II Pascha Wednesday – John 5: 17-24
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The Lord said to the Jews, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God. Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel. For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son: That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
One will notice that the readings from St. John during this period do not follow the course of the Gospel in strict order. Yesterday, for example, we read from chapter three. Today we read from chapter five. One reason for this apparent discontinuity is that the accounts of certain significant events, such as the healing of the paralytic, which we shall celebrate on the Fourth Sunday of Pascha, are reserved for the Sundays of the Pentecostarion, and therefore the words of Christ that He spoke after these events, in order to explain their meaning, are sometimes proclaimed in the weekday Gospel readings before we read the accounts of the events themselves.
Today we read the Lord’s response to the corrupt and blind leaders of the Old Testament Church, who condemn Him for healing the paralyzed man at the Sheep’s Pool on the Sabbath. As usual, He sets them straight, but they are not listening.
St. Theophylact comments thus on the words of Our Lord in verse seventeen, “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work”:
The Jews condemn Christ for working the miracle on the Sabbath. But He Who is equal in honor to the Father and shares the same divine authority, replies, “God my Father works on the the Sabbath and you do not condemn Him; neither should you fault Me.” How can he say that the “Father worketh hitherto,” when Moses says that God “ceased on the seventh day from all His works”? Look at the world and study the works of His providence: the rising and the setting of the sun; the sea, the springs, the rivers, and all living things. You will see the creation energizing its own elements, or rather, being energized and moved by the ineffable Word of providence. No on can doubt that divine providence imparts energy to that which is its own – even on the Sabbath. Therefore, since the Father works and governs the creation on the Sabbath, it is reasonable that “I, His son should also work,” says Christ. – Explanation of the Holy Gospel According to John
In many passages of the Fourth Gospel, the Lord clearly proclaims His divinity. He does so here in verse seventeen by asserting that He is the Word and Wisdom of God Who directs all things by the divine providence. Contrary to the myth of deism, which claims that the Creator wound up the creation like a clock, set it to work by its own logic and energy, and then abandoned it, we know that God is at every moment directing His creation by His wisdom and energizing it by the power of His divine energies upholding and activating the created potential of each created thing. As St. Theophylact teaches by his explanation here, God rested on the seventh day from the initial work of creation, but He continues to work in order to care for that which He created. When the Lord Jesus justifies His work of healing the paralyzed man on the Sabbath by equating it to the Father’s providential activity in the world, which operates at all times, including the Sabbath, He is claiming to be equal to the Father.
As the Word Who reveals all that the Father is, Our Incarnate Lord also reveals the Father’s judgment of our own lives: He “…hath committed all judgment unto the Son (verse 22).” St. Ambrose encourages us by pointing out that this is evidence of God’s great mercy and desire to save us:
But if there is fear that the judge may be too harsh, think about who your judge is. For the Father has given every judgment to Christ. Can Christ condemn you when He redeemed you from death and offered Himself on your behalf? Can He condemn you when He knows that your life is what was gained by His death? – Jacob and the Happy Life, 1.6.26
Though we must be ever vigilant to see and confess our sins, and to strive with attention in the life of repentance right up to the moment of death, we do so on the basis of firm hope in God’s mercy to us. How can I doubt this mercy, knowing that He became a man and died for my sake? God’s will to save us is infinitely greater than ours, as He is infinitely greater than we are, full – indeed more than full – of lovingkindness and graciousness to mankind as a whole and to each soul considered separately, including yours and mine. Authentic spiritual effort is shot through with the spirit of the joy of salvation, not the spirit of gloom and hopelessness. As we read yesterday, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
This joy and this hope are sometimes obscured by an overreaction against a superficial soteriology that is popular in some Protestant sects, the idea that all you need to do is to confess faith in Christ verbally at some point and from then on your salvation is guaranteed. The popularity of this false idea due to its attractiveness to the self-indulgent tendency of the fallen ego makes it extremely dangerous, and such an error does indeed require clear correction. We must not, however, fall into the opposite extreme of despair over our salvation, which is a grave sin against the theological virtue of Hope. The command to acquire Hope, without which Faith is dead and Charity becomes unattainable, is absolute, and we must not ignore it. The readings and hymns of the Pentecostarion, this spiritual feast of joy in the Resurrection, if only we take the time to read them and to chant them, are the obvious instrument given us by the Divine Providence, at this very spring of this very year, to fight off gloom and to kindle in our hearts a firm hope in our salvation.
Verily, verily, saith the Lord, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
Amen.
