Relevant Verses: John 5:17, 20, 36–40, 46, 47; 8:12–30
Theme: The Father’s Testimony
Leading Question: Have you ever waited for something important to happen and it felt like a life time?
Healing on Sabbath (John 5)
There were many who were sick—the blind, the lame, and the paralyzed—all aying at the pool gate of Bethesda. The man who was ill for 38 years was singled out. The length of time that the man has been ill, in the context of a human life span in the first century, suggests that he has been sick virtually his entire life. This includes his life-long dependance on others for support on a daily basis. Jesus asks, “Do you want to become well?” The man’s answer speaks to the age-long drama of humanity, “Lord, I have no one!” (John 5:7).
Question: How does the man’s illness reflect the human condition? How does Jesus respond to this condition?
Bethesda is the man’s Loneliness Hospital. “No one comes when I ring the call button,” “no one helps me out of bed;” and this happens inside a well-established health care institution with medical staff all around. For 38 years the man had gone unnoticed, overlooked among the many, all kinds of people stepping over him. “Rise, take your mattress, and walk!” … said Jesus on the Sabbath day. The man walked with his mattress on his back while law-abiding passers-by raised their eyebrows. Later that Sabbath, the man identified the Bethesda physician and offered his name to his interrogators.
For this reason the Jews were persecuting Jesus,
because He was doing these things on the Sabbath.
(John 5:16)
Question: Commentators conclude that the man was not a good fellow, and some even say that this time Jesus healed one who did not deserve it. What do you think about this interpretation?
In answering the challenge regarding his healing on the Sabbath, Jesus speaks of his commissioning by the Father. The Jewish leaders, however, accuse him of “making himself equal to God” (John 5:17-18). Over the rest of the chapter, Jesus explains that all of his authority is derived from the Father. Following closely in ancient tradition, to honor the Son is to honor the Father who sent him, and to dishonor the Son is to dishonor the Father (John 5:23). In this way, the Gospel of John presents Jesus as fulfilling the Torah.
Another tension between Jesus and the Judean leaders over the Father-Son relationship happens when he is accused on John 18:13 of being like the presumptuous prophet spoken of in Deut 18:20. They say, Jesus is testifying about himself and thus disqualifying his validity. In his defense, Jesus offers a multiplicity of witnesses: the Father, the Spirit, his words and works, and the words spoken by Moses and the Scriptrues. The witnesses should attest that his Father sent him.
And the Father who sent Me, He has testified of Me.
You have neither heard His voice at any time nor seen His form.
You do not have His word abiding in you, for you do not believe Him whom He sent.
You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life;
it is these that testify about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life.
I do not receive glory from men; but I know you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves.
I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me;
if another comes in his own name, you will receive him.
How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another
and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God?
Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father;
the one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have set your hope.
For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me.
But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?
(John 5:37–47)
Question: What is the occasion, the setting, and the time when Jesus speaks these words? How does considering the context help to make better sense of what Jesus says?
Question: In what way is the reference to Moses crucial to understanding Jesus as the incarnate Son of the Father?
John and Judaism
The presentation of “the Jews” in the Gospel of John has been one of the most problematic in the history of biblical interpretation, especially when it is combined with Matthew’s presentation of the crowd in Jerusalem crying out to Pilate, “His blood be on us and on our children!” (Matt 27:25). This has emerged within Christianity as theological anti-Semitism and has contributed to the tragic suffering of Jewish people in the Christian world. However, it is important to note three things:
- Both gospels, Matthew and John, are written by Jewish authors advocating a Jewish Messiah to largely Jewish audiences living in Jewish communities and practicing Jewish beliefs and behaviors in times of fellowship and of conflict.
- The particular Greek term Ioudaioi, used in the Gospel of John, which is mostly translated as “Jews,” should be rendered more accurately as “Judeans.” The inadequacy of simplistically translating “the Jews” instead of “the Judeans” is quite obvious when one considers that everyone in the narrative is Jewish except for the Romans and the Greeks. Everyone is Jewish including the disciples, their families, the Galileans, and the Judeans. They all are also Semites, which includes the Samaritans (who according to John 4 come to believe in Jesus). Therefore, to think of Jewish people in general as the enemy of Jesus of Nazareth is then a thorough misreading of the Gospel of John. Nonetheless, this has taken place in the long history of Christian interpretation of John’s Gospel.
- The most troubling text is John 8:44: “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father.” This verse has a sad history of horrible anti-Semitic sentiments and actions. Therefore, it is important to carefully read this verse in the context of John 8:31-59, with an explicit awareness of John’s strong rhetoric and appeal similar in language to the prophet Hosea and the wider prophetic notion of the lawsuit of the Lord against Israel. For further study on this specific text and topic, I recommend the following three articles:
- Steven Motyer, “Is John’s Gospel Anti-Semitic?” (New Testament Lecturer, London School of Theology; https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/themelios/article/is-johns-gospel-anti-semitic/)
- Adele Reinhartz, “Children of the Devil”: John 8:44 and Its Early Reception (https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110671773-004/html?lang=en)
- Kathleen Gallagher Elkins, “The Jews as “Children of the Devil” (John 8:44) in Nazi Children’s Literature” (https://brill.com/view/journals/bi/31/3/article-p374_006.xml)
