My Father Is Working

The man by the pool has just stood up after thirty-eight years. John adds one detail, and the whole chapter turns on it: that day was a Sabbath (John 5:9).

John 5:10-13 — A miracle, and a mat

The religious authorities see the man walking with his bedroll under his arm. They tell him it is the Sabbath and that it is not lawful for him to carry his mat (John 5:10). They do not ask how a man who could not walk is now walking. They see only the mat.

God’s law did set the Sabbath apart, and it did forbid work and burden-bearing on that day (Exodus 20:8-11) (Jeremiah 17:21-22). But the rule that a healed man may not carry his own bedroll home was their application, not Moses’ command. Jesus never broke the law of God. He broke the fences men had built around it (Mark 2:27, 7:8).

The man answers that the one who made him well told him to pick it up and walk (John 5:11). That is a reasonable answer. The one with power to heal him has authority to tell him what to do next. They ask him who that man is (John 5:12). He does not know. Jesus had slipped away into the crowd (John 5:13).

Look at the irony. The leaders want the name of the man who told someone to carry a mat. They do not want the name of the man who made the lame walk. Religion without a new heart will always care more about the rule than about the glory of God displayed in front of it (Matthew 23:23-24).

John 5:14 — Something worse

Later Jesus finds the man in the temple (John 5:14). Again, Jesus does the finding. The man did not go searching for his healer. The healer came searching for him.

Jesus tells him he has been made well, and warns him to stop sinning so that nothing worse happens to him (John 5:14).

Two cautions keep this verse from being misread. First, Jesus does not say this man’s illness was a punishment for a particular sin. In another chapter He flatly denies that about a man born blind (John 9:2-3). Second, He does say there is something worse than thirty-eight years on a mat. A healed body headed for judgment is no rescue at all (Matthew 10:28) (Hebrews 9:27). Jesus cares about the man’s legs. He cares more about his soul.

John 5:15-16 — The report

The man goes away and tells the authorities that it was Jesus who made him well (John 5:15). John does not tell you why. He may have been naive, or afraid, or simply obeying a question from men he respected. Do not supply a motive the text does not give.

What John does tell you is the result. This is why the authorities began persecuting Jesus, because He was doing these things on the Sabbath (John 5:16). The verb points to an ongoing campaign, not a single incident.

John 5:17 — The Father has not stopped

Jesus’ answer to them is short, and it is staggering. He says His Father has been at work up to this very day, and He is at work too (John 5:17).

On the seventh day God rested from creating (Genesis 2:2-3). But He has never rested from upholding, governing, and giving life. Every Sabbath since creation, babies have been born, the sun has risen, rain has fallen, and the heart in every Pharisee’s chest has kept beating because God kept it beating (Psalm 104:27-30) (Acts 17:25, 28). Providence takes no day off. No rabbi ever accused God of breaking the Sabbath by holding the universe together.

Jesus claims the same exemption for the same reason. What the Father does, the Son does (John 5:19). He does not speak of God as the Father of everyone in the room. He claims God as His own Father, and He sets His own work on the same level as the Father’s unceasing work. The Son upholds all things by the word of His power (Hebrews 1:3) (Colossians 1:17). Healing a man on the Sabbath is not a violation of the day. It is the Lord of the Sabbath doing what God has always done on it (Matthew 12:8).

John 5:18 — They understood Him

The authorities did not miss the point. John says this is why they were seeking all the more to kill Him: not only was He breaking the Sabbath in their eyes, but He was also calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God (John 5:18).

That is John’s verdict, not just their accusation. The very next verses confirm it. The Son does whatever the Father does, receives all judgment, and must be honored just as the Father is honored (John 5:19, 22-23). Jesus does not back away from their charge. He deepens it.

This matters, because men today try to make Jesus a good teacher who never claimed to be God. His enemies knew better. They heard Him plainly enough to want Him dead for it (John 8:58-59, 10:30-33). Either He is God the Son, or He is a blasphemer. There is no third chair at that table.

And notice that even their hatred serves God’s plan. The plot that starts here does not overturn the Father’s purpose. It carries it toward the cross, where wicked hands would do exactly what God’s hand had already determined (Acts 2:23, 4:27-28).