v.16-18
There is the event, and then there is both the interpretation of it and reaction to it. Sometimes these are one and the same. As we begin in verse sixteen the Jewish leaders were mad because he was healing on the Sabbath and persecuted him. Jesus just responds, my Father is working and so am I. The Jewish leaders now wanted to kill Jesus, not just for breaking the Sabbath, but calling God his own Father, made them equal with God. I would not argue that if we thought any man on earth believed they were equal with God, the might be a little out there, perhaps today we might not be willing to kill them. The difference is Jesus’ claims were true.
- 19-23
Jesus continues to justify himself with the point that He is doing what He sees the Father doing, and the Father and Son do the same things. At this point we may want to tell Jesus he is getting himself into more trouble, the Jewish leaders knew he was making himself equal with God, and this explanation is only going to make them angrier. Jesus says it is the Father’s love for the Son that he shows him all he does. Oh, and by the way you haven’t seen anything yet. The Father and Son both raise dead and give life (foreshadowing to Lazarus’ and Jesus’ being raised). In verse 22 Jesus states that it is not God who judges, but has entrusted that to Jesus. To honor Jesus is to honor his Father, because he sent him. It is an additional dig that Jesus is saying it is not God that will judge you but me.
The Bowtie Pastor 