John 5:16-23
“Notice what you notice.” Continuing with Jesus back in Jerusalem in John’s Gospel and the healing at the pool of Bethesda… I readily confess that Jesus’ words in John’s Gospel leave me confused. Today is no different. So often Jesus seems to go “off topic”. In yesterday’s and today’s readings the Jews were persecuting Jesus because He was healing on the Sabbath. So Jesus’ response to their charges is to begin a discussion of “His own Father”, which infuriated the Jews even more! So is there a sentence, a thought, a connection in Jesus’ mind that He does not speak? Is He explaining the healing miracle by saying that’s what His Father would have done? That’s the only connection that I can make.
Beyond that first confusion there is a very interesting line in Jesus’ words: For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. (v. 21) In the first half of that statement, is Jesus predicting His own Resurrection – For as the Father raises the dead…? Or is Jesus referring to us meeting His Father when we ourselves pass from death to life when our mortal lives end? And in the second half of that statement, is Jesus reflecting back on His raising Jairus’ daughter or maybe looking forward to Lazarus or some other occasion down the road, seeing life-giving miracles being done at His own hand? Then in the very next sentence, the topic changes again to judgment: For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son… (v. 22).
So in these few verses the topic has moved from (1) healing on the Sabbath to (2) Jesus referring to God as “His own Father” to (3) a discussion of He and His Father raising the dead to (4) the Father turning judgment over to the Son. How could we not be confused??!! Carol says this is a logical progression – but she is a lot smarter that I, and she will explain that tomorrow when we gather. We wait.
Slava Bohu!