Welcome to the ninth episode of The Single Eye Podcast.
Today, we will discuss John Chapter 5 and hopefully, it will reveal Jesus as the ONLY source of life.
Just a reminder that this podcast episode is part of the greater Single Eye Pilgrimage, where we leave religion behind and journey to a new heart filled with Jesus. You can start this pilgrimage with a small donation of just $10, and you will receive my new e-book, The God Who Never Changes – and the Church That Has, for FREE. The rest of the Single Eye Pilgrimage is free!
After that promo, now take a breath.
Let your heart settle.
Let the noise fall away.
Today, we enter John chapter 5 — a chapter where Jesus walks into a place filled with waiting, striving, hoping, and disappointment.
A place where people gather around a pool they believe might one day heal them - if they can get to it fast enough.
A place that reveals the heart of the dual eye in Laodicea— the belief that life is somewhere else, that healing is somewhere else, that God is somewhere else.
John 5 is not about a miracle.
It is about the end of striving and the beginning of seeing.
Let me say that again.
John 5 is not about a miracle; it is about the end of striving and obtaining the single eye.
Jesus enters Jerusalem and walks to the pool of Bethesda — a place surrounded by the sick, the blind, the lame, the paralysed.
They are all waiting for the water to move, believing that if they can get in first, they will be healed.
This is the religion of the dual eye:
God is distant.
Healing is conditional.
Life is scarce.
Only the fastest, the strongest, the most fortunate receive the blessing.
The crowd sees a place of hope.
The single eye sees a place of bondage.
Jesus approaches a man who has been sick for thirty‑eight years.
He asks him a question that seems almost cruel:
“Do you want to be made well?”
But Jesus is not questioning his desire.
He is questioning his source.
The man answers, “I have no one to help me into the pool.”
This is the cry of the dual eye:
“I have no one. I am alone. I cannot reach the place where healing is found.”
The crowd believes the pool is the miracle-worker.
The single eye sees that the miracle is standing right in front of him.
Jesus does not help the man into the water.
He does not wait for the pool to stir.
He does not participate in the system.
He fulfils it.
“Rise, take up your mat, and walk.”
The crowd sees a miracle.
The single eye sees a revelation.
Jesus is revealing that healing is not in a place.
life is not in a ritual,
God is not accessed through effort,
and you are not alone.
The man rises — not because he reached the water, but because the Living Water reached him.
This is the end of striving.
This is the end of waiting.
This is the end of separation.
This is the single eye.
The man walks, carrying his mat, and immediately the religious leader’s object.
“It is the Sabbath. You are not allowed to carry your mat.”
The crowd sees rule‑breaking.
The single eye sees liberation.
The Sabbath was meant to be rest, but the dual eye turned it into a burden.
John 5:17 LSB But He answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.”
The crowd hears blasphemy.
The single eye hears the Gospel.
Jesus is not claiming independence.
He is revealing dependence — a dependence so complete that His work is the Father’s work, and the Father’s work is His.
The dual eye sees Unitarianism.
The single eye sees the triune Yahweh.
Jesus then speaks words that reveal the heart of John 5:
John 5:19 LSB Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing from Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in the same manner.
Jesus is not saying He lacks power.
He is saying He lacks separation.
He lives from one Source.
He sees from one Source.
He acts from one Source.
This is the single eye — the eye that sees from union, not effort.
Jesus continues:
John 5:21 LSB “For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes.
Did you catch that?
The Son gives life to whom He wishes!
Does that sound like Jesus is sitting in heaven waiting for us to decide?
The crowd hears authority.
The single eye hears identity.
What is our new identity?
When we are born-again, we have been chosen by Jesus. We are His! We become His slaves!
Not slaves to the text.
Not slaves to our denomination.
Not slaves to our Pastor.
Not slaves to our spouse or children.
Not slaves to our job.
But slaves to Jesus.
Do yourself a favour and do a word search on the Greek word “doulos”. You will find it used 127 times in the New Testament.
It means “slave,” not “servant,” as most modern translations render it. A servant has their own will to come and go as they please. A slave has the will of their master.
Sometimes it is used in the generic meaning of a physical slave, but it is used mostly as a metaphor for spiritual slaves.
This is the primary reason I use the LSB translation. It renders “doulos” as “slave” every time.
Look at the LSB translation of Romans 1:1, 2 Peter 1:1, James 1:1, Jude 1:1, and Revelation 1:1. If it is good enough for Paul, Peter, James, Jude, and John to consider themselves slaves to Jesus, it is good enough for me, and it should be good enough for you, too.
This translation bias is one of the primary reasons for an impotent church, as our esteemed Seminaries completely miss the nature of our relationship to Jesus and produce impotent teachers.
I cannot stress this point enough.
We are not servants of Jesus; we are His slaves, doing His will on Earth, not our own.
Jesus is not a messenger of life.
Jesus is the Life.
Jesus is not a distributor of healing.
Jesus is the healer.
Jesus is not a representative of God.
Jesus is God.
Then Jesus says something the dual eye cannot understand:
John 5:22 LSB “For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son,
Judgment is not condemnation.
Judgment is revelation — the unveiling of what is true.
And what is the truth Jesus reveals?
John 5:24 LSB “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.
The crowd sees judgment as punishment.
The single eye sees a binary outcome. No shades of grey.
The crowd sees judgment as separation.
The single eye sees judgment as union revealed.
The religious leaders search the Scriptures because they believe
that in them they have life.
John 5:39 LSB “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that bear witness about Me;
The crowd sees the Scriptures as the source.
Jesus sees the Scriptures as the witness.
The crowd sees the Bible as the destination.
The Holy Spirit sees JESUS as the destination.
The crowd sees the Bible as information.
The Holy Spirit sees the Bible as a revelation of Jesus.
The crowd sees a book.
The Holy Spirit bears witness to a Person.
John 5 reveals that life is not in a place.
Life is not in a ritual.
Life is not in a system.
Life is not in the Scriptures.
Life is in Jesus alone.
The crowd sees Jesus as a healer.
Jesus is THE Source.
The crowd sees the Sabbath as a rule.
Jesus sees the Sabbath as rest.
The crowd sees judgment as a threat.
Jesus sees judgment as the separation of the Wheat and the Tares.
As you contemplate John 5 after what you have just seen today, let the Spirit show you where your eye is still divided.
Where are you still waiting for the water to move?
Where are you still believing that life is somewhere else?
Where are you still carrying the burden of the old system?
Where are you still searching the Scriptures instead of coming to the One they reveal?
Let the Source of life fill your whole being with light.
Rest in the One who says to you, “Rise.”
This is the single eye.
This is John chapter 5.
Today has been a big chapter for John’s Gospel. You may need some time before moving on. There is much to seek Yahweh for wisdom.
Next, onto John chapter 6.
Many blessings.
Geoff
