. They travel to a Benny Hinn conference or they'll go to these faith healing meetings. One of the most godly women I've ever known was in Sacramento years ago she when she was four years old she developed rheumatoid arthritis and she became very weak twisted could hardly walk.

She had to use canes and she grew up in church and through her teenage years she went to these many you know faith healing meetings because she was hoping to be healed and then she embraced all this false teaching that if she had enough faith she would be healed and it was a miserable time of life for her.

And it was only later that she understood that you know the Lord calls people to endure these kinds of things. And then she became a very vibrant Christian witness to her 20s as she's dealing with this malady as a very optimistic and encouraging witness for Christ.

She died in her early 30s but I remember her desiring expressing to me I was her pastor longing you know to have a life like other young women to get married and to have children. But she realized that wasn't the Lord's purpose for her.

And yet there are many people that are really captivated and led astray by false promises by false teachers that somehow if they had enough faith that the healings in the Atonement and you can be perfectly well today if you just believe on Jesus and it's a lie and people are sadly taken advantage of and abused and sometimes it's prolonged.

Well I can't help that this man was in this frame of mind for these many years. By the way interestingly John's gospel have a have a has a tendency to emphasize water. Thus far I didn't pick up on this but I read it read about it and I realized it absolutely right.

You recall Jesus turned water into wine and then he was there at the water of Jacob's well and now he's here at the water of the pool of Bethesda and each each time Jesus basically came and he he went past that existing water and brought something real and true the water into wine the still water Jacob's well to the living water of the Spirit.

And now we you know this supposedly healing water and then he heals this man of his disease. Interesting theme that you find recurring. I don't know if it continues we'll see. In verse 6 we have recorded our Lord approaching this man to heal him.

When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he'd already been in that condition a long time. He said to him do you want to be healed. Do you want to be well. The Lord had compassion on this man and Jesus knew he'd been in this condition a long time.

John doesn't tell us how Jesus knew this. John just stated the matter forthrightly. Jesus knew he suffered a long time. Some might argue well his divine nature informed him. I'm of the persuasion that when the Lord Jesus became incarnate he set aside he didn't.

He didn't remove his attributes but he no longer called upon them through his earthly ministry. He was dependent solely upon his father and for the Holy Spirit to instruct him and inform him on how to live.

And I think the Holy Spirit informed him. Probably or he might have just learned about this man that he had been in this condition for some 38 years. We don't have enough information before us. He asked the question do you want to be made well.

And as one wrote what we have here is a snapshot of a man doomed for years to powerlessness on account of an incurable illness looking in vain for a miracle to happen who had no one or no one left to assist him in his predicament to such a person.

Jesus comes with a question. A question full of power and promise. Do you want to be healed by the way. Here we see a manifestation of the distinguishing grace of God. Don't we. There was a great multitude of sick people blind lame paralyzed which Jesus passed by.

But he came to stop before this man only. There's a multitude of them there. Jesus took the initiative. The man did not seek out Jesus. Jesus saw him out and directed his healing power to be experienced by him.

And so it is with you and me as Christians we have been the objects of God's saving power of his sovereign grace. There were probably many. They were probably there many like ourselves perhaps sinful beyond hope or remedy.

But the Lord passed by many and he came to you came to me and he took the initiative to impart spiritual life to us. He gets the glory for it all. Doesn't he. He could have passed by us just as easily as he passed by all those others.

But he had an everlasting love for you is what the scriptures say. And therefore he purposed to redeem you. It's all sovereign grace. And if that doesn't make you thankful. I don't know what will he could have left us in our sin and would have been right in doing so.

But he was merciful and gracious in saving us. But there's something more about this man's understanding of God and the nature of his power to heal. It's really a twisted belief on his part. He regarded God's power as impersonal.

The God's power was from time to time infused in water which was only accessible to the one who entered the water first. But Jesus shows that the power of God to heal was not impersonal but it was very personal.

It wasn't just out there and that you've got to find it find some secret to get a hold of it for it to come to you. And again that's a that's the way of a lot of teaching is presented today. To get healed by God you got to be in the right place or come to in contact with the right person.

And if you're fortunate to do so then it can happen to you. But no but the grace of God is very personal. The power of God was not something that was magical in nature that could be assessed by just anybody who happened to step forward first.

God's power to heal was in Jesus Christ and he would exercise to whom he purposed to bless. He chose this man chose to bless him. And in verses 8 9 we read a brief terse statement about what happened.

Jesus said to him rise take up your bed and walk. And immediately the man was made well and took up his bed and walked. Here's a clear case where Jesus healed the man before faith was placed in him. He didn't even know Jesus's name and yet Jesus healed him.

The Lord often healed people when they exercise faith in him but he also healed people apart from faith. Again a slap at the so called faith healers where they say that you have to have faith before God will do something.

Well many times that's the case but not always. This man didn't have any faith. The Lord's dealt with him. It's all of sovereign grace. The Lord gave three orders to the man. First told him to rise. He was immediately healed of his lame condition.

There's an Old Testament prophecy that says when the Messiah came that this would happen. Then the lame shall leap like a deer. This man leaped up no doubt. The man instantly completely cured and then the Lord issued a command.

The man obeyed. The healing was rather unique from others recorded in the Gospels. This healing differs from many others and that not only is there no mention of faith on the part of the man but there seems to be no room for it.

The man did not even know Jesus's name and moreover right up till Jesus uttered the critical words his thoughts were centered on healing through getting into the pool. We must feel that while faith was commonly the prerequisite of healing it was not absolutely necessary.

Jesus is not limited by man as he works the works of God and I think that last statement is very important to understand. Second Jesus told him take up your bed. For many years the bedroll it's like a it was like a pallet as it were that would that people would carry him on.

It used to carry him and now he's carrying it. And so there there must be something of irony. Here there's a quite a bit of irony conveyed in John's Gospel as one wrote for the paralytic man to carry his bed pallet home and a reversal and fortunes.