For this cause therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill him, because he not only broke the Sabbath, but also called God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
Now they, no doubt, knew this man. Jerusalem did not have that many people, but what a man that have been around lame for thirty-eight years became sort of a public figure, and people knew him, recognized him. And so he calls to their attention the fact that he was cured. "Surely, anybody that can cure me after thirty-eight years of lameness must have some word of authority, and so He told me to take my bed and walk."