Year 2, Week 30, Day 5 Bible Reading Observations

Year 2, Week 30, Day 5

I have a brief observation for today’s reading of John 5.

Today’s reading records another healing by Jesus, but since the healing was on a Sabbath, another round of conflict erupts between Jesus and many of the Jews (presumably the Jewish religious leaders). John 5 notes that the conflict between Jesus and the Jewish religious leaders was no mere casual debate; the Jewish religious establishment was targeting Jesus: “And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath” (John 5:16). But as the interactions between Jesus and some of the Jews developed, it quickly escalated to the point that they wanted Jesus dead: “This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God” (John 5:18). A man has not walked in four decades and the focus of the religious leaders was how their customs concerning the Sabbath had been violated. It seems like a strange irony that the healed man was able to enjoy the Sabbath worshiping God at the Temple, while the religious leaders would spend the day laboring, not only in terms of debating with Jesus, but plotting how they might kill Him. As the chapter unfolds, Jesus’ justification for why He is authorized to do what He did becomes the deeper reason behind their fierce opposition to Him. When Jesus said, “My Father is working until now, and I am working” (John 5:17), they understood Jesus to be claiming equality to the Father. And they understood that right.

One of the things that struck me from today’s reading was that as opposition elevated over Jesus’ talk of being equal with the Father, He did not backpedal; in fact, He doubled-down in making His case that He was equal with God: “So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel” (John 5:19-20). Simply put, Jesus declared: like Father, like Son. In fact, Jesus is teaching that there is an intensity of love between the Father and the Son that is like nothing else. And in the context of this unmatched love relationship between the Father and the Son, there is a depth of disclosures that is not shared with anyone else. Being equal with the Father, only the Son can experience such an eternal manifestation of love and infinite base of knowledge. Throughout this whole section, it should be noted that Jesus is not driven to merely win a debate; Jesus is declaring who He is, first of all, “so that you may marvel;” but more importantly, “but I say these things so that you may be saved” (John 5:34b). Tragically, most will miss the marveling and reject the salvation, for they would not turn from their blind and hardened unbelief. They would rather fight with Jesus than follow Him.

Jesus moves from making the case for His equity with the Father by explaining the essential relationship that the two share with each other, to showing that He is God by virtue of the fact that He can do what only God can do: “For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son” (John 5:21-22). Only God can give life, raise the dead, and issue judgment. And like Father, like Son: Jesus can do all that the Father can do in the essential areas that are only doable by God. Thus all the honor that is due to the Father, is also due to the Son: “that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him” (John 5:23). There can be no separation wherein one can claim to honor the Father while dishonoring the Son. The Father won’t have His Son dishonored! Therefore, the Father had entrusted to His Son, the dispensing of life and the administering of judgment: “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life” (John 5:24). The Father has decided that life and judgment are in the hands of His Son: “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man” (John 5:25-27).

In the course of His explanation, Jesus shifts from stressing His equality with the Father to stressing that He was sent by the Father: “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me” (John 5:30). Jesus then points out that there is ample testimony to validate His claims. The miracles that Jesus performed bore witness that He was sent by the Father: “For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me” (John 5:36b). Then Jesus concludes by pointing out that the witness of the Scriptures also testify that He was sent by the Father: “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life…For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?” (John 5:39-40,46-47). Faced with what the miracles testify about Jesus as well as how the Scriptures testify about Jesus, the religious leaders simply show that they do not acknowledge anything the Father Himself says and does. For if they did, they would believe in the Father’s Son: “But I know that you do not have the love of God within you” (John 5:42).

What struck you in today’s reading? What questions were prompted from today’s reading?

Pastor Joe