Wednesday in the Fourth Week of Lent, March 13, 2024

John 5, 17-30

Jesus answered the Jews:  “My Father is at work until now, so I am at work.” For this reason they tried all the more to kill him, because he not only broke the Sabbath but he also called God his own Father, making himself equal to God.  Jesus answered and said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, the Son cannot do anything on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for what he does, the Son will do also. For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything that he himself does, and he will show him greater works than these, so that you may be amazed. For just as the Father raises the dead and gives life, so also does the Son give life to whomever he wishes. Nor does the Father judge anyone, but he has given all judgment to the Son, so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life and will not come to condemnation, but has passed from death to life. Amen, amen, I say to 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. For just as the Father has life in himself, so also he gave to the Son the possession of life in himself. And he gave him power to exercise judgment, because he is the Son of Man. Do not be amazed at this, because the hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and will come out, those who have done good deeds to the resurrection of life, but those who have done wicked deeds to the resurrection of condemnation.

Today’s Gospel Reading immediately follows yesterday’s (John 5, 1-15) so that the verse, “Therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, because he did these things on the Sabbath” (John 5, 16).  This persecution on account of his cure on the Sabbath is what Jesus “answers” in today’s Reading.

Now, a word or two about work on the Sabbath in order to make plain the injustice committed against the Lord.  Although certain forms of work, such as cooking, are forbidden by the law of the Sabbath in Exodus 35, mostly it is a very general law subject to interpretation.  Thus, the Talmud, compiled after the time of Jesus, lists thirty-nine types of work that may not be engaged in, but few of these are mentioned in the Scriptures.  The “Jews”, a term St. John uses for the Jewish leaders, including the Pharisees, reproach the healed man of the previous Gospel Reading for carrying his mat.  But they are only insisting on their interpretation of the Law.  Jesus, in another place, shows that their belief in what the Law meant is merely their personal interpretation when he says to the Pharisees, “Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fall into a pit and will not immediately draw him out, on the Sabbath day?” (Luke 14, 5).  

In this Reading the Lord Jesus teaches that God is uniquely his own Father.   He, the Son, works with the Father: “My Father is at work until now, so I am at work.”  This is a stupendous revelation, for the work of the Father is in the creation and the conservation of the world, the vast universe of stars and galaxies, and of angels and humans.  The Son, standing in full view before the Jewish rulers, announces this.  They must have been stunned by this saying.  It goes far beyond who they believed the Son of Man would be, a man sent by God, endowed with great power, who would overthrow the Romans and reestablish the Kingdom of Israel.  He would rule over Israel for a thousand years and then would come the great judgment.  All the same, he would be a human, mortal like other humans.  He would in no way equal Almighty God or speak of him as his own personal Father.  Stunning, and yet he must be believed, for his miracles testified on behalf of his claim.  As Nicodemus of the Sanhedrin conceded, “No man can do these signs which you do, unless God be with him” (John 3, 2).

We should go through his words used in this Reading with the eye of our mind on the Lord’s physical appearance in this scene.  He was dressed in clothes that had become slightly tattered by his time on the road and he pronounced his words with an accent the Judeans considered foreign.  Very ordinary otherwise, “there was no beauty in him, nor comeliness: and we have seen him, and there was no sightliness, that we should be desirous of him” (Isaiah 53, 2).  He may have suffered from some visible defect as well, as seems to be hinted at when Jesus addresses the crowd at Nazareth in Luke 4, 23: “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Physician, heal yourself.’ ”  But at the same time as we hold the image of his physical appearance before us, let our understanding consider his words and his deeds.  Who could do what he has done, curing all who came to him of whatever disease or infirmity, feeding large crowds, casting out demons with a single command, and raising the dead?  Who else walked on the sea and calmed ferocious storms?  We might here recall the words of God to the suffering and questioning Job: “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?  Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements—surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it?  On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together, and all the angels of God shouted for joy?” (Job 38, 4-7).  This is the One who looked out through human eyes at his human accusers.  But they ignored the works they had seen him do and that had been reported to them and looked only at the modest appearance before them.