Gospel of John, Chapter 5 (Healing of the Paralytic)
As I read this chapter, I feel like we reach a turning point, where we go from learning about Jesus Christ to actually meeting the man. Chapter 1 is a very beautiful, but largely abstract introduction. In chapter 2, we see the very mystical wedding at Cana. Chapter 3, we see his discussion with Nicodemus. There we see hints of who Jesus is, but there's a large focus on the inscrutibility of the Spirit of God. Chapter 4, Jesus tells the woman at the well that he is the Christ, come to fulfill all of the prophecies. But here, we actually meet the man and see him in action.
Today, Jesus heals the paralytic on a Sabbath. Like the woman at the well, this paralytic can't even ask the right questions. When Jesus asks if he wants to be well, the man doesn't say yes or take that as an invitation to ask for a healing. Instead, he tells Jesus that he has no one to help him get to the healing water. Nevertheless, Jesus heals the man simply by commanding him to rise and take up his mat. This is reminiscent of the creation story, when God called the world into being, and it was done.
We learn that everything Jesus does is in imitation of his Father. "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of His own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever he does, that the Son does likewise." (John 5:19) And what has Jesus learned from his Father? He has been given Judgment and the power to give Life (John 5:21-22). "The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father." And just as the Father honors and loves his Son, Jesus Christ reciprocates. "I cannot do anything on my own; I judge as I hear, and my judgment is just, because I do not seek my own will, but the will of the one who sent me." (John 5:30)
So, Jesus shares in the Life of the Father. Jesus does His Father's will, honors the Father, and is honored by the Father. They love each other. They share in the act of Creation. Jesus has been handed Judgment, but his Judgment is always in conformity with the will of the Father. So, we might ask, who's really in charge here? It's an imponderable. They are so closely united, that you can't see where one ends and the other begins. It's just a mystery.
So, this is stuff that most of us learned in Sunday schoo, but I don't think we appreciate how radical this is. To the non-believing Jews, Jesus isn't just a liar. He's a heretic who's attacking everything they hold most sacred. This chapter says that, because He claimed to be the Son of God, "the Jews sought all the more to kill Him." Jesus challenges them by redefining their relationship to God. At the end of the chapter, he also redefines their relationship to Moses. If the Pharisees are going to discredit Jesus as the Son of the God of Jacob, their best chance would be to catch him somehow violating the law of Moses (and they try to do in Chapter 8). The Mosaic Law is the heart of Jewish teaching and theology, but Jesus strikes at this pillar of their authority by declaring that they will be accused by Moses (John 5:45).
This shows one more thing that we can see in Jesus Christ and God the Father. They love to delegate. As we've seen, the Father hands authority to his Son. And they give honor and authority to John the Baptist (John 5:35) and Moses. Not only that, but God delegates authority to us. He gives us the chose of whether or not we will accept eternal life. We couldn't have called ourselves into being. God had to do that. So, do we really deserve to be given a choice of whether or not we will have eternal Life? Absolutely not. This is a testament to God's infinite humility and infinite love for us that gives us this momentous choice.
God has nothing to be humble about, and yet He is humble. We have done nothing to deserve his love, and yet he loves us. By being able to choose Him or reject Him, we can even share in His judgment of us. This isn't a distant sky god, or impersonal spirit. We see in Jesus, especially here in chapter 5, someone who is very alive, and whose very personality is a constant challenge to us and how we live our lives.