Wednesday in the Fourth Week of Lent, .April 2, 2025

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.

“My Father is at work until now, so I am at work.”  Literally: My Father is working until now and I am working.  This can also be worded: My Father is working and I am working until now.  The “so” in the Lectionary translation acts as a causative: My Father is at work until now, therefore I am at work.  But this is not in the Greek text.  The point the Lord is making is that he and his Father are engaged together in the same work.  The Jews see that Jesus is claiming equality with the Father first by calling him “my” Father; and then by the revelation that he and the Father are working together.  The verb tense here is significant, for the verb “to work” is in the parent tense which indicates continuity: I am working, that is, the Lord’s working with his Father is not a one-time or occasional event but is on-going and continual.  “Until now” should be understood as “even to the present time”, implying that the Father and the Son have been working before time began, are working now, and will continue to work into the future.  What is this continual work?  Genesis 2, 2 reveals that after the work of creation, God “rested”.  In a real sense, the “work” of creation does not end with the act of creation, for that which is brought into being must be sustained or it will cease to exist.  The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit perform this work of sustaining creation in existence.  But this work can also be understood more specifically as pertaining to the salvation of the world, and Jesus may be speaking of this to the Jews in today’s Gospel Reading.  It is the Lord answering the Jews with, “I am working, even at this very moment, to redeem your souls from sin.”

“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.”  Jesus reiterates the equality of the work and also that the Father and Son do the work in unison.  But this work is not drudgery or mindless: “For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything that he himself does, and he will show him greater works than these.”  The work of sustaining creation and of salvation is work done for the good of others, and it is work done out of love the Father and Son have for each other.  The “greater works” is the work of salvation through Divine Providence, which is the work of the Father.  The Father does not reveal his plan to his Son, for the Son knows it from all eternity, but that the Father and the Son engage in it throughout human history, with the Sacrifice of the Son marking a turning point.  The work then is that of giving life and raising from the dead, which can be understood literally as occurring at the end of the world and as pouring out grace for the conversion of sinners and giving them forgiveness; and that of rendering judgment on the Last Day, leading to the salvation of the just and their liberation from the wicked, who are cast into hell.

“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.”  Having established that he is equal to the Father in his divinity, Jesus reveals what it means for the human race that he has come down to it from heaven.  Almighty God’s will to save us from our sins is not restricted merely to those who heard his Son when he came and to those who hear his words through the teaching of the Church, but includes all those who lived before his coming.  “The hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice.”  That is, all who have died and whose souls lived on in a limbo until Christ comes to them following his Passion and Death: “He preached to those spirits that were in prison” (1 Peter 3, 19).  

In understanding what Jesus is teaching here he gain a greater appreciation for just who it was who died for our sins, who will come to judge us, and with whom we hope to spend eternity.