A Question of Law (witness number nine) ...

The conflict was to be escalated.  Our story continues in the Gospel of John chapter 5.  The religious leaders of the day had determined that a man healed of a crippling disease that was so intense he was unable to move a few feet into a pool of water on his own, had been “ordered” to carry his bed on Sabbath.  This crime was bad enough, but now they had found the Man who did the “ordering”, and determined He must be killed for His offense.  This is the ultimate definition of conservative fundamentalism; those who would espouse contrary beliefs must be killed because they do not agree with the group thinking.  The religious leaders never so much as paused to determine if the act of carrying a bed on Sabbath was indeed a breakage of the law.  A re-evaluation of their understanding of scripture, never so much as entered their heads.  The law is the law after all.  The interpretation however was decided by committee and the results were to be made edict.  Lost in the entire process; the defiance of physics in the miraculous healing of the man, and the love that cared more about healing, than “when” that healing took place.  Even a miracle was not enough to jolt the stubborn mob into re-thinking its position, instead the miracle acted as a catalyst to inspire them to murder.

A verbal debate on the law, the Jewish leadership felt confident they would win.  They had won for many years, and this is why their collective opinions had never been overturned.  If anything they had simply gotten more and more conservative in their interpretation of laws as the years progressed.  This is the natural course of events when the study of law is absent from the love that inspires it.  When one focuses only on actions and not on motives, an interesting cadre of possibilities is presented.  Loopholes emerge.  Fine print becomes important.  A question of law must be thoroughly vetted and a detailed interpretation agreed upon, much like a contract.  However, love is not something so easily and fully defined.  Love is hard to pen on paper, and make a contract out of.  Love seems to always exceed our understanding, and employ concepts that are counter intuitive to our best interests, such as forgiveness, and patience in the face of hate.  How does one interpret motive, and define it, if it is truly based in love?  Laws about actions are easier to proscribe, than a recipe for how to love another.  And so the law had been separated from the love behind it, and actions were all that mattered now.

A miracle in the face of our “facts” was an event that could not be ignored.  A verbal debate might be won as it was historically.  But a defiance of all the known laws of physics and science is not something easily dismissed.  It undoes perceptions.  It redefines realities.  It causes atheists to scramble, and mistaken religious zealots to either pause and re-evaluate, or as in this case, to harden their positions and seek to kill the opposition.  Truly these were a stiff necked people.  And truly so are we.  We harden our resolve never to re-evaluate our core doctrines, no matter what circumstances we encounter.  As such we block out the Holy Spirit from teaching us, as we focus all our energies on “teaching” others in His name.  Not even miracles, give us pause.  We simply find a way to explain the miraculous as either affirming our positions, or being merely coincidence if it disagrees.  Seems as though nothing has changed in the approach of religious leaders from ancient times to now.  But the conflict was to get worse.

Christ answers them in verse 17 and says … “But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.”  Ouch.  Jesus had said a mouthful.  First, and this point was completely lost on them, this act of love was not the independent will of Jesus in sympathy for the man, it was an act of love done by the will of the Father.  Second, this “work” was not truly work, it was “love” in action.  When God rested on the seventh-day at creation, the animals he had made did not immediately expire from lack of breath.  The plants did not stop growing.  Gravity was not suspended.  Food did not disappear.  The universe kept spinning as it always had.  Love was not the thing God rested from.  And in making the Sabbath holy He was blessing us, by setting aside His time to spend it with us for one day every week in a special way, a way He outlined.  The intent was to free us from our normal distractions and give us time to spend with Him, the source of all love.  Jesus reaching out to this man on Sabbath begins with addressing his most pressing need, a physical restoration.  Love does not consider a healing from pain the “work” that must be delayed on Sabbath.  The salvation of man does not take a day off.  The restorative work of God on the human heart needs no time out on Sabbath, if anything it needs an acceleration on that day.  We appreciate God all the more, when He frees us from the slavery of self, and offers us some dedicated special time with Him.

In effect, Jesus was saying that the Father Himself, was redefining their interpretation of what “work” was, and what He did in heaven and on earth.  Love was not something God needed rest from, it was something He was and is and would always be.  Love incarnate.  In this instance, Jesus was telling these men, they were wrong, and they were not only arguing with Him, they were literally going to argue with God the Father on this one.  Those words should have been the end of the debate.  And they should have caused those who claimed to worship the Father, to take a step back, apologize, and rejoice in the love the Father wished only to show them.  But it did not.

Verse 18 chronicles their very human, and very stubborn response … “Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.”  Their thinking and their perspective point about their interpretation of the law did not so much as flinch.  They were still certain Jesus had broken the Sabbath, despite only performing an act of love.  Now they saw His reference of the Father as a further crime of Blasphemy, and it only enraged them further.  This is the hallmark of the thinking of Satan.  Reason is abandoned for passion, and steeped in the pride of arrogance.  The Jews were wrong, and they would gladly kill Christ for pointing that out.  The miracle still stood as something beyond their version of “truth”.  Had this been only words, they might have been able to ignore His truth, but when it was bundled with something else they could not explain, they reduced this debate to one of ego, and they were not willing to sacrifice their pride in the study of the law, to the soft-spoken truth of love in action.

Jesus however, does not attempt to dispute this further accusation of blasphemy, he continues his focus on redefining what “work” actually means.  In verse 19 he responds … “Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.”  It was common in the culture of the day, that whatever skills and trades the father did in a family, the sons would learn and inherit.  All throughout nature, parent animals teach their young how to find food, build shelter, and care for their young.  A Jewish son would in all likelihood continue the occupation of his father as there was little opportunity to find something else.  At a minimum he would have been educated in his youth of the trades of his father.  This is the truism Jesus references.  In this He further states, this is what I have been taught by my Father.  My Father’s occupation is acts of love, it is what He has taught me.  Acts of love in the mind of God, is not considered work that transgresses the law.  In this Jesus is again stating their argument over their position on the law is in direct conflict with God the Father.  Love is not work, it is a state of being.

In verse 20, Jesus raises the stakes … “For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel.”  Now to address the reason for their extreme emotional response, the thing they could not ignore; the miracle.  Guess what, there are greater things than this that you will witness and marvel at.  Here was Jesus saying, this was not a single act of love for you to soon forget, and write off as some sort of weird anomaly or coincidence.  There is going to be even greater miracles, that will be even harder to dispute, and you are going to marvel at them more than you marvel at this.  In effect, your inability to explain away the miracle associated with this act of love is about to get compounded in scope and frequency.  This was unwelcome news, as it implies a supernatural power is behind the acts of Christ, and they may be arguing against something larger than humanity on this one.  This is not going to be just another typical verbal debate; this one comes with proof of the divine position on the question of law.

Now recognizing that they are debating something greater than humanity, if one is determined to hold to ones position on the law, then the natural conclusion is that Jesus must be acting on behalf of some evil power, not from God.  But before they can hold on to this conclusion (in spite of all the facts to the contrary), Jesus trumps this idea by offering them a power the devil does not have, in verse 20 He continues … “For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will.”  Lest you think Satan is behind the miracles I do, the ability to raise the dead is something only God could do, and so only the Son can do it as well.  Again following the understanding of Jewish culture of the day, Jesus is saying I have learned what my Father taught me.  And this time He is clearly articulating that only God could do the act of bringing back the dead.

How poignant a lesson for us; here is Jesus saying to us … only God can bring back the dead.  Do you realize that in embracing the pain of sin, you have embraced the death that sin brings?  Only God can bring back the dead, only God can restore the life He intended for you, from the death you have embraced.  And what is more, only Jesus can save you from this death you have chosen.  Without the redemptive, restorative, creative power of God, you would be doomed to your slavery to self, to pain, and to the death you would one day crave as the only escape from such a tortured existence.  God alone can bring you back from this death.  God alone can, not only restore your body, but He can restore your life to one of freedom to love others, not bound to only think of self.  This truth has never been more relevant, and more needed than in our hearts and lives and motives.

In verse 22 and 23 Jesus now outlines the true mission of the Messiah … “For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son: [verse 23] That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him.”  The work of judgment has been reserved to Christ.  Christ had been sent into the world by His Father to redeem, to restore, to bring life.  Jesus is saying in verse 20, God alone can bring back the dead, and in these verses, I am here to do just that from a spiritual perspective.  The work of the Messiah is not the work of a man.  It is the work of God the Father, in sending His only Son to this world.  Honoring the Father CANNOT happen if honor is not also given to the Son He sent.  There is no bypassing Jesus or the Messiah in the act of judgment.  The judge interprets the law.  The judge has the final say.  The judge overrules the opinions of the lawyers, and makes the final determination.  If this is a question of law, then you are talking to the lawgiver, and the judge.  Judgment on whether acts of love are work on the Sabbath is something Jesus will decide, as God has given Him this role.  The Messiah is more than man, He is God, the Son of God.

What is more, salvation CANNOT occur bypassing Jesus and attempting to appeal directly to the Father.  This is a team effort.  And if we refuse to acknowledge the way of our salvation, we are refusing the gift of the Father as well as the gift of His Son.  God is saying to the world, this is “how” you will be saved, through my Son.  Through the ultimate definition of the law in action, look at the life of Christ, look at how far love will go to save and redeem, this is my method for your redemption.  Jesus is the living embodiment of the law, and when questions of interpretation arise, look to Christ.  Christ is the judge of what the law means, and how it is to be interpreted.  His life is that definition.  The words God gave on the top of Mount Sinai, now have a living example to model after.  The meaning of the law now has a living witness, and a living judge.  Whatever you thought you knew about the law, measure those interpretations against the life of Christ; for Christ is the standard by which we can measure the love that inspires the law.

Verse 24 summarizes the entirety of the gospel … “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.”  Jesus plainly states this is how you avoid condemnation and pass from death unto life, is belief that God sent Christ to save you.  Notice, Jesus does not say you are saved by your strict adherence to the law.  He does not say you are saved by the doctrines you believe and by your interpretations of scripture, and understanding of prophecy, and the time you spend in reading and prayer.  You are saved not by the accumulation of your spiritual efforts, but by your belief in something outside of yourself.  You are saved by your belief that Christ can and will save you from yourself.  Christ is not throwing away the Sabbath, or the law, He is instead offering you a way to see clearly what it means, and how to truly “keep” it.  Christ is not throwing away His book, or His word, He is instead telling you that your wisdom in these matters requires further instruction.  You are to be the student, not the teacher.  You are to learn from Christ, not teach Him what your truth is.  Your salvation comes to you as a gift of God, something outside of yourself.  All of your accumulated truth is meaningless outside of submission to Jesus Christ.  All of your attempts to obey are fruitless outside of Jesus Christ.  You are saved first, then you can finally begin to learn what obedience means, and why motives matter.

In verse 25 Jesus continues … “Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.”  In this Jesus is speaking both literally and spiritually.  Those who accept Jesus are transformed from death unto life.  And Jesus has the power to reach into the grave and cause the dead to hear Him and respond.  Lazarus would soon be a literal example of power of restorative creative love.  But thousands more who heard the sermons of Christ would become living examples of this transformation.  The 12 who were with Him now, would become men to reap the harvest and help change the world.  Millions would pass from death unto life by hearing and believing the words of Christ, if only through the written account of John in his gospel.

Jesus continues in verse 26 and 27 … “For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; [verse 27] And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man.”  Here is Jesus plainly stating God is author of all life.  Life is within God.  Life is also within Christ.  Not life that was placed there, but life that was authored there.  God is the source of life.  Christ is the source of life.  Our restoration is possible because Christ restores life to us.  And the life Christ brings to us is everlasting as He is everlasting.  We will be made to live forever because Christ lives forever.  We are not immortal now.  There is no inherent immortality in us.  Life was placed into us, it did not originate in us.  It originates in God, and as such only God can give it as a gift.  Here is Jesus saying judgment is reserved to Him because He is both God, and by choice, man.  God has become man in order to save that which was lost. 

The act of redemption requires no rest on the Sabbath.  This is the living example of the life of Christ, who is the judge on this matter.  The Sabbath has not been broken, it has been affirmed.  This is the ruling of the Judge, both in heaven and in earth.  The Sabbath is all about companionship with God, time with God, time reserved that is special for man and God.  Nothing Christ has done in his act of love to the man who was diseased for 38 years, was considered “work”, it was considered restoration based in love.  Despite the man’s response which was known before it was committed, despite the act of betrayal of Christ to those bent on killing Him, it did not deter the love of the Father or the Son for this sick man.  No matter how we respond to the love of God, it does not deter God from loving us.  Though we hate Him, He still loves us.  Though we betray Him unto death, He still loves us, and seeks our redemption.  This is the power of love.

Now Jesus looks forward to the end of the work of the Messiah, in verses 28 and 29 He continues … “Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, [verse 29] And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.”  Even at the end of the earth, even at the end of all things, it is still the voice of Christ who ALL the dead can hear.  It is still the voice of Christ that can call that which is dead and lost back from the graves they have ALL gone down into.  Notice this does not imply that disembodied souls are floating around somewhere, powered by themselves, that are now compelled to return to their reanimated bodies.  This states the dead who were ALL resting in their graves are restored by the power of Christ at the end of all things, whether righteous, or wicked, dead is dead.  And only Christ can restore what is dead.

The condition and eternal destiny of the dead is not determined by their actions, but it is revealed by them.  Motives inspire action.  Those who have done good, are those who through submission have been freed of themselves, and have learned to love as God loves.  God within them, inspires them to do good.  God in control of their will, their desires, and their actions leads them to do good, from a desire to do good.  Those who refused the gift of God, who instead trusted to their own ideas, their own will power, their own actions, do what is predictable, that which is in their own best interests.  Inevitably this leads to doing evil.  The reasons behind the actions matter.  Doing what is perceived as a “good” action, for a selfish reason, can hardly be classified as truly “good”.  The recipient of this action may benefit, but the one who does it, does not benefit.  Good must come from a restoration within us.  This is not natural to us, and can only happen when it is God who restores us from death unto life, as we submit our entire lives into His control.  This is what determines our destiny, and is revealed by the transformation that takes place within us while we yet live.  What we do, is then a result of our salvation from ourselves, or a revelation that we have refused to let this occur.

In verse 30, Jesus tries again to illustrate that the will of God to save us, is not something just He does, but something His Father is also keenly interested in … “I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.”  Father and Son equally engaged in the effort to redeem mankind.  Nothing Jesus is to do in this world is a one-sided affair; it is the will of His Father.  The miracles that Jesus is to perform are not from the power of His humanity, but from the will of His Father.  Though divine, Christ submits His own life to the will of His Father, as we must also do, if we are to be saved.  Even though He was perfect Christ still submitted His own will to God the Father.  He did not trust to Himself, but to His Father.  Even in this Christ shows us the example of how to live and find salvation from ourselves.

In verses 31 through 38 Christ then moves the conversation to the witnesses that He is speaking the truth.  He first says that it is John the Baptist who for a while they were happy to believe that testified of Christ.  It was only then, that this group of religious leaders lost interest in the message of John.  Interestingly enough while John’s message was to repent, a rather fundamentalist concept, the religious leaders were OK with him.  When he then testified of Jesus, they lost interest.  How reminiscent of modern Christianity, very interested in discussing sin and publicly condemning behavior with which we do not agree.  But when it comes to surrendering to Christ, the message goes eerily quiet.  Christ continues then, His argument that it is the Father in heaven that testifies to the truth of His words, through the divine miracles He performs.  This is the truth they did not want to hear, and the one for which there was no other answer, than that they were wrong.  And so they chose to disregard it anyway.

In verse 38 Jesus offers a stinging criticism.  The study of the law is not the same as the embracing of the law.  The study of scripture is not the same as the embracing of scripture.  Had the leadership embraced the law they would have by extent embraced the love that stood behind the law.  Had they placed their focus on motive over actions, they would have recognized the healing of the man to be an occasion of great joy, great love, and great rejoicing.  Love had renewed a life.  Those who had the word of God within them, would know this.  But as Jesus said to them … “ye have not his word abiding in you: for whom he hath sent, him ye believe not.”  In the rejection of Christ, was bound the rejection of the testimonies that pointed to Christ, and the Father who sent Him.  You cannot have the word of God abiding within you, and then reject the words and message and life that is represented in Christ.  It is not the law that saves; it is the love behind the law.  It is only the Lawgiver who saves.

In verses 39 and 40 Christ undoes the foundation of their religious thinking.  He likewise undoes the basis for every Christian denomination on planet earth.  Jesus says … “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. [verse 40] And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.”  The Jews had gotten so hung up on studying the scripture that they thought that act alone would offer them eternal life.  Christianity likewise today, gets so hung up on the differences in doctrine from the examination of scripture we hold to, that we believe these distinctions alone are what save us, or doom us for eternity.  We are both wrong.  We are all wrong.  The scriptures testify of Jesus Christ as our one salvation.  We ALL need to surrender to the one Lord alone.  Jew, Christian alike, are wrong that it is the study of scripture that saves.  It is only in coming to Christ that we are saved.  We may have memorized the entire Bible word for word, but if we have not embraced the point of the testimony, if we have yet to come to Christ, we are as lost as we ever were before we opened the book.  Salvation comes from Christ, not from study, not from the perceived distinctions that separate modern Christians.  Salvation comes from Christ.  Only in Christ can truth or unity ever be discovered.  Only will love ever heal the pain and differences we have allowed to take precedence over the love that emanates from the heart of God.

The words of verse 40 still haunt my ears … “But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you.”  He was speaking to the those who thought they had the truth.  He was speaking to a nation who had dedicated itself to the keeping of the law, to the preservation of the prophets, to a worship system that Christ had setup all those years ago in the desert.  And despite all this blessing, and all this truth, and all this scripture, they STILL did not have the love of God within them.  Could it be those same haunting words are equally applied to me in the church pew in which I find myself?  Could it be that modern Christianity despite having yet another Testament of Christ, the gospels of John and His contemporaries, that we would STILL not have the love of God within us?  This prospect is terrifying and predictable.  If we have refused to surrender, even with all the accumulated knowledge of our age; if we still prefer to trust our own wisdom instead of surrendering it to Christ, we stand with the mob that day bent on taking the life of God.  There is no difference between us.

In verse 43 and 44 Jesus goes on to point out the absurdity of ignoring the divine stamp of approval on the life of Christ and miracles He performs, with a preference to have one man testify of another.  Christ tells this group that they argue against the Ruler of the Universe, instead preferring human wisdom, human honor, human approval.  This is not a question of law that has been raised.  This has become a question of ego.  These folks do not want to submit to the idea that they could be wrong about what they believe.  It is not the law that is wrong, it is the interpretation they have devised that is in error.  It is not the words Moses penned on paper that were in error.  It is the focus on humanity and human judgment and the refusal to submit to God, that has resulted in the errors associated with the keeping of the law.  It has resulted in blinding them to the joy of a healing, and instead a focus on the fact that it was done on the Sabbath.  This is the crazy, that develops when human wisdom is preferred to the divine.

Christ concludes His dissertation by referring them back to the author they most revere.  In verse 45 He says … “Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. [verse 46] For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me. [verse 47] But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?”  Here Jesus plainly says, all of scripture, including the writings of Moses testify of Christ.  If they have missed this, they have missed the point entirely.  If Moses testifies of Jesus, and though they say the follow Moses, they still deny Jesus, they are not likely to accept the words of Christ as proof.  But in this their problem is compounded.  If Moses truly condemns them for their lack of belief, is there any hope left to them?  They have made a career, and a life, out of the study of the law.  Now Jesus tells them, they have missed the point entirely, and the patriarch they so revere is condemning them for their choice to trust in their own wisdom.

Many years ago when Moses died before entering the Promised Land he was buried in secret by God.  But apparently the devil found his body, and contended for it.  So God called Moses out of the grave and had taken him into heaven.  Perhaps the devil was looking for his body, to attempt to use it to cause the people to believe a lie.  Who knows?  But the Jews did believe that Moses had been taken to heaven.  So the idea that Moses might be in heaven actually accusing them to God the Father, was literally un-nerving.  At this idea, their animosity and intent to kill Christ was quelled for the moment.  This idea took them back, caused them to pause and re-group.  At this point, Jesus had told them He was the Messiah, the Son of God, the judge and final arbiter of what it means to obey the law, and now that Moses testified of His divinity.  A question of law had evolved into the larger question of salvation in general.  For now, whether the man carried his bed or not did not matter.  For now, whether Jesus had blasphemed did not matter.  For now what mattered was to consider the words of Christ and just make sure Moses was not on His team.

And so Christ was able to withdraw from this confrontation, and travel away from Jerusalem once again.  This had been the first time in His ministry, when Jesus so clearly had told the people and leaders who He was, and what the mission of the Messiah was.  Though judge, He was not here to judge, but to redeem.  Though God, He would daily submit His own will to the will of the Father.  His teachings focused on motives, and demonstrated love in action, not just in theory, or in words.  He was there to restore life.  He was here to bring the dead back to life, those who had died spiritually were to be awakened through the power of His words.  Nothing, not even death, could separate us from the love of God, both Father and Son. 

I do not know if the man who had been healed heard this discourse.  I do not know if he ever later read the encounter John would record.  I can only imagine that if he did, he would have been covered in the shame of his betrayal of God to a mob bent on killing Him.  I can only imagine he would have been SO sorry that he clung to his traditional ideas about the law, instead of embracing the love Christ was offering to him.  But in the same way, as I examine my own life, I see all the times I clung to my own ideas about scripture and the law, trusting to my own wisdom instead of submitting it to the only God who would save me.  I see all the times when I thought to conquer sin on my own, instead of abandoning this work to Christ who alone is capable of doing it for me.  And I too share the shame of the healed man.  I hope we both learned from our mistakes, and going forward, were neither of us ashamed to surrender fully to Jesus Christ each day forever more.  For in this is salvation, even for one who betrayed Him, like the healed man, and like me.