By Pater Inutilis

St. John, as we know, is very much interested in presenting us the “Life” that is Christ, that by accepting Him, and thus by believing in Him, we may ourselves have “life.” This will be true even of corporal life, the sin of the world having been taken away, and so also its consequences, including death; but it is all the more true of spiritual life. There is the question of both in this chapter.

 

St. Thomas remarks that it is the custom of this Gospel to always attach the teaching of Christ to some sensible sign related to the teaching, and “thus to make known things invisible from things visible.” Our Lord’s present teachings on life, therefore, follow His miracle of repairing life by healing one sick and unable to walk now for 38 years. This takes place in Jerusalem by the pool of Bethsaida—an ancient “Lourdes” where an angel of God from time to time moved the waters and healed him who first went into them. (A most fitting gospel for the feast of St. Raphael, the Healer of God). There must have been quite a throng always gathered around the pool, indeed “a great multitude.” Jesus approaches one who could not get himself into the water and says: “Arise, take up thy bed, and walk.” What strikes us is Jesus’ goodness and power—and humility too, for the man does not know that it is Jesus and He had quietly gone aside from the multitude. This He did, for these miracles are for His teaching, but the crowds risk being carried away by their enthusiasm, as will shortly be evident. But what struck the Jews was that this miracle took place on the Sabbath. By “Jews,” St. John commonly means Pharisees, scribes, priests; and the others, his compatriots, who did not become disciples of Our Lord.

The Jews are fettered and blinded by the letter of the Law, missing completely its spirit. This is a tragedy: “The letter killeth, but the spirit quickeneth,” which Christ tries again and again to avert. This He did by often working miracles on the Sabbath and then explaining Himself. A miracle is a divine work, hardly what we would call an unnecessary servile work! It is God who is at work—and the one who performs it is doing so with God’s power and favor: “My Father worketh until now; and I work.” He had already tried explaining that “positive law” suffers exceptions for a greater good or out of necessity; indeed, even his accusers so acted for their profit, and, performing these miracles in His own name, surely they should conclude divine power is His—“the Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” Our Lord will defend this miracle on the same grounds again in John 7:21-23. Their attack here in John 5, though, is no longer strictly just against a miracle having been worked on the Sabbath, but against Our Lord having told the one healed to take up his bed and walk. Now this is “servile work,” but positive law yields before a greater good: the miracle is magnified by one so infirm now able not only to walk but also to carry burdens; and an occasion is provided for Our Lord’s teaching on His divinity and “Life.” Therefore, “My Father worketh until now’’ refers rather to God’s daily preservation and governing of the world; “and I work” means Jesus is claiming equal power in giving, preserving and restoring life. This, at least, the Jews did not misunderstand: they “sought the more to kill Him,” because He did not only break the sabbath, but also said God was His Father, making Himself equal to God. Advisedly Jesus said: “My Father,” for He is Son in a unique sense.

 

God is One. This the Jews knew from God. How now to teach that He is also Three? Our Lord will indeed instruct as to His divinity, but he will also emphasize that He has all from the Father; and He will too use metaphorical language more accommodated to His hearers. The Son is from the Father, but does all the Father does, and as He does. So, as the Father has life in Himself, so does the Son; as the Father gives life, so does the Son; as all honor the Father, so must they the Son. The Son “seeing” the Father, or the Father “showing” the Son, or the Son “hearing,” means that the Son is the “Word,” the “Image” of God. The Arians could not understand this and saw in John 5:19 only a profession of inferiority of the Son with respect to the Father. But “the Son cannot do anything of Himself” because He is one God with the Father and Both do all divine works in creation. “What He seeth the Father doing” is metaphorical: as the Son is from the Father in “being,” so is He in “doing”—but to be generated of the Father and be His only begotten Son in no way denotes inferiority where they have the same divine nature. “What things soever He doth, these the Son also doth in like manner.” The Father acts as a God; so does the Son. They will indeed be co-principle of all Their works, even unto the spiration of the Holy Ghost, of which a manifestation is His being sent by Each.

Judgment, though, following the resurrection on the last day, will be the work of God incarnate and this ‘’because He is the Son of man”; for, to see God in Himself would be the beatific vision, or heaven, from which some will be excluded.

Christ has been giving testimony of Himself—insufficient to stand up in court according to His hearers—though superabundantly sufficient for those who accept His divinity. For the Jews’ sake, Our Lord brings forth further testimonies: even that of St. John Baptist, but especially that of the Father, and this by the miracles Jesus works and by the Scriptures that speak of Him. The Jews reject the testimony of the scriptures and even the most evident one of miracles in their presence. Such blindness comes from hardheartedness—“I know you, that you have not the love of God in you.” It is inexcusable, and the cause of their condemnation.

For our own part, may we want to know and love our God, and to receive the life He wants to give us. One thing we can do is heed Our Lord’s exhortation to “Search the Scriptures” because, yes, they do speak of Him. We are more blessed here than the Jews of old, for we also have the New Testament, the full light that is Christ, and not just foreshadowings. We have in particular the testimony of the disciple whom Jesus loved whose testimony is true; rightly may we think to have in these writings “life everlasting.” May the “Spirit of truth” teach us all truth and bring to our minds, too, whatsoever the Son of God has said to us.