May 21, 2021 John 5: 34-37
28Do not be astonished at this; for the hour is
coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice 29and will come out—those who have done good, to
the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of
condemnation. 30“I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge; and my judgment is
just, because I seek to do not my own will but the will of him who sent me.
31“If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true. 32There is another who testifies on my behalf,
and I know that his testimony to me is true. 33You sent messengers to John, and he testified
to the truth. 34Not that I accept such human testimony, but I say these
things so that you may be saved. 35He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to
rejoice for a while in his light. 36But I have a testimony greater than John’s. The
works that the Father has given me to complete, the very works that I am doing,
testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me. 37And the Father who sent me has himself
testified on my behalf. You have
never heard his voice or seen his form, 38and you do not have his word abiding in you,
because you do not believe him whom he has sent.
Sorry
for delays this week, celebrating a huge family milestone so have had to
rearrange priorities a little.
So
there is this notion out there that I first remember from watching “The West
Wing”. It is the concept of ‘walking it
back’. Something is said, usually in a
public forum, and it is…too much. So, to
backpedal, but without appearing to back off completely, they call it walking
it back. I saw the idea displayed in the
latest episodes of Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist. An African American employee is asked
essentially to walk back his open and honest assessment of working, as a black
man, in a white dominant industry.
“Walking it back” is generally viewed in a negative light, retreating
from where one honestly believes oneself to be.
On
first reading of verse 34, that is what struck me. Jesus just said to the leadership that they’d
sent messengers to John and John testified to the truth of Jesus. But the wider context is Jesus and the Father
are one and sharing back and forth. So
Jesus suddenly seems to walk back what he said. John testified to the truth, sure, but I do
not accept human testimony. Then he
seems to get disingenuous. In saying
that he, Jesus, does not accept human testimony, he tells them about the human
testimony that they, mere humans, might be saved. So John’s testimony is enough for us, but not
enough for God. Taken by itself, it
looks like Jesus is building up and cutting John down in following
sentences.
Look
back to verse 31 to see how this whole piece begins. Jesus has already eliminated himself as an
effective witness to…himself. He points
at John as a witness for the people, but not for himself. Yet John is a good witness. Verse 35: “He (John the baptizer) was a
burning and shining lamp…” It appears
that even the Leadership was willing to accept that John the baptizer was
sharing something pretty incredible and necessary for belief.
But
as good as John’s testimony was (and it seems to have been pretty darned good),
Jesus seems not to be so much discounting it as setting it alongside a testimony
that is even greater. That is because
Jesus is not talking about human testimony but about divine testimony. It is a two-step process.
First,
the Father has sent Jesus to do certain works of the Father among
humanity. God-level work done by
Jesus. This is the stuff Jesus is
actually doing. These divine level
works, they are the first testimony of the divine to Jesus. These testify that Jesus was sent by the
Father, because He (Jesus) does the Father’s business.
It is
a careful distinction from what Jesus says concerning John. John was a witness, John spoke, John gave
testimony of what was to come. His were
prophetic words. But now Jesus changes
the focus. It is not simply what was
said about Jesus that makes Him God-awesome.
It is about the actual work he does, the work of God the Father.
So,
while at first glance, it may look like Jesus walked back the authority of
John’s testimony due to God’s testimony, words versus words, that is not his
point. To quote a cliché, the actions
speak louder than the words. John said
Jesus, essentially, is from God. Jesus
does God’s work, that is the proof, that is the testimony.
And
it is here that Jesus wraps things up.
In this manner, the Father who sent Jesus has testified on the behalf of
Jesus. That is why the Father’s
testimony is more powerful than that of John.
It is not simply a human versus divine debate. John spoke of what would come to pass. In Jesus, it came to pass. That is the witness of the Father.
So,
again, going back to verse 31, where Jesus denies that he can testify
effectively about himself, that is because he is sharing the action of God the
Father (more than ‘just’ his words).
More later.
Peace, Pastor Peter
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