April 27, 2021 John 5: 20-21
14Later Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you have been
made well! Do not sin any more, so that nothing worse happens to you.” 15The man went away and told the Jews that it was
Jesus who had made him well. 16Therefore the Jews started persecuting Jesus, because he was doing such
things on the sabbath.
19 Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, the
Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for
whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise. 20The Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is
doing; and he will show him greater works than these, so that you will be
astonished. 21Indeed, just as the Father raises the dead and
gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whomsoever he wishes. 22The Father judges no one but has given all
judgment to the Son, 23so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father.
Anyone who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. 24Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes
him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come under judgment, but has
passed from death to life. 25“Very truly, I tell you, the 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. 26For just as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted
the Son also to have life in himself; 27and he has given him authority to execute judgment, because
he is the Son of Man.
So Jesus concluded our verses yesterday speaking about
how the Son can do what the Son sees the Father doing. Now he ups the ante. The Son watching the Father, that could be
interpreted as being a more passive act.
But now Jesus tells us that from love, the Father is actively showing
the Son all that the Father is doing, and the Father will show the Son even
greater works, not for the benefit of the Son, but so that those who are with
Jesus will be astonished. We should read
this as an intro to the death and resurrection of Jesus.
All this is to answer the charge that he, Jesus, was healing
on the Sabbath. His appeal is to the
authority of God the Father, who instituted the Sabbath. By healing the man at the Pool of Bethesda,
Jesus was giving unto him a Sabbath rest from the illness, from the constant
demand to watch the pool and NOT be able to get there in time to be
healed. Unless I have missed something
very significant, Jesus does not do all his healing on the Sabbath, but it is
enough to provoke a response. What the
Jewish leadership and Jesus can agree on is that the Sabbath is the Lord’s
Day. Where they disagree is how then
should it be used.
To those who are heavily steeped in the language of
Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three persons, one God, this language
can feel odd. Trinity assumes the
equality of the three persons, but these couple of verses feel like there is a
subordination of Son to the Father. And
there is a subordination insofar as God decided to give up Godhood to become
human, on our behalf. But there is
something more to be understood here.
Jesus is trying to explain the divine, the perfect, the
eternal in a human, imperfect, very limited scope of human experience. He is going from himself, as the Son, to God,
the Father, and coming back again. This
is the unfolding of God’s Plan that is going on in the life and ministry of
Jesus. It is the basis of this and all
the gospels. In this case, Jesus is
attempting to connect the divine to the ‘breaking of the Sabbath rules’ that he
is accused of.
In the next verse, Jesus moves to the extreme of Godly creative
power. The Father raises the dead and
gives them life, so the Son also gives life to whomever the Son wishes. This is the logical conclusion to the miracle
of the man at the Pool. Jesus can give
life to whomever he wishes. Now, that
man was not dead, but his life was effectively at a standstill. He was in a place where he was waiting to die,
because he did not have the ability to get to the Pool and its ability to
heal. And he seems less than
appreciative of what Jesus had to offer when Jesus healed him. Jesus healed a less than fully grateful
candidate to provoke this conflict over the Sabbath that has led to this explanation.
But as we shall see, the identification of Father and Son
is not complete.
More tomorrow.
Peace, Pastor Peter
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