Wednesday of Week 4 of Lent – Gospel
17But Jesus answered them, “My Father is still working, and I also am working.” 18For this reason the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because he was not only breaking the Sabbath but was also calling God his own Father, thereby making himself equal to God.
19Jesus 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 whomever 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. 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.
Commentary on John 5:17-30
Today’s Gospel follows immediately on yesterday’s story of the healing of the man who was unable to walk by the pool at the Sheep Gate. That passage had ended with the words:
Therefore the Jews started persecuting Jesus, because he was doing such things on the Sabbath. (John 5:16)
We might point out, as with some other Sabbath healings, that there was absolutely no urgency to do the healing on a Sabbath for someone who had waited 38 years. It is just another indication of the divine authority with which Jesus works.
Jesus’ reply is direct and unapologetic:
My Father is still working, and I also am working.
Because Genesis speaks of God resting on the seventh day (the origin of the Jewish Sabbath), it was disputed whether God was in any way active on the Sabbath. Some believed that the creating and conserving work of his creation went on, and others believe that he continued to pass judgement on that day. In any case, Jesus is claiming here the same authority to work on the Sabbath as his Father and has the same powers over life and death.
The Jewish leaders are enraged that Jesus speaks of God as his own Father, and they want to kill him. They understand by his words that Jesus is making himself God’s equal. Jesus, far from denying the accusation, only confirms it.
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.
This saying is taken from the model of an apprentice in a trade. The apprentice son does exactly what his father does. Jesus’ relation to his Father is similar:
The 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. Indeed, just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whomever he wishes.
And, we might add, whenever he wishes. Such giving of life is something that belongs only to God—as does the right to judge, which Jesus says has been delegated to him.
Jesus is the perfect mirror of the Father. The Father is acting in him and through him. He is the Word of God—God speaks and acts directly through him. God’s Word is a creative Word. Jesus, like the Father, is life-giving, a source of life.
The right to judge has been delegated by the Father to the Son. And to refuse to honour the Son is to refuse the same honour to the Father. In everything, Jesus acts only according to the will of his Father and does what his Father wants.
Jesus, then, is the Way—the Way through whom we go to God. For us, there is no other Way. He is God’s Word to us and for us.
