Jesus: A Person of Courage
The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. And this was why the Jews persecuted Jesus, because he did this on the sabbath. But Jesus answered them, "My Father is working still, and I am working." This was why the Jews sought all the more to kill him, because he not only broke the sabbath but also called God his own Father, making himself equal with God. John 5:15-18, RSV.
The conflict between Jesus and the Jewish leaders goes on and on. Not merely because of the Sabbath, but because He was taking on the prerogatives of God in defining lawful activity on the holy day. And here we need to be very clear. Jesus never once in the New Testament ever rejects the seventh-day Sabbath. What He does discard is the Jewish way of observing it--their making a means of joy and grace into a burden and a yoke so heavy that no one could carry it.
All the way through the Sabbath conflict in John 5 Jesus is claiming to be the Messiah and divine, both implicitly and explicitly. On the implicit level the very miracle of healing a person who had been unable to walk for 38 years was a messianic sign. Isaiah's picture of the new age brought about by the Messiah indicates that "then shall the lame man leap like a hart" (Isa. 35:6, RSV). On the explicit level Jesus was not backward in identifying God as His Father in a special sense (John 5:17). His Jewish listeners had no problem discerning what He meant--that He was "making himself equal with God" (verse 18). That would become even clearer in the following verses, in which Jesus attributes to Himself the prerogatives of raising the dead and judgment--attributes in Jewish thinking of no one but God.
It was those claims that led Jesus step-by-step toward the cross. The Sabbath was merely an outward aspect of the struggle between Jesus and the religious leaders. The heart of the issue was that by asserting to be divine He was in their eyes committing blasphemy, the very charge they would lay against Him during the various trials that resulted in His crucifixion.
In all of His actions we find Jesus to be a person of extraordinary and unique courage. He knew that to speak and act as He did was courting death. But He understood His mission and moved forward.
Lord, today help me to have the same kind of faith in Jesus as He had in Himself. And strengthen me to have more of His courage.
The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. And this was why the Jews persecuted Jesus, because he did this on the sabbath. But Jesus answered them, "My Father is working still, and I am working." This was why the Jews sought all the more to kill him, because he not only broke the sabbath but also called God his own Father, making himself equal with God. John 5:15-18, RSV.
The conflict between Jesus and the Jewish leaders goes on and on. Not merely because of the Sabbath, but because He was taking on the prerogatives of God in defining lawful activity on the holy day. And here we need to be very clear. Jesus never once in the New Testament ever rejects the seventh-day Sabbath. What He does discard is the Jewish way of observing it--their making a means of joy and grace into a burden and a yoke so heavy that no one could carry it.
All the way through the Sabbath conflict in John 5 Jesus is claiming to be the Messiah and divine, both implicitly and explicitly. On the implicit level the very miracle of healing a person who had been unable to walk for 38 years was a messianic sign. Isaiah's picture of the new age brought about by the Messiah indicates that "then shall the lame man leap like a hart" (Isa. 35:6, RSV). On the explicit level Jesus was not backward in identifying God as His Father in a special sense (John 5:17). His Jewish listeners had no problem discerning what He meant--that He was "making himself equal with God" (verse 18). That would become even clearer in the following verses, in which Jesus attributes to Himself the prerogatives of raising the dead and judgment--attributes in Jewish thinking of no one but God.
It was those claims that led Jesus step-by-step toward the cross. The Sabbath was merely an outward aspect of the struggle between Jesus and the religious leaders. The heart of the issue was that by asserting to be divine He was in their eyes committing blasphemy, the very charge they would lay against Him during the various trials that resulted in His crucifixion.
In all of His actions we find Jesus to be a person of extraordinary and unique courage. He knew that to speak and act as He did was courting death. But He understood His mission and moved forward.
Lord, today help me to have the same kind of faith in Jesus as He had in Himself. And strengthen me to have more of His courage.
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