15 The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. 16 And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. 17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”
18 This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
19 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. 21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. 22 For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, 23 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. 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
25 “Truly, truly, I say to you, an 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. 26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. 27 And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. 28 Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice 29 and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.
INTRODUCTION
Have you ever gotten someone entirely wrong? What I mean is, have you ever completely misjudged someone? I think that’s the basic plotline of every single romantic comedy ever. Some cute girl who is having a bad day bumps into a cute guy and finds him entirely repulsive. Then, through a few twists of fate and a comedy of errors, she discovers that he’s actually the prince of some country in Europe and surprisingly charming and likable after all. The very man she misread as obnoxious turns out to be her prince charming.
That’s a silly example, but I imagine that all of us have some sort of bad misread. Maybe your version goes the other way. Maybe you initially judged someone to be kind and decent, only to find out that they were anything but. It seems to me that most of the most terrible tragedies on both the personal level and the world stage fall into that category.
Well, the greatest misread in the history of mankind is very well encapsulated in our passage for this morning.
The backdrop of this passage is growing hatred of Jesus among the Jews. The religious leaders believed they were justified in their hatred because of the things Jesus said and did. The real reason they hated what He said and did, though, was because they were way, way, way off on who He was. Recognizing this, Jesus named eleven aspects of His nature that gave rise and legitimacy to His words and actions.
The main point of this passage is that if we get Jesus wrong, we get everything else wrong too. Getting Jesus right is the beginning of living in this world as we were made to do. And my main prayers, therefore, are that we would consider Jesus’ own words concerning Himself, allow them to further refine and refine our understanding of Jesus, and then truly live in every way in light of them. Let’s pray that God might make it so.
WHY THE JEWS BELIEVED THEY HATED JESUS (15-18)
In their own minds, the Jews were right to persecute Jesus, and even to seek to put Him to death, for two main reasons. First, they believed He was violating the Sabbath. And second, they believed He was wrongly making Himself equal with God. We see this in vs.16-18.
Violating the Sabbath (16)
Interestingly, as we saw last week, the main accusation the Jews made against Jesus was more about inciting the man He’d healed to break the Sabbath. In other places in the Gospels Jesus is accused of breaking the Sabbath by healing (Luke 14:1-5), so we can probably assume there’s some of that here as well.
16 And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing things these [healing a man and telling him to pick up his bed and walk away] on the Sabbath.
Making Himself Equal with God (17-18)
Second, again as we saw last week, more significantly still, the Jews were right that Jesus’ claims were essentially claims to be equal with God. Claiming to have the same right to work on the Sabbath as God and being over the Sabbath are claims that should definitely raise the eyebrows of anyone familiar with God’s Word.
17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”
18 This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
The key for us to recognize here is that embedded in these accusations was two simple assumptions: (1) No mere man ought to claim these things about himself, and (2) Jesus was merely a man. It should be easy for us to agree with the Jews that insofar as they were right in their assumptions, anger was appropriate and Jesus ought to have been stopped.
Everything hinges, then, on whether they were right in their assumptions. The first seems plain enough, doesn’t it? No mere man (or woman) should claim the things Jesus claimed. The very first commandment is that “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3). God is God alone. Making yourself equal to God is entirely out of bounds for every mere man.
In a similar way, it is clear that God requires His people to honor the Sabbath. In Exodus 20:8-11 we find the wordiest of the Ten Commandments, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”
All men must honor the Sabbath according to God’s clear decree. And in a not-very-subtle way, Jesus was claiming authority over the Sabbath—something that you and I ought never to do as mere men and women.
But that brings us back to the second assumption—that Jesus was merely a man like us. If that’s true, then the response of the Jews and Jewish leaders was mostly right. But is it true? Was Jesus merely a man as they suspected? That leads us to the second and main part of this sermon.
WHY THE JEWS REALLY HATED JESUS
Again, the Jews believed they hated Jesus because the things He said and did were not appropriate for who He was. It was because the Jews didn’t accept Jesus’ claims about His nature that His words and actions seemed blasphemous. And it was for that reason that Jesus gave one of the clearest explanations of Himself found anywhere in the Bible. In the fifteen verses of our passage, Jesus explicitly named eleven attributes that are anything but mere humanity. It’s as if Jesus said in loudest and clearest terms, “Fix your understanding of who I am and that will fix your response to the things I say and do.” What, then, did Jesus claim about Himself?
- Lord of the Sabbath (16-17). I’ll come back to this in just a bit, but Jesus claimed to be able to work on the Sabbath just as God did in creation.
16 And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. 17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”
Jesus claimed to be Lord of the Sabbath, and that is a claim that sets Him apart from every mere man. - The Son of God (17-18) and Son of Man (27). This too I’ll come back to in a few moments, but the key is to see that Jesus was not claiming to be “a son of God,” but “the Son of God”. That is, Jesus wasn’t claiming God as “our Father,” but “My Father”. Likewise, Jesus was not claiming to be “a son of man,” but “the Son of Man.”
17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”
18 This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
27 And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man.
There is a way in which Jesus is the Son of God and Son of Man that is entirely different from every mere man. - Equal with God (17-18). The claims Jesus made might be somewhat subtle to modern day readers. I wonder how many of us would read what Jesus said and did in chapter 5 and conclude that in those things Jesus was claiming to be equal with God as the Jews did. The Jews picked up on that simply by hearing ten simple words from Jesus, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.” The words that Jesus spoke in response to their charge gave an incredible amount of additional evidence to the conclusion of the Jews. Jesus was claiming to be equal with God, and not just a mere man!
- Entirely obedient to the Father (19). In v.19 Jesus claims to have perfect insight into the will of God and perfect conformity to it. No mere man would have that or be able to do that.
19 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.
God is kind to reveal to us all He requires of us (in the Bible), but that is a long ways from revealing to us “all the he himself is doing”. Likewise, it is good for us to grow in obedience to God, but that is a long ways from doing everything God does. Jesus had both because He is no mere man. - Entirely loved by the Father (20). V.20 elaborates on and grounds the claim Jesus just made in v.19. He has perfect insight into the Father’s will because the Father reveals all that He is doing to Jesus. And the Father does so because of His perfect love for Jesus.
20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. There is a kind of love God has for the entire world (John 3:16) and there is a particular kind of love God has for those who trust and obey Him. But the kind of love the Father has for Jesus, His only Son, is greater still, as it is an eternal love; a love without beginning or end.
That is a kind of love that finite, mere men can never experience, but Jesus is anything but a finite, mere man. - All-powerful (20). As we saw last week, John records many varieties of miracles from Jesus—from healing the sick to knowing the hearts and minds of all men to feeding vast crowds with a few pieces of bread and fish, to raising people from the dead, to rising from the dead Himself. Mere men can’t do any of these things, but v.20 adds something even more remarkable.
20 … And greater works than these will he [the Father] show him [Jesus], so that you may marvel.
The Father shows Jesus all He does and Jesus joins the Father in all of it. Jesus is no mere man. He, along with the Father is all-powerful. - Physical, spiritual, and eternal life-giver (21, 24, 25, 28-29). As an example of the Jesus seeing and doing all that the Father does with all power, Jesus gives life even as the Father does. What’s more remarkable still is that there are three kinds of life-giving mentioned in these few verses. Jesus gives physical life as is evidenced by His healing of the official’s son who was near death. That’s at least part of what v.21 was referring to and not a thing that mere men can do.
21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. More than that, though, Jesus gives spiritual life to all who believe. That is, in Him is forgiveness of sins and new life in the Spirit. That’s not something mere men can give, but it’s what Jesus’ claimed for Himself in vs.24-25. 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
25 “Truly, truly, I say to you, an 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.
What’s more, not only are physical and spiritual life Jesus’ to give, so too is eternal, resurrection life.
28 Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice 29 and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.
In the day of final judgment Jesus will call forth every man, woman, and child to give an account of their lives. To all who have done evil and refused to accept the salvation offered in Jesus, Jesus will grant everlasting death. But to those who do good in through the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit, given by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone, Jesus will grant everlasting resurrection life into the new heavens and earth. Who but God alone can do such marvelous works? - Self-existent (26). V.26 gives the basis for the life-giving power of Jesus.
26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.
Every mere man has contingent, derivative life. God alone has life in Himself. He has eternally granted this to His Son as well. Again, it is for that reason, it is because this is who Jesus is, that He is able to join the Father in giving physical, spiritual, and eternal, resurrection life. Be amazed, Grace Church. Stand in awe! - Judge (22, 24, 27). The beginning of the gospel is that God is the Creator-King and Righteous-Judge of all that has been made. While God has called leaders, judges, kings, prophets, elders, Christians, and even secular authorities to take part in certain aspects of creating, ruling, and judging righteously, the Jews were right that no mere man is those things. But they were tragically wrong in thinking that Jesus was merely a man.
22 For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son… 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment…27 And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man.
Jesus did not come into the world to condemn the world (for it was already condemned), but He did come into the world and will return to the world to pronounce judgment on what is. This is not the work of a mere man. - Worthy of all honor (23). In another twist of irony, the Jews believed they were honoring God by persecuting Jesus. In reality, however, Jesus stated plainly that men will honor both or they honor neither. To honor the Father is to honor the Son, even as honoring the Son is honoring the Father.
22 For the Father … has given all judgment to the Son,23 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.
This is the same great tragedy that fills the world today. Mankind has futilely devised countless ways of seeking God and attempting to honor God apart from Jesus Christ. This is in one way or another at the core of every false religion. But Jesus left no doubt that He was not merely a good moral teacher or an important prophet or an exceptionally faithful son of Abraham. If He were merely any of those things, the ire of the Jews would have been mostly appropriate. But Jesus shares glory with the one who will not give His glory to another (Isaiah 48:11). And that is because Jesus is no mere man. He is the Son of God and worthy of all honor! - Sent by God (24). Perhaps the best way to sum all of this up is found in v.24. Jesus was standing before and talking to the Jews who increasingly despised Him, in perfect obedience to the Father’s will, having been sent for that very purpose by the Father.
24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life…
In this final clarifying claim made by Jesus, I hope you’re seeing that if it weren’t so tragic, it’d almost be comical how wrong the Jews were on almost every single point of contention. Whatever else they might have gotten right or wrong, the second most important thing they missed was that in their zeal to shut down any opposition to the one true God they were actually opposing the one true God. Jesus was there because He’d been sent by God. To be angry with the claims and works of Jesus, therefore, was to be angry with God.
That was the second most significant mistake they made—missing that Jesus was sent from God. The first, once again, was in missing that Jesus wasn’t merely sent by God, He was/is God.
RESPONDING TO JESUS RECONSIDERED
Because Jesus is these things, we can see that the second assumption of the Jews—that Jesus was a mere man—was the problem. While their concerns were entirely valid for mere men, Jesus was no mere man. He was (and eternally is!), as we just saw, far, far more than that. This means that the response of the Jews to the things Jesus said and did was way off too. In light of these things, we need to briefly reconsider what Jesus said and did regarding the Sabbath and His relationship to God—the two main charges against Him.
Reconsidering the Sabbath
Concerning the Sabbath, the simple command that God intended His people to follow, in honor of the rhythm of creation, in submission to their finitude, and as a sign of trust in God, was to refrain from the normal work done on normal days. Keeping the Sabbath day holy was less about an amount of work and more about setting a day aside to particularly honor God by worshiping Him and doing good together. For a myriad of reasons, some likely well-intentioned and some not so much, the Jewish leaders over time had added many particular requirements to Sabbath keeping, such as not carrying anything (like a bed roll) from one location to another. Therefore, rather than celebrate and praise God with the man who’d been healed, when the Jews saw him, they said to him (in v.10), “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.”
The greatest tragedy in creating their own Sabbath system was that some of their man-made requirements were in direct opposition to the meaning and purpose of the Sabbath, as evidenced here. What Jesus did was in complete fulfillment of the Father’s requirements, but the Jews not only missed it, they were incensed by it. That just shows how far they were from the truth. Instead of rightly filling them with awe and wonder, Jesus’ miracles and teaching made them violently angry. At best adding to God’s commands puts unnecessary burdens on us. More often they prevent us from actually being able to obey what God did say. And worst of all, man-made additions to the Law make us angry when we are around someone who does obey God.
In other words, because the Jews misunderstood who Jesus was, they missed the reality that He was right and they were wrong concerning what it meant to honor the Sabbath and keep it holy. And because of that, they were angry and contemptuous when they should have been filled with gladness and worship.
Reconsidering the Claim to Be Equal with God
The second reason for their anger was that they believed Jesus wrongly claimed divine authority. But as the eleven claims Jesus made point out, Jesus was (and is) equal with God. He did (and does) have divine authority. The Jews acknowledged that while God rested from His creative work on the seventh day, they also acknowledged that He worked no less in sustaining and providentially ruling over His creation on that day. In that way, Sabbath for man was different from God. God never rests because God never gets tired. Thus, when Jesus declared, ““My Father is working until now, and I am working,” He went a step further from simply explaining that His actions were entirely keeping with the Sabbath for any man. In those few, simple words Jesus claimed the same right and necessity to work on the Sabbath as God. And this was entirely appropriate because He was (and is) God.
In addition, Jesus claimed to be the Son of God and the Son of Man. The unique way in which He described God as His Father was in reference to the fact that He is the second person of the Trinity. And the unique way He claimed to be the Son of Man was in reference to the messianic passage in Daniel 7:13-14, “I [Daniel] saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. 14 And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.”
That these things might be true seems never to have occurred to the Jews and so they were persecuted Him and plotted His murder all the more. But Grace, these things are true of Jesus. He is no mere man. And because of that, it changes everything.
CONCLUSION
The question confronting you and I right now is the exact same question that confronted the Jews after hearing Jesus words in our passage: Was Jesus telling the truth about Himself? Is that really who He was/is? In other words, who do you say Jesus is?
If He was an imposter as the Jews believed, we should treat Him as they did—with contempt, as a menace to society. Actually, if they were right, and He was nothing more than an imposter, we should have nothing to do with Him at all. They had to deal with Him since He walked and taught among them, but we don’t. If they were right, Jesus is dead and His body rotted away a long time ago. Get out of here, throw off the shackles put on you by Christian morality and the false claims of Jesus and His followers. Enjoy your life on your terms. Eat, drink, and be as happy as you can be in whatever makes you happy.
But if Jesus was telling the truth and the Jewish leaders were wrong, that changes everything. If Jesus really was and is the Lord of the Sabbath (16, 18), the Son of God (17) and the Son of Man (27), equal with God (17-18), entirely obedient to the Father (19), entirely loved by the Father (20), all-powerful (20), eternal life-giver (21, 24), judge of the whole world (22, 24, 28-29), worthy of all honor (23), sent by God (24), dead-raiser (25), and self-existent (26), then you are right to be here and right to worship Him with all our being. And we are right to keep working our way through John’s Gospel in order that we might find out what Jesus calls us to. And we are right to give ourselves entirely to living entirely in light of all of Jesus’ teaching. And we are right to make this good news known to the very ends of the earth.