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Back in Jerusalem for an unnamed festival of the Jews, Jesus approached, among the sick at the Pool of Bethesda, a man who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years (vv.1-5). He took the initiative by seeking from the paralytic a desire for healing (v.6) and then granting it (vv.8-9), though the man misunderstood what Jesus could do for him and made excuses for his continuing illness (v.7). Note: 5:4 and the end of 5:3 are not present in the best ancient manuscripts; they were added subsequently by scribes in an attempt to explain 5:7.
That the cured man carried his mat (v.9; cf. v.8) is no incidental detail. It was, of course, solid evidence that he had been cured. But it is also important to what follows; for, as the text stresses, it was a visible violation of Jewish law. When accosted, the former invalid absolved himself by casting the blame onto the one who had healed him, but he was at that time still ignorant of Jesus' identity (vv.10-13). When he did discover it, through another initiative by Jesus (v.14), he made it known to the Jews (v.15). The command to stop sinning (cf. Mk 2:5) speaks of the man’s spiritual condition but does not imply that his past illness was caused by his sin.