A FOOL WE SEE
It was a time of festivities as Jesus and His disciples went up to Jerusalem. There was a pool in Jerusalem where sick people would go to be healed. In certain seasons an angel of the Lord would stir up the waters and whoever would enter the pool would be healed. There was a man by the pool who had been there for many years and was unable to enter the pool because of his affliction. Jesus knew this and when He saw the man He asked, “Would you like to get well?” John 5:6. He said yes and he was healed instantly. The local Jews, however, were quite perturbed with Jesus because He healed on the Sabbath.
When Jesus entered the Temple, He was recognized by the man He had just healed. The Pharisees wanted to know who would do such a thing on the Sabbath, so the man told them it was Jesus. They began persecuting Jesus and His reply was that His Father was working through Him which infuriated them even more; now He is saying that God was His Father. John 5:17 says, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working.” Of course the Jews, whose hearts were closed, would not accept this fact.
Jesus continued and tried to convince them that he was the Son of God. He told them, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son does.” See John 5:19. They still refused to believe Him. He told them that anyone who believed in Him would not come under judgment and would have eternal life; John 5:24 which says, “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.” Believers, because they are not to be judged, escape the wrath of God because they have eternal life as a result of their belief.
Jesus continues His discourse by telling them that the Father has Given Him the authority to judge, because He is the Son of God; “And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.” John5:27. He told them not to be so surprised at His words; “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice.” John5:28. He tells them that He can do nothing on His own initiative, but rather that of the Father. He reminded them that John vouched for His identity and even the Father is His witness. He explains His motivation in talking to them is that His hope is that they would listen and would be saved.
Jesus really lowered the boom on the crowd when He accused them of not knowing the true God and their refusal to believe in Him as the Son of God; John 5:37, “And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent.” He further challenges them by reminding them that they diligently search the Scriptures, which tell of Jesus the Messiah, and they still refused to believe; “You diligently study the Scriptures…” John5:39. He continually accuses them of not knowing God or even having the love of God in them. He then challenges their position by informing them they more readily accept a stranger and not accept the true Son of God. Jesus tells them why He doesn’t have to tell the Father of their disbelief, because Moses has and is the accuser in their very own Scripture. They read and do not understand what it is they are reading because of the hardness of their heart. His final blow to them was that if they don’t believe Moses, then how on earth could they ever believe Him. “But since you do not believe what he (Moses) wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?” John 5:47.
Meaning: The first nine verses demonstrate the love and compassion Jesus has for those who believe in Him. When one has faith, there is nothing that God wouldn’t do for that person. It isn’t so much the power of the miracle itself as it is the power of the faith in God that produces miracles. With enough faith we are able to ‘see’ or ‘know’ the mind of God, in that we can begin to get a glimpse of His love and willingness to want to bless us more and more. It is so easy to understand that God is love, if for no other reason then by His miracles and willingness to suffer for us even to the point of death.
Verses 10-18 teach of the ignorance of, and the closed mindedness of people. To accuse Jesus of committing an offense against God because He healed someone on the Sabbath is real ignorance. Throughout this entire chapter we see man at his deepest ignorance and faithlessness. What can one think of a person who would want to unmercifully torture and kill another person simply because he is doing good?
Verses 19-47 demonstrate how man’s ignorance is surpassed by his stupidity. Actually Jesus’ discourse fell on deaf ears because these people, as Jesus said, ‘refuse to believe in the one and only true God’. This is the God their very ‘own’ Moses in their Scriptures talks about. A hardened heart is just about the hardest thing on earth to crack open.
Verse 24 needs to be highlighted in that believers do have eternal life at the moment they accept Jesus as their personal Savior and they will not be judged because they are no longer under the Curse (death), but have life.
John 5 reminds me of man’s foolishness. ‘A fool does not believe in God’ ( Psalm 14:1). Once I determine a person’s heart is hardened, I know that all I can do for that person is to pray that God will have mercy on him. And I rest in the knowledge that God will have mercy if and when they believe that they are lost because of sin and need to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. As Jesus told His disciples when He commissioned them to go out into the world, ‘when a town doesn’t accept you, shake the dust from your feet and leave it’, (paraphrase for Mark 6:11).
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