" My Father is at work until now, so I am at work" – Jn 5:17-30
We read yesterday about the healing of the paralytic at the Pool of Bethesda. Well, the Lord Jesus did it on the Sabbath, which caused the indignation of His opponents. The Lord Jesus uses this situation to reveal to us the secret of his divine filiation. "My Father is at work until now, so I am at work" - replies to the arguments why he healed on the Sabbath. This is an evident reference to the description of the work of creation, to the six days of God's work on this work. The Lord Jesus clearly suggests that the work of creation is still in progress, that the day of God's rest has not yet come. We can guess that God's rest will take place on the everlasting Eternal Day when God rests with all of his saved.
" My Father is at work until now, so I am at work " - the Lord Jesus says about himself that he is a co-worker of God's creative work. It is about the same truth that is written elsewhere in the New Testament, either in the formula that everything happened through the Word who is God, or in the formula from the Letter to the Colossians that " For in him were created all things in heaven and on earth,(…) the visible and the invisible, He is before all things, and in him all things hold together". (cf. Col 1:16-17).
Hearing the Lord Jesus' claim that He is a collaborator with God's creative work, the listeners understood very well that in this way Jesus was equal to God. They understood Him well but took it as blasphemy. The Lord Jesus, however, does not opposed, but teaches even more clearly about his unity and equality with the Eternal Father. He came to us as the perfect image of his Eternal Father: " the Son cannot do anything on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing". The Father who loves Him wants Him to do all the works of God's omnipotence, even raising and reviving the dead, even carrying out the final judgment.
Moreover, the Lord Jesus says that honoring Him is a condition of true worship for the Eternal Father: " 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.”
And only this Jesus is real, Jesus in the Gospel. Not just a prophet, or some genius sage and reformer. The true Jesus is the Son of God, through whom the world was created, all in love with his Eternal Father; The One who is our Life and Resurrection, who on the Last Day will be the Judge of all people and angels.
Until Tomorrow
fr. george