Life through the Son

Reading: John 5.1-30
People can become very concerned about their rights - and sometimes it seems to be at the expense of their responsibilities. It isn't very often it happens the other way around!

In recent times there has been both an affirmation of basic rights as well as a questioning of rights. A few years ago the papers carried the issue of the right to march on the streets of Brisbane. Protesters would march without permits and get themselves arrested. There was little question that people needed to be able to dissent from prevailing political philosophy. The question was whether they should have the right to disrupt the whole life of the city in doing so. At what points do minorities have to respect the rights of majorities? These are complicated questions that aren't finally resolved yet. And there are a whole collection of current issues that could be used to illustrate this.

People may still be asked to show a permit, to produce a letter of introduction or to carry an ID card. If you try to wander around inside Parliament House, you will find yourself quickly asked what your business is there!

In Jesus' day the Jewish officials kept a close eye on any unusual people or activity that might be going on. Jesus came under their close scrutiny. Who does he think he is? By what authority does he do these things?

The Lame Man is Healed

Today we are in Jerusalem at the Pool of Bethzatha - or Bethesda or Bethsaida. There is a bit of uncertainty about its name but not about its identity. Archaeology has unearthed and identified twin pools with five porches, now known as St Anne's.

Crowds of sick people are there waiting for the bubbling of a spring. They took this to mean that an angel was there stirring the water and that the first one in would be healed. But the pool is deep and has no shallow end. So the sick were very dependent on having a helper to put them in the pool and get them out again.

Here Jesus finds a man who has been ill for thirty-eight years. How long he has been at the pool we aren't told.

Jesus asks him, "Do you want to get well?" The man doesn't reply to that question. He just doesn't have a helper.

"Get up, pick up your mat and walk!" And the man is healed.

Jesus disappears into the crowd and the Jewish officials come on the scene. It is the Sabbath day and here is someone carrying his sleeping mat. That is against the Law! The man indicates that "the man who made me well told me to pick up my mat and walk." He doesn't know the name of this man.

We don't know what he manages to do with his mat, but he makes his way to the Temple - presumably to give thanks to God for his healing. Here he meets Jesus who says, "Listen, you are well now; so stop sinning or something worse may happen to you." In chapter 9 Jesus repudiates the idea that disasters like blindnes are inevitably caused by sin. But he does not say that they are never caused by sin. On this occasion he seems to be implying that the man's sin has brought about this infirmity.

Perhaps because of his ignorance of the current issues surrounding Jesus or perhaps from a desire to "get himself off the hook", the man tells the Jewish authorities that it was Jesus who had healed him. This becomes part of their reason for opposing Jesus - he does things like this on the Sabbath.

Jesus replies, "My Father is always working, and I too much work." This inflames his opponents even more. It implies a claim to be equal with God. They cannot conceive it as being true - it must therefore be blasphemy!

The Authority of the Son

For the moment Jesus has shown his ID, but it doesn't have their signature on it so they automatically reject it!

It was not just the question of the power by which he heals the sick. Who is this Jesus? By what authority does he claim to break the Sabbath law? The answer - the Father's authority!

Jesus gives a beautiful picture of the total harmony that has always existed between the Persons of the Godhead. There is always mutual love, never contrary action. The Son does nothing on his own. He only does what he sees his Father doing. What the Father does, the Son also does.

Just as the Father is himself the source of life, in the same way he has made his Son to be the source of life and everyone who hears his words and believes in the one who sent him has eternal life. Because God's Son is also the Son of Man, the Father has given him the right to judge. And there will be a judgment - but the one who believes in him will not be judged, for he has already passed from death to life.

Witnesses to Jesus

So what is this ID? Whose signature may we see? What witnesses are there to his identity and authority? Jesus refers to three particular witnesses, since they will not just take his word for it.

The first of these is John the Baptist. "John was like a lamp, burning and shining, and you were willing for a while to enjoy his light." But John was not the Light that God was sending into the world. He said that he was just preparing the way for someone greater. And at the time when he baptised Jesus, he gave his testimony that this was the one he had been preparing them for - the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

The second witness is "the deeds my Father gave me to do - these speak on my behalf and show that the Father has sent me." We have already mentioned that the miracles of Jesus are called in John's Gospel "signs". They were pointers to the identity of Jesus. They were witnesses.

But the third witness is the Father himself. They had not heard the heavenly voice of testimony by the Jordan River - it was probably only heard by Jesus and by John. But there was another reason for this - for all their religiosity, they sought no close relationship with God at all, they don't keep his message in their hearts.

"You study the Scriptures, because you think that in them you will find eternal life. And these very Scriptures speak about me! Yet you are not willing to come to me in order to have life" (vv.39-40).


(c) Peter J. Blackburn, Buderim Uniting Church, 20 February 1994
Except where otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from the Good News Bible, (c) American Bible Society, 1992.

Back to Sermons