John 5:1-30
The Authority of Jesus
1 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. [4] 5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”
7 “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”
8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 10 and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”
11 But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”
12 So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?”
13 The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.
14 Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” 15 The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.
16 So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. 17 In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” 18 For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
19 Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed. 21 For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. 22 Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted 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 “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. 25 Very truly I tell you, a time is coming and has now come 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 judge because he is the Son of Man.
28 “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice 29 and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned. 30 By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.
Jesus said to the Jewish leaders who were verbally persecuting Him one day, “My Father is always at His work to this very day, and I too am working.”...For this reason they tried all the more to kill Him; not only was He breaking the Sabbath, but He was even calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God...And He had only broken their Sabbath, because He was helping one who could not walk...
This is interesting to me that Jesus said that God is always working, and He, too, is working...Jesus is revealing to those around Him to us, His work...He also reveals that He is, in fact, equal to God...And He says God is at work, and I really do not know what that means...It may means God is completely in control and controlling all the universe and everything in the universe...But in this moment we can see what Jesus is doing and working on...Jesus had just healed a paralyzed man on the Sabbath...This man had been paralyzed for thirty eight years...Jesus is out there helping and healing and with us...We see that when He heals this crippled man...He is here with this invalid, in the time of His need...And no doubt with this healing He would remain with this man...Could this healing be a part of a Divine Process?...This healed man would always remember Jesus...This healed man would tell others about Him...It is possible this healed man did continued work for Jesus, and talking of Him and his great healing miracle...
I like the question "What would Jesus Do" or "What would He do in the situation I am in?"...We are often reminded, by Jesus actions (like the one here with the crippled man), it is difficult to do what Jesus did and does...That is because Jesus can do all things...Pastor M. Craig Barnes says there might be a better question...Pastor Barnes wrote, “While it is popular to ask, "What would Jesus do?" the better question was always "What is Jesus doing?"...The first question assumes that the Savior is on the sidelines and that the burden of life and work is on our shoulders...But in that case the Savior is not really saving but is setting impossibly high standards that we attempt to imitate by doing what we assume He would do if He were in our situation...On the other hand, the question "What is Jesus doing?" is built on the conviction that He is alive, reigning, and at work in our lives...In other words, He is in our situation, and that changes everything about our mission...Rather than believing that the work of Christ is completed and that now it is our turn to try to imitate His life and work, we take on the identity of being witnesses who watch and testify to His continued work of salvation that is unfolding before our eyes.” ...
So maybe, just maybe, God and Jesus are working through others as they do the other things of the universe that they do...