Author: Jeff Englund

John 5: 22

” Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son…” 

In this verse, Jesus is defending himself against the persecution of the Jewish leaders. Verse 18 says Jesus ticked them off by making himself equal with God. Apparently making himself equal with God wasn’t enough. Jesus had to go and take his case one step farther.

The power of God is found not only in his ability to create and sustain creation but also in the threat of judgment.  Continue reading “Thinking About Jesus”

John 5: 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.”

This verse makes my head spin! “For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life…” is quite a statement to make. In Jesus’ day, there were an important group of Jewish leaders called the Sadducees. They did not believe in the resurrection of the dead either because they believed that God could not or would not do such a thing. They had access to all of the same scriptures that the Pharisees and others had, but they chose to believe differently. In this one simple statement, Jesus puts aside any doubt on the matter. The Father raises the dead and gives them life. (Jesus will go on to demonstrate this truth more than once!) Then Jesus equates himself to God again by saying he, too, gives life to whom he is pleased to give it.

This second statement is even more powerful. Jesus offers to give life to the living. Here it helps to look back to Genesis 3 and re-examine the difference between being physically dead and spiritually dead. Adam brought us to a state of spiritual death by eating from the forbidden tree. Jesus offers to give us life again, the life that Adam gave up when he was in the Garden of Eden.  Continue reading “Game Changer”

John 5: 19-20

 “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. 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.’”

Having insulted the Jewish leaders by healing a man on the Sabbath and then adding insult to injury by causing him to carry his mat on the Sabbath, Jesus is openly persecuted by the Jewish leaders. John doesn’t quote them verbatim, rather he quotes Jesus saying God always works implying that God works on the Sabbath, too. The persecution of Jesus must have taken the form of angry words from the Jewish leaders. Jesus begins his response to them with today’s passage.  Continue reading “Copy Cat”

John 5: 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.”

Remember way back at the beginning of chapter 4 where Jesus leaves Judea and goes back to Galilee? John doesn’t say it, but he hints that the reason Jesus left Judea was because of the Pharisees. Now we learn that “Jewish leaders” are trying “all the more” to kill Jesus which suggests that the idea of killing Jesus wasn’t new to them.  Continue reading “Man Made”

John 5: 17

” In his defense Jesus said to them, ‘My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.’ ”

I don’t know about you, but as far as I’m concerned, I never think of God as “working.” Maybe that is because I have a warped view of work? After all, as humans we live under a curse: Continue reading “Work”

John 5: 16

“So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him.”

If you have been wondering why Jesus chose to heal this particular seemingly ungrateful man, so have I. In this verse, John shows us the result of Jesus’ actions.

In mystery stories the detective often has to deduce the motive from the result of the action. For example, one fictional detective was confronted with three seemingly unrelated murders. Continue reading “Motive”

John 5: 14-15

“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.’ The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.”

We learn a lot from these two verses about the man Jesus chose to heal. We already know that there is no record of him saying, “Thank you!” or even acknowledging that he had been healed except that he got up and picked up his mat and walked.  Continue reading “Gratitude”

John 5: 9b-13

‘”The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 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.’

But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ 

So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?’

The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.”

 

Some stories of Jesus healing people are about Jesus. Others are about the people who are healed and whether or not they are grateful for what has been given to them. The story we just read about the royal official was about a man and his family coming to faith in Jesus. This story is different.  Continue reading “Obedience”

John 5: 8-9a

‘”Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.’  At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.”

Having asked the invalid “Do you want to get well?” and having received a rambling semi-excuse for an answer, Jesus says simply, “Get up!” In doing so, Jesus demonstrates the awesome power of his holy nature, because the man does just that; he gets up!  Continue reading “Simplicity”

John 5: 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.'”

In this interesting scene, Jesus walks into a covered colonnade area where sick people gather, and picks one person out of the crowd who has been suffering for 38 years. He asks him, “Do you want to get well?” At face value, this would seem to be a “Yes” or “No” question. Continue reading “Hearing vs Listening”