Notes on John 5: 30 – 47

This passage is said to stand for the first trial of Jesus. The Jews who stand accusers are concerned about Jesus’ healing on the Sabbath. Jesus is His own defence lawyer and brings the testimony of God the Father, God the Spirit, John the Baptist and His own miracles to His defence.

We began as usual with a read through and were immediately struck by the last three verses 45 – 47: the use of the present tense when speaking of Moses seems to imply that he is still alive and with God. This led us to think about the transfiguration where both Moses and Elijah appear with Jesus. Neither of these two Old Testament figures is said to have died, but to have been taken up to heaven. This is what links them with Jesus, whom we believe to be still alive in Spirit. We looked up the reference in verse 46 (Deuteronomy 18: 15) and were amazed at how relevant this was. It made us realise that whoever we believe is speaking at this point - the Evangelist or Jesus - they knew their scripture much better than we did, and that a full knowledge of the scripture which Jesus often refers to would be a valuable asset to both preacher and congregation. Without the ability to easily link our New Testament passages to relevant Old Testament passages our understanding is limited. Jesus was always able to back up what He said with reference to scripture. Can we? Some people quote scripture to justify their actions. What would Jesus say to them?

In verse 39 Jesus accuses his accusers of studying the scripture to no good effect. We believe that it is good to diligently study scripture, but we need the Spirit’s guidance to help us to understand what we read. One of us had been watching a programme on TV about Amish teenagers who do not question the scripture. Until recently they could not read scripture for themselves because their Bible was written in an archaic form of German. They were not encouraged to question what they were told was in the Bible. This led to some of their quaint customs such as not dancing. But when they read the Bible for themselves they found quite a few texts where dancing to God and in joy at God’s creation was positively encouraged.

We felt that, when reading scripture, a questioning mind was a good thing, and that we should even question God who would then provide the means to understanding. Paul had something to say about this (see Ephesians 1: 17 – 19). We felt that we were blessed to be living under grace and that we were grateful to have the power of the Spirit to help us to understand our scripture.

The Jews who are questioning Jesus here study their scripture but refuse to believe what they have read, because it does not fit in with their preconceptions. In verse 41 Jesus says that His accusers do not have the love of God within them. They hope to trip Jesus up with their questions. So, when we question scripture or God, our motives must be only to help our understanding.

In verse 35 Jesus speaks of John the Baptist as light, linking back to the prologue where John the Baptist is described as witness to the true light. Jesus speaks about how His accusers have been prepared to follow John the Baptist, but not His own ministry, We wondered why they found John so believable when he often called those who came for baptism “vipers”. We felt that it was probably because, although he could be rude,, he stayed within the system and did not claim anything for himself other than being witness to someone more important. Jesus criticized and challenged the system. He flouted rules and regulations such as healing on the Sabbath, which is the problem here. All these things made John more acceptable than Jesus to those in authority. What does this say about us, our preaching and our church? Are we system bound or do we challenge preconceptions?

In this passage Jesus is confident of his own status and role. But some Christians doubt that Jesus would have had such knowledge. They believe that, as a human, Jesus would not have had such divine revelations and insights. We felt that such understanding or belief denied the Holy Trinity and that, if we deny Jesus’ divinity, we diminish our faith in some way. If Jesus is not both divine and human at the same time, what makes our faith different from any other?