John 5:16-18 - A time to work

5:16

The Jewish leaders were only focused on the “breaking of the Sabbath”, totally ignoring the miraculous healing. The things that Jesus “was doing” are the healing itself and telling the man to carry his mat and walk. Under the man made rules for the Sabbath you weren’t allowed to carry something “from one domain to another domain”. The nature of the persecution at this point is not made known, but we know where it ended up.

5:17

Jesus gave them an answer that was guaranteed to get Him into more trouble. “My Father is always at work to this very day, and I too am working”. There are two important aspects to this statement: one is the relationship between Jesus and God, and the other is the nature of the Sabbath. Jesus is calling God His Father, and is claiming a unique relationship with Him. Then in saying “I too am working” He is comparing Himself directly with the Father. So Jesus is very clearly saying that He is equal with the Father, that He is God.  In fact, it is a feature of John’s gospel that the relationship between Jesus and the Father is made most clear.

The Jews would not have used the term “My Father”, though they might have said “Our Father”. My Father indicated an intimacy that they felt was not right to claim, and indeed it would have been misleading for them to claim it, for they did not have that intimacy. Jesus could speak of that intimacy.

Now consider the “My Father is at work”. In Genesis 2:1,2 it says that God had completed His work and rested from His labours. So what are we to make of this phrase here? Pawson says that in the first six days God worked for Himself, and is now working for us. So He rested from working for Himself. Must admit I am not convinced by that argument. Rather I think it is a warning against taking things over literally. For what it is worth, I fall more into the old earth creationist/intelligent design camp in terms of my views on creation. Some young earth creationists argue that unless we take the days in Genesis 1 as 24 hour days we are somehow not taking the Bible seriously. I think this sort of thinking is without foundation.

So what are we to make of the fact that Jesus is working on the Sabbath? Well there are two key lessons. One is that the Sabbath is a day for healing and setting people free. The other, and the one brought out in this exchange, is that Jesus is God so He can do what He likes!

5:18

Verse 18 just makes it plain that it was a combination of the Sabbath issue and making Himself equal with God that was the reason for the Jews seeking to kill Him. In fact it says, “all the more to kill Him”. They were never keen on Jesus. Why was this? Jesus was good, and He did good. Those were the very reasons why they hated Him. His goodness exposed their sinfulness. In fact anyone who encounters Jesus will have their own sinfulness exposed. At that point we have a choice. We can seek to resist Jesus, or to run away from Him, as the religious leaders did. To do so is futile. Or we can humble ourselves and repent before the Lord. If we do that then we receive forgiveness and restoration.