John 5:10-16
There is a bit of uncertainty about what had happened. It appears that the
formerly crippled man saw the authority of Jesus as the one who had healed him,
while the Jews saw the authority of Moses' Law, which forbid the carrying of a
load on the Sabbath. (Deut 5:14). The Jews sought to kill Jesus because He
healed on the Sabbath. Perhaps they were thinking of the example of the man who
chopped wood on the Sabbath and was stoned. (Numbers 15:2-36) The Jews apparently felt that Jesus could not
possibly be acting on God's initiative since God would certainly never heal on
the Sabbath, since He had told the Jews not to do any work. This subject will
come up again in regard to kosher food, in which Jesus declared all foods to be
clean, despite the law of Moses. (Mark 7:15-19; Matthew 15:17-19)
In
these signal moments, Jesus took the position that He had the authority to
re-interpret or even replace the Law of Moses. Whether He was a prophet greater
than Moses, or God incarnate, becomes clearer in the next section.
John 5:17-47
This section details a talk that Jesus gave to the Jews after the miracle just
described, and the Jews reaction to it. In this discourse, Jesus makes the
following points.
·
They had
correctly understood that He had called God His Father;
·
He was an
obedient Son and did only what the Father did;
·
He gives life
to men, just as the Father does;
·
The Father has
given all judgment to Him (but see John 12:47)
·
Those who hear
His voice and believe will be resurrected from the dead on the Father's
authority;
·
John the
Baptist had given witness concerning Him, but the witness of the Father was
greater;
·
They think that
the Scripture gives life, but the Scriptures speak of Him, and He is the One
who gives eternal life, to those who come to Him;
·
Glory comes
from the Father only; any glory or honor received from men is superseded by the
Father's honor and glory;
·
Moses spoke of
Him; they miss the point of Moses' revelation if they use his writings to try
to reject Him.
The
essence of this sermon is that Jesus is explicitly declaring the He is God,
citing four categories of witnesses, and making the case that He therefore has
the authority to set aside the law of Moses. Actually it is more a matter of
transcending the Law of Moses than setting it aside. The four witnesses are:
·
John the
Baptist (5:33-35)
o A reference to John's testimony (John
1:34,36)
·
The works of
power that He did (5:36)
o Most likely a reference to the
healing that triggered this exchange (John 5:1-9), although in context, there
had been other miracles
·
The Father
(5:37-38)
o Most likely a reference to the
Father's voice heard at Jesus' baptism (Matthew 3:17, Mark 1:11, Luke 3:22 but
not mentioned in John's account)
·
Scripture
(5:39-47)
o Perhaps this is a reference to John
3:14, in which Jesus cited the serpent on a pole as a type of Himself. Luke
24:27 indicates that He taught the disciples a very comprehensive explanation
of Old Testament types. Paul cites Jesus as following the Israelites in the
wilderness (I Cor 10:4). More generally, the furnishings of the Tabernacle that
were detailed in the Books of Moses spoke of the person of Christ. (Heb
9:1-10), and the calendar of festivals outlined by Moses (Exodus 23:14-17) was
and will be fulfilled ultimately by Jesus, specifically in the feast of
unleavened bread (Luke 22:15), the feast of weeks (Acts 2:1), the feast of
booths (John 14:2), and the feast of ingathering (Matthew 24:31).
Mosaic Law only
required two or three witnesses to establish a fact. (Deut 17:6, 19:15) so
Jesus went above and beyond the requirements Moses established.
What
were the implications of Jesus calling God His Father? The Jews clearly thought
this blasphemy, because He was thereby claiming Himself to be equal to God. And
from pagan mythology there are many stories of the Greek gods (for example)
taking on human form and then procreating with human women. And then the
offspring of these unions taking on godlike powers and challenging their
parent. In these stories, there was a mixture of the absurdity of what it would
look like for the Greek gods to intermix with humans in their earthly nature
rather than retaining godlike moral qualities, with the pride and hubris of
humans attempting to and sometimes succeeding in challenging the gods for
power. All of this was abhorrent to the Jews. So Jesus' claim that God was His
Father, in this context, would have been blasphemous.
But
what did Jesus mean when He called God His Father? From the first aspect, the
incongruity of divine procreation is resolved in the virgin birth. And in this
way, the moral holiness of the Jewish God is maintained. And the second
dimension of the problem of God being a Father, that of the rebellious
offspring who seeks to challenge a divine parent, is utterly refuted by Jesus'
explanation that He is the obedient Son who does only what the Father does. In
other words, He is completely subject and submissive to His Father. This is not
a passive submission of a slave, but the active, initiative-taking obedience of
a Son who fully understands His Father's nature and character and joyfully
strives to spread it to all mankind. And for this reason God has exalted Him.
(Philippians 2:5-11)
One
other implication of Jesus calling God His Father is that it opens the door to
charges of polytheism. Israel had been taught, through the pain of 500 years of
history, that The Lord their God is one. He is God and there is no other.
(Deut. 6:4). For Jesus to claim to be God incarnate appears to them to be a
claim of polytheism. This mystery of the Trinity, how there can be one God yet
three Persons, is beyond our ability to fully grasp. John 17:11 & 21 give
greater insight into this mystery and will be discussed then, but the mystery
is not revealed.
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