We’re picking up where we left off in the last post of Chapter 5. We had family visiting us this week, so this will be a rather short devotion.

Honoring the Father and the Son

¹⁷ But He answered them, “My Father has been working until now, and I too am working.” ¹⁸ This answer made the Judeans all the more intent on killing him—not only was he breaking Shabbat, but also, by saying that God was his own Father, He was claiming equality with God.

“My Father, God, has been working on Shabbat since the beginning of time, and therefore I too am working on Shabbat.” Here is an interesting alternative understanding: in the larger scheme of things, there is a “Shabbat” yet to come (Messianic Jews 4:9–11), so that the present era of history can be thought of as “weekdays.” The Talmud too recognizes this by dividing history into six 1,000–year “days” (Psalm 90:4, and see 2 Kefa 3:3–9), after which comes the Messianic millennium, the seventh “day.” Since it is now still a 1,000–year “weekday,” even the Torah “permits” the Father and Yeshua to work, and they will continue working until the “day” comes that is entirely Shabbat.

Yeshua’s Judean opposition immediately perceived that by saying God was His own Father, He was claiming equality with God. Some Jews would like to reclaim Yeshua for the Jewish people by regarding Him as a great teacher, which He was, but only human, not divine. Yeshua’s claim here makes that option impossible. A merely human “great teacher” who teaches that he is equal with God would be, as C. S. Lewis put it, either “a lunatic – on a level with a man who says he’s a poached egg – or else He would be the devil of hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse.” (Mere Christianity)

Yeshua’s words produced the first reported effort to kill Him. If he had been blaspheming God, as the Judeans thought, it would have been proper to be intent on killing Him, since “Anyone who blasphemes the name of Adonai shall surely be put to death” (Leviticus 24:16). Yeshua’s healing and His claim to equality with Adonai occasioned His discourse in the rest of this chapter.

¹⁹ Therefore, Yeshua said this to them: “Yes, indeed! I tell you that the Son cannot do anything on His own, but only what he sees the Father doing; whatever the Father does, the Son does too. ^[1]

The Son cannot do anything on his own. Those who find Yeshua’s claim to divinity unpalatable are quick to point out that with these words Yeshua seems to describe Himself in a way inconsistent with being divine. They say it is essential to God’s nature that He does everything on His own and is answerable only to Himself. But they miss the point, for Yeshua here is teaching something important about the inner nature of God, about how the Son and the Father relate to each other within the eternal unity of Adonai. Yeshua is teaching that He is capable, humanly, of disobeying God and of having his own contrary will (compare Mathew 26:39). For this reason, the divine Son “learned obedience” (Messianic Jews 5:8) and became completely submissive to the Father’s will through the power of the Ruach HaKodesh, who is with Him “in unlimited measure” (3:34). Yeshua is not inferior to His Father: to submit and obey perfectly demonstrates one of God’s perfections; to will what is not God’s will is to be inferior to God. What he sees the Father doing. Yeshua’s sight, whether spiritual only or physical as well, uniquely enables him to perceive what his Father does and wants. Whatever the Father does, the Son does too. Yeshua is teaching that He has divine power. Specifically, He has the power to raise the dead (v. 21) and the authority to render divine judgment (v. 22).

In your home, you might often feel overwhelmed by the demands of daily life, leaving you exhausted and detached from family moments. Reflecting on John 5:17-19, consider implementing a ‘mini-Sabbath’ by intentionally pausing for an hour each evening to disconnect from technology and reconnect with family. During this time, discuss your day, read scripture together, or pray as a family. This practice can build deeper relationships and remind you that just as Yeshua was focused on His Father’s work, we must be intentional about nurturing our spiritual and familial connections.

In our next post, we will continue to explore the Gospel of Yochanan.

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^[1] Yochanan 5:17-19.