What is reflected in the First Reading (Isaiah 49:8-15), the post-exilic new Jerusalem in the year of jubilee. This is a reflection of the Messianic fulfillment and how God restore, recover, and renew what we have broken and lost because of our persistent sinfulness. This is also a testimony of God’s grace of loving kindness (chesed) , which endures forever, as reflected in Psalm 136. It is a triumph of God’s grace over our sins.
Reading Isaiah 49:8-15 together with John 5:17-30
today, we come to understand and appreciate God’s forever enduring loving
kindness assures us of eternal life through His Son, Jesus Christ, as our
resurrection is real.
Jesus was accused for making a man with immobility
due to his illness of nearly 40 years, as described in yesterday’s Gospel
Reading (John 5:1-16). Jesus was accused because he worked on Sabbath day and
made the man, whom he worked on with healing, work. The accuser considered that
healing is a work that violates the Sabbath commandment and that carrying an
object is also a work that violates the Sabbath.
The work of healing that Jesus performed on the paralytic
man is the third sign of Jesus (John 5:1-9) , following the second sign of
healing the royal official’s son (John 4:46-54) and the first sign of turning
water into wine (John 2:1-11), pointing to his redemptive work on the week of
his passion (Holy Week)(John 12:12-19:42). After this, Jesus made four more
signs (John 6:1-15;6:16-21;9:1-41;11:1-44) before entering his passion to die on the
Cross to consummate his redemptive work. From the Cross to the empty tomb, Jesus
himself has become the powerful sign of the God’s redemptive work, which is
beautifully reflected in today’s First Reading (Isaiah 49:8-15), as well as,
yesterday’s First Reading (Ezekiel 47:1-9, 12) and Monday’s (Isaiah 65:17-21).
As today’s Gospel Reading tells, those who persecuted
Jesus failed to the healing work of Jesus for the paralytic man (John 5:1-9) as
a powerful sign leading to the redemption as prophesized in the First Readings
of this Monday, Tuesday, and today (Isaiah 65:17-21; Ezekiel 47:1-9, 12; Isaiah
49:8-15). Instead, they accused Jesus for violating the Sabbath commandment
(Exodus 20:8-11)(John 5:16) and for blasphemy (John 5:18).
What a shame to persecute the Messiah to condemn!
In response to the accusation of violating the Sabbath commandment, Jesus said:
My
Father is at work until now, so I am at work (John 5:17).
In fact, this is a Christological identification of
Jesus in the context of Trinity – though the Holy Spirit is not mentioned until
John 14:16 in the Trinitarian context. Jesus works even on Sabbath because of
his unique relationship with the Father, who created the universe. And this
unique relationship of Jesus with the Father in regard to his work is addressed
in John 10:22-39. The bottom line of the reason for Jesus to work on Sabbath is
his hypostatic union with the Father – being consubstantial with Him (John
10:30, 38). That is why Jesus said on another occasion of being accused for
breaking the Sabbath commandment:
The
Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. That is why the Son of Man
is lord even of the Sabbath (Mark 2:27-28).
God commanded the Sabbath is to be a day of rest for
people but not for Himself. It is to benefit the wellbeing of His people. But,
the fact that Jesus worked on Sabbath means he is divine as he is one with the
Father. And, God’s work goes beyond the Creation. Ever since Adam and Eve sinned
for trying to gain a means to become like God, God’s has been working
constantly to redeem the lost humans from the domain of sins (Genesis 3:1-24).
And, the redemptive work of God’s enduring salvific loving-kind grace (Psalm
136) is shared by the Son, Jesus. And, for the sake of redemption, God works
even on Sabbath. It is because we have sinned against God for generations and
brought so many damages to our relationship with God and God’s Creation. For
Him to redeem those who lost to sins and to restore and renew what have been
damaged and broken by our sins, God need to work even on Sabbath. This reminds
how much God loves. And, this is the very reason, He has sent the Son to us
(John 3:16)!
But, his explanation for working on Sabbath as God’s
work in John 5:17 brought him another accusation: blasphemy, as the accusers of
Jesus interpreted the explanation that Jesus was equating himself to God (John
5:18).
This is, indeed, a cynical irony, because Adam and
Eve were evicted from Eden because they attempted to equate themselves with God
by eating a forbidden fruit – trying to be like God (Genesis 3:5) and their
descendants were scattered in confusion by trying to be like another god by
building the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:3-11). The accuser put Jesus in the
same line of accusation of Adam and Eve, as well as, their offspring, who built
the Tower of Babel.
So, how did Jesus responded to the accusation of
blasphemy?
In these words:
Amen, amen, I say to you, a son cannot do
anything on his own, but only what he sees his father doing; for what he does,
his son will do also.
For
the Father loves his Son and shows him everything that he himself does, and he
will show him greater works than these, so that you may be amazed.
For
just as the Father raises the dead and gives life, so also does the Son give life
to whomever he wishes.
Nor
does the Father judge anyone, but he has given all judgment to his Son, so that
all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the
Son does not honor the Father who sent him.
Amen,
amen, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes in the one who sent me
has eternal life and will not come to condemnation, but has passed from death
to life.
Amen,
amen, I say to you, the hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear
the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.
For
just as the Father has life in himself, so also he gave to his Son the possession
of life in himself.
And
he gave him power to exercise judgment, because he is the Son of Man.
Do
not be amazed at this, because the hour is coming in which all who are in the
tombs will hear his voices and will come out, those who have done good deeds to
the resurrection of life, but those who have done wicked deeds to the resurrection
of condemnation.
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 5:19-30
With the above words, Jesus makes it clear to his
accusers that he is here and does what he does, even on Sabbath, because he was
sent by the Father to do His work. And it is the work leads to redemption,
which is envisioned in the First Reading (Isaiah 49:8-15). Jesus emphasizes
that his work is not on his own and out of his own will but of the Father. And,
he also makes it clear that he was given the authority by the Father to judge.
This is why he is going to raise the dead to judge, who are to be raised to
life and who are to be raised to condemnation, based on their deeds, reflecting
Matthew 25:31-46.
Have we come to know Jesus more Christologically? Do
you see the signs that Jesus has performed lead to what is envisioned in the
First Readings of this Monday, Tuesday, and today (Isaiah 65:17-21; Ezekiel
47:1-9, 12; Isaiah 49:8-15), restoration and renewal through the redemptive
works of the Messiah, sent by the Father?
Remember, our Lenten journey is nearing its end, as
we will enter the Holy Week (Passion Week) next week. We must know Jesus, whose
way we journey by now.
So, how did his accusers take these words of Jesus?
We will see in tomorrow’s Gospel Reading (John 5:31-47), see if they were
listening to Jesus.
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