Who Is Jesus? (John 5:31-47)

“Because Jesus was doing these things…” begins the next pericope of chapter four and it effectively links what follows to the story that have preceded it.  What things is John referring?  The healing of the invalid at the pool was the story that was done on the Sabbath.  Jesus’ question still rings in our ears…“Do you want to be made well?”  Healing did not come about by the invalid’s own efforts or through other human effort.  It only came about through the healing presence of Jesus Christ.  

But there is a problem.  Jesus healed the man on the Sabbath which incensed the Jewish leaders.  Now if we think about it for a minute, the man had been an invalid for thirty eight years and came daily to the temple waiting his chance to get into the pool.  So why did Jesus heal him on the Sabbath?  He could have just as easily came back the next day after the Sabbath and healed him.  What was Jesus trying to say with his actions?  If we think about the purpose of Sabbath, it was a day that was set aside to rest fulfilling the purpose of the Sabbath.  But the Jewish leaders just saw Jesus breaking the rules and usurping their authority.  Because they were the one who decided what was acceptable work on the Sabbath and what was not.   But the Law was given by God to constitute a peculiar community of faith that was marked by their love of God and love of neighbor.  The Law was interested in creating a whole community that was centered upon the presence of God in their midst; exactly what Jesus was doing.  

Because of the challenge of the Jewish leaders’ authority and referring to God as his father, Jesus is indicted and what continues for the rest of the chapter is a trial motif in which Jesus testifies about himself.  He answers the question, “Who is Jesus?”  And it seems that each pronouncement is followed by a required action.  Jesus as the Christ necessitates a human judgment about Jesus’ claim.  And it is quite apparent that each one of us is going to be judged by our own judgments about Jesus.  

But Jesus goes on in his own defense citing the testimony of others as to his claims.  The first is John the Baptist.  The work that Jesus is doing testifies to the authenticity of his claims as well.  But since Jesus is testifying to Jewish leaders, his final testimony that he puts forth is their very own scripture. He states emphatically that Moses wrote about him.

It is important for John that the readers of his Gospel have a strong Christological understanding of Jesus.  Since the first verse of the first chapter John has been unfolding his theological understanding.  And it is import to John because it is in our understanding of Jesus that we really come to know ourselves and our purpose in life.  If our Christology is erroneous so will our understanding of ourselves. So who is Jesus?  Your very existence depends upon your answer.