Every fifty years or so we pat ourselves on the back for being more enlightened than our grandfathers. Regardless, we always seem to be living in a time when speaking words of truth can provoke people into fits of rage. I’ve seen it in YouTube clips. A man or woman hears something they don’t like in a debate forum, and they throw toddler-age tantrums.
Jesus offended crowds this way in John chapter 5: “This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.” (v. 18).
One thing we’d do if critics called us out in the heat of such a moment: backpedal. Fast.
Qualify. Deny you meant it that way. Deny you even said it.
I’ve seen plenty of people, though, who don’t back down. Instead, they double down and make the situation much worse.
But when Jesus doubled down, He turned a dark moment into something beautiful.
He granted angry folks a thorough self-revelation concerning His relationship with the Father. At first, it seemed to confirm their worst suspicions—He did indeed claim equality with God. Yet before anyone could interpret this equality as independence (polytheism), Jesus affirmed His submissive posture and utter oneness with the Father.
“So Jesus said to them, “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 the Father does, that the Son does likewise” (John 5:19)
Having framed His discourse this way, He plunged into the depths of profound mystery, describing what equality with the Father looked like:
Equal in operational awareness: “The Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing (v. 20).
Equal In the giving of eternal life: “For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will” (v. 21).
Equal in judgment: “For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son” (v. 22).
Equal in honor: “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” (v. 23).
And as the remarkable window closes, Jesus bookends it with the strong truth He had begun with:
“I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me” (v. 30).
The crowd’s hostile intentions had led to the Son’s gracious self-revelation. Later, their murderous hate would lead to the cross and the salvation of the world.
If such malignity moved Him to open these doors, think where loving Him and obeying Him could lead.
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This is an updated edition of a post originally published on John Myer
Featured Image by Nitish Meena on Unsplash
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