Hearing the Powerful Voice of Jesus

Hearing the Powerful Voice of Jesus

John 5:19-30

11/30/14

Jesus Christ will raise you from the dead. That is a certain fact I can say to any person on the planet. Jesus Christ will raise you from the dead.

If Jesus does not return to wrap up history before you die, with absolute certainty, I can say to everyone listening to my voice: Jesus Christ will raise you from the dead.

That is true of every human being who has ever lived in this world.[1] I say this echoing the words of Jesus himself that we will look at this morning in John 5:19-30.

As you turn there in your Bibles, ponder this awesome promise, this glorious truth. Jesus will raise the apostle Paul from the dead. Jesus will raise the apostle John from the dead. Jesus will also raise the apostle Judas Iscariot from the dead. Jesus will raise Lazarus from the dead, in a way far surpassing how he restores his life in John 11. Jesus will raise Pontius Pilate from the dead. Jesus will raise Emperor Nero from the dead. Jesus will raise Adolf Hitler from the dead. Jesus will raise Dietrich Bonhoeffer from the dead. Jesus will raise Saddam Hussein from the dead. Jesus will raise John F. Kennedy from the dead. Jesus will raise Brittany Maynard from the dead.

Think of the loved ones you’ve lost. Jesus will raise them from the dead. Jesus will raise my father-in-law from the dead. Jesus will raise my uncle from the dead. Our passage this morning gives us this hope and so much more.

The question on the table as we open this passage is, “Just who does Jesus think he is?” Or at least that might be how the Jews of his day were putting it. Last week we saw Jesus heal a man on the Sabbath, an act which we would cheer and celebrate, and we would expect that the healed man would be seeking to follow Jesus or at least pouring out gracious words about the man who had healed him. But, instead, we find the healed man ratting Jesus out to the Jewish leaders, blaming Jesus for “making” him break the Sabbath traditions by carrying his mat. The Jewish leaders then begin seeking to kill Jesus for two reasons. Look back at John 5:18: 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. It’s that last phrase—“making himself equal with God”—that Jesus responds to in verses 19-30.

So, with the gauntlet thrown down, with the charges brought against the defendant, Jesus, what does he say for himself? First, he highlights the true nature of his relationship with God. Look at verses 19-20: 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. 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.

For us readers of the Gospel of John, this is not a shocking statement by now. Jesus was introduced in the Prologue of John’s Gospel as, among other things, “the only Son from the Father.”[2] Jesus’s relationship to the Father is unique, a one-of-a-kind relationship that is difficult to describe simply. John opens his Gospel by identifying Jesus as the Word who was God and who was with God at the same time.[3] It boggles the imagination.

But, let’s see if we can understand what Jesus is saying here. The Jewish leaders were accusing him of “making himself equal with God.” What does this mean? Well, it seems in their thinking that they believe Jesus is making himself out to be a second god,[4] elevating himself to be equal in power and authority to the true God, Yahweh, revealed in the Old Testament. But, that’s not what Jesus is doing at all, is it? Instead, Jesus pictures himself as an obedient Son who is apprenticed to his Father in a trade.[5] “The Son can do nothing on his own accord,[6] but only what he sees the Father doing.” Jesus only always ever does exactly what his Father directs him to do, nothing more, nothing less, and nothing else. So, he’s implying that the Father directed him to heal that lame man on the Sabbath day, and only that lame man. You recall that there were multitudes of “blind, lame, and paralyzed” people lying around at the Sheep Gate.[7]

The Jewish leaders believed that Jesus was “making himself equal with God,” that is, an independent rival to the true God.[8] Nothing could be further from the truth![9] Jesus here explains that he acts in total dependence on the Father, as the faithful Son, not in any way against the Father’s wishes or ways.[10] At the end of this passage, in verse 30, Jesus will repeat this point with a slightly different phrase. He says there, “I can do nothing on my own.” Jesus does nothing autonomously,[11] but this is exactly what the Jews are accusing him of, acting on his own authority but claiming that his authority is equal with God’s authority. This is the very sin committed in the garden of Eden by Adam and Eve.[12] Jesus never succumbs to this temptation, and John’s Gospel will repeatedly highlight Jesus’s dependence on and submission to his Father’s will.[13]

Now, before we go on from here, we should probably state clearly that Jesus is indeed equal with the Father. But he doesn’t make himself equal with God, not in the way the Jewish leaders concluded. The apostle Paul actually addresses this very question in Phil. 2:6, where he describes Jesus as the one who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped. That phrase “did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped” means that he didn’t consider his equality with God something that he needed to use for his own advantage, to further his own agenda. He was equal with the Father, but submissive to the Father’s will, the Father’s agenda. He is fully divine and completely human at the same time. But, he was not equal with the Father in the sense that he was a rival to the Father, or in the sense that he was separate from the Father. Rather, he was completely united to the Father. We’re treading the depths here, the depths of God’s triune being!

Jesus goes on and characterizes his relationship with the Father as a love relationship. “The Father loves the Son.” This statement comes up repeatedly in John’s Gospel, but perhaps the most profound statement occurs in John 17:24; Jesus is praying for his disciples, even for us, and he says, Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. Here, Jesus reveals that his love relationship with the Father was an ongoing reality before any created thing existed. So, Jesus is not just claiming that he’s a human that God especially loves. Jesus is claiming that he was the beloved Son of God, the one on whom the Father pours out his eternal affection,[14] before he took on human flesh, before there was such a thing as flesh! Yes, it boggles the imagination, but it’s the kind of imagination-boggling that should drive us to excited worship of our great God.

Back in John 5:20, we see that one way the Father expresses his love for Jesus while he’s in the world is by “showing him all that he himself is doing.” Can you see what God is doing in your life clearly? What about in the Middle East? How about in Congress? We struggle and guess what God might be doing in our lives, but Jesus is here claiming with certainty that he sees what the Father is doing. Not only that, but he claims that the Father “shows him all that he himself is doing.” Everything? Yes, everything. This suggests that it’s not just signs or miracles that Jesus sees the Father doing; rather, everything Jesus does during his life is a reflection of what he sees the Father doing.[15] But, one of the things Jesus saw the Father doing was working on the Sabbath, specifically to bring healing to that lame man, and so Jesus acted.[16] Thus, perhaps we can say the Father was working through the Son to bring healing to that lame man.[17] If so, the Jewish leaders are not just opposing the man Jesus; they’re actually opposing the Lord they believe they’re defending.

As it turns out, healing a man who has been lame for 38 years is nothing; the Father will show the Son even greater things, so that the Jewish leaders will marvel. Now, when I first read that, I thought marveling at Jesus’s works was a good thing. I thought, “It’s a proper response to Jesus to marvel at what he does, to be amazed by his greatness.” But, in John’s Gospel, the word “marvel” occurs six times, and every other time it seems to be a poor response to Jesus. For example, John 7:15 describes the Jews’ response to Jesus’s teaching in the temple like this: The Jews therefore marveled, saying, “How is it that this man has learning, when he has never studied?” Five verses after this, these people who “marveled” will be accusing Jesus of having a demon! So, here in John 5:20, I think Jesus is saying that the Father is going to show him greater works—namely, resurrection and judgment[18]—which will cause these Jewish leaders who are trying to kill him to marvel. These greater works won’t lead them to believe, but will shock them into more aggressively attempting to kill him.

Jesus then moves on in verse 21 to mention the first “greater thing” that the Father will show him: resurrection: For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. If you asked a Jew: “Who is the author of life?” they would answer, “God and God alone.”[19] If you asked a Jew who will raise the dead on the last day, they would answer, “God and God alone.” So, Jesus pushes the envelope, further shocking his Jewish opponents. But, he also says something that they might not have understood at all. The first half of the statement would get all the “Amens” one could wish for; of course, the Father will raise the dead and give them eternal life on Judgment Day. Or, they’d even recall that Elijah and Elisha restored life to a couple of dead children in the Old Testament, but God gets ultimate credit for those. After all, Elijah and Elisha prayed and then life was restored to the two children.[20] But, Jesus adds “so also.” That little phrase is the reason Jesus gets in so much trouble! He talks about God the Father, but then he adds “so also” and says something about himself! Incredible! He’s redefining how to understand God’s identity, suggesting that Father and Son are united together within the one God’s identity.

“So also the Son gives life to whom he will.” Note the present tense verb, “gives life.” Jesus claims that he is giving life, right now, to whomever he chooses. Jesus is no robot; he has a will of his own, but it is perfectly in line with the Father’s will. What kind of life is he speaking of? Well, at one level, we can say he gave life to that lame man.[21] As Pastor Barry pointed out last week, that man didn’t ask for healing, didn’t express any faith in Jesus either before or after he was healed, as far as we can tell. Jesus healed him because he chose to.[22]

But Jesus isn’t just talking about healing here. When he speaks of giving life, he means giving eternal life to whomever he will. And we’ll see in just a few verses that eternal life is actually resurrection life.

But before he develops this idea he mentions the second “greater thing” that the Father will show him: judgment. Look at verses 22-23: The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, 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. If you asked a Jew: “Who executes judgment throughout history and on the last day?” they would answer, “God and God alone.” Jesus directly contradicts that...sort of. He explicitly says, “The Father judges no one,” either during history or on the last day! Shocking! Can’t you imagine the Jewish leaders’ eyes bulging and jaws dropping at this point? How could Jesus even know that this is true? Well, he already said that the Father shows him all that he himself is doing.

But, again, Jesus goes further. He adds that the Father has actually given all judgment—note that phrase—to the Son. Thus, all forms of judgment throughout history[23] and the judgment still to come on the last day was, is, and will be handled by the Son, Jesus.[24] Astonishing claim! But, remember, Jesus already said that the Son can do nothing of his own accord, and that includes executing judgment, so we shouldn’t imagine that the Father isn’t also involved in judgment, in and through his Son. So, when Jesus says that the Father judges no one, he probably means that he judges no one without the Son.[25] Jesus then says that the purpose of the Father giving all judgment to the Son is so that “all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father.” That little phrase “just as” would have buzzed in the ears of his Jewish hearers. To them, Jesus is again “making himself equal with God,” that is, a rival God worthy of the same worship as Yahweh.[26]

Jesus has already mentioned two of the three basic rights that God alone possesses, according to the Old Testament: giving life and executing judgment (and the third is creation).[27] How is a monotheistic Jew supposed to take Jesus’s statements?[28] Now, Jesus goes further and suggests that you can’t rightly honor God unless you honor the Son! This, too, is elaborated by Paul in Phil. 2:9-11; just after referring to Jesus humbling himself and not counting equality with God something to use for his own advantage, Paul writes, Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Honoring Jesus is the only way to honor the Father.[29] How offensive to Jewish ears! How offensive to modern ears!