The chapter begins with a miraculous healing in Jerusalem by the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus was in Jerusalem for an unspecified feast and the location of the healing was the pool at the ‘sheep gate’ in Bethesda. A sick man, an invalid, incapacitated for some 38 years was the object of Jesus’ attention. Jesus asked him whether he wished to be healed but his reply was that there was no one to bring him to be first in the water of the pool to be healed. Apparently there was the belief that when the water was stirred, the first one to go into the water would be healed of his ailment. Jesus simply told him to take up his bed and walk and he did. This is the third sign, pointing to who Jesus really is.
However, it was a healing on a Sabbath and the Jews believed that taking out anything from one place to another was prohibited on a Sabbath day. The man who was healed was told that he was violating the Sabbath but he just replied that he was told to carry his bed by the one who healed him. Later, Jesus encountered him again and warned him to sin no more lest something worse would happen to him. The man went and informed the Jews that it was Jesus who healed him. John attributes the rise of official persecution against Jesus to HIs doing ‘such things’ on the Sabbath.
Jesus’ explanation of His action was even more offensive than the healing on the Sabbath. First, Jesus calls God “my Father”, denoting an intimacy of relationship unparalleled in Judaism. Jesus claims to work as the Father does. Because of the intimate relationship with the Father and their joint work, Jesus claims to be able to work on the Sabbath as God does. The healing in fact is evidence that God has healed and worked through Jesus. The claim of co-labouring with God on the holy day of rest is what the Jews considered to be blasphemous.
From verse 19, the discourse defending the Sabbath healing is the most focused discussion of the unity between the Father and the Son and it also points out clearly who Jesus really is in relation to God. There are basically three parts in the discourse:- an articulation of the unity (vs 19-24), the authority bestowed on the Son over life and judgement (vs 25-30), and the witnesses for Jesus (vs 31-47).
In discussing HIs unity with the Father, Jesus affirms His sonship as One who does nothing out of HIs own accord or initiative. Whatever the Father does, the Son does. Thus the two form an inseparable unit in their activity and exercise of authority. This unity is however grounded in a love relationship between the Father and the Son.
What the Father does is raise the dead and give life – this is one of the great and unique powers of God, with its roots seen in many instances in the Old Testament accounts (Deut. 32:39;1 Sam. 2:6; 2 Kings 5:7; Isa. 26:19; Dan.12:2). Jesus now argues that this unique authority also is in the hands of the Son. The Father has given all judgements into the Son’s hands, just as the Father has willed that honour be shared equally between the Father and the Son. The two are so united that failure to honour the Son is in fact failure to honour the Father. To believe that the Son shares this authority over life and to embrace it is to have eternal life. It is to pass from death to life and to no longer be subject to judgement. All these must be startling to Jewish ears. Life is something that Jesus offers not just in the future but even now.
Jesus turns to the issue of witnesses. He begins by stating that if He only bore witness to Himself, then such testimony would be considered untrue. What is required are witnesses beyond Himself; the Jews themselves would only accept a testimony to be true if there are at least two witnesses. However, in the case of Jesus, He has a list of witnesses which makes the case for His claims. The one fundamental witness, the key witness, who stands behind all the witnesses that Jesus will mention is the Father whose testimony is true (vs 32). The first witness mentioned by Jesus is John the Baptist. John was a ‘shining lamp’ that points to Jesus as the Messiah and the lamb of God. John’s witness acts as a catalyst to prompt his own disciples to follow Jesus.
The second witness is the testimony of the Father through his works. When Jesus acts, God speaks – no one can do what Jesus does without the support of the Father. Jesus’ miracles point to who He really is.
The third witness is the Scripture – it bears witness to Jesus and so in refusing to come to Jesus, the Jews refuse to enter into life; it would also mean that they refuse to believe the Scripture’s witness. Jesus pointed out that not seeking the glory of God but instead seeking glory from one another is an approach that will never embrace God’s way and God’s messenger.
It is Moses who wrote of Jesus in Genesis and Deuteronomy; so to believe Moses is to believe in Jesus – Moses is therefore the fourth witness. Failure to believe Moses leads to failure to believe Jesus and His teachings. Moses is the one in whom the Jews hope and look up to – yet Moses himself testified of the coming of the Messiah, a ‘prophet’ like himself who would lead God’s people to the truth.
All the four witnesses point to the truth that one should believe in the unique sent one in order to have life.