5:9b-18 Equal with God

February 24, 2021

Read John 5:9b-18

A common result of the signs is hostility from the Jewish leaders, not faith. This dispute over the Sabbath which followed the healing of the lame man provides another link with the important dialogue that follows (5:19-47). As this miracle took place on the Sabbath (9), the man who had been healed (10) and especially Jesus (16) were both held to be guilty of Sabbath-breaking. These Jews were interested only in the letter of the law, not in the man being made well, and the meaning of the healing as a sign about Jesus never occurred to them.

Jesus often healed on the Sabbath (16; Matt.12:1-14). He argued that it cannot be wrong “to do good on the Sabbath” (Matt.12:12), and his statement here that God “is always at his work” makes a similar point (17). The Jews would not have been offended by that, for they recognised that God gives birth and sustains life on the Sabbath. Rather, the offence came from the further claim of Jesus to be “Lord of the Sabbath” (Matt.12:8). Here in John, that authority is seen to be because of the relationship of Jesus with the Father.

The Jews called God “our Father” but Jesus referred to him as “My Father” (17). It was his claim that God is “his own Father” (18) and that the work he was doing was the work of God himself that so horrified the Jews. To them this was blasphemy, for “he was making himself equal with God” (18). Though John has already told us of the Father-Son relationship (1:14,18; 3:35) and Jesus had referred to it (2:16; 4:21-23), this is the first time it is openly declared. The dialogue that follows develops this theme of the authority of the Son, not merely to heal but to give eternal life (5:25-26).