Today's Reading - John 5
Fair warning - I may be just a little wordy in the background section today, but this is a key passage in the development of the doctrine of the Trinity.
Background
When two people are in conflict, my first goal is to discern what the fight is actually all about. The stated source of conflict is often not the trigger point – there may be deep resentments or hidden agendas. A husband and wife may be bickering over some small decision but the real issue is respect or control. Parents and teens are locked in conflict over secondary issues when the deep issue is the teen's desire for independence and the parent’s wish to maintain authority. In today’s readings, we find the trigger point for the dispute between Jesus and the religious leaders. They were unhappy with him for several reasons, for refusing to kowtow to their laws and flaunting their man-made traditions, but in verse 18 we get to the heart of the problem. Jesus called God his Father.
That does not bother us so much because we do not see the father-son relationship as they did. The son was the essence of the father and carried on his nature. When they called themselves the sons of Abraham they were claiming much. When Jesus called God his father, it was a claim of divinity, something that they saw as horribly arrogant and theologically offensive. Jesus, while distinct from the Father in his person, is of the same essence as the Father, according to the doctrine of the Trinity. They had never heard of the Trinity, but this piece of that doctrine they found deeply offensive!
The Trinity offends many because it is impossible to explain rationally. It is beyond human understanding and explanation and forces us to admit a God beyond our grasp and beyond our intellect. He is big, we are small. He is strong, we are weak. Our intellect pales compared his great wisdom. Today, the Trinity is still an important and fundamental doctrine, one of the most important for our faith and one of the first that people give up when they turn away from orthodoxy toward false versions of our faith.
Having established the testimony about himself and his own nature, Jesus then gave testimony of his own about who they were – they were not followers of the God they claimed to honor. Since Jesus came from that God, if they were truly desiring to honor God, they would honor him as well.
It is amazing how Jesus got right to the heart of the matter!
This chapter continues and concludes the early Judean ministry of Jesus containing stories that do not appear in the Synoptic Gospels (at least not in the form or setting they appear here). In reality, what we have here may not actually be an early Judean ministry of Jesus at all, but a series of stories told by John in a different chronological sequence than the Synoptic Gospels for thematic reasons. He was telling stories to describe Jesus, not giving a biography that chronicled his life and movements day by day. We will never know for certain.
Devotional - Ask a Silly Question
There is no such thing as a stupid question, right? That’s what our teachers used to tell us. I think I asked a few in my day, and some of my classmates came pretty close. But to encourage people to ask freely and boldly, teachers and leaders continue to tell us that all questions are worthy.
Jesus asked a question that would make us scratch our heads in John 5. In Jerusalem, Jesus was walking by the Pool of Bethesda where invalids lay seeking healing. They believed that the first person to get into the water after the waters were stirred would be healed. There was a man who had been an invalid for 38 years beside the pool and Jesus asked him a corker of a question in verse 6.
“Do you want to be healed?”
Really? The man had been unable to lead a normal life or nearly 4 decades and was reduced to chasing a myth that the waters of Bethesda would bring healing. Unfortunately, he moved slowly and others always beat him into the water. So, day after day, year after year, he stayed there in his condition. “Do you want to be healed,” Jesus asked.
Maybe it isn’t such a stupid question after all. The human heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. It causes us to cling to the things that destroy our lives, to love our sins and to hold on to that which is destroying us. The person whose soul is slowly being eaten away by the acid of anger and bitterness would rather hold onto the grudge than to forgive. That cheating spouse seeing his family disintegrating but will not give up his (or her) illicit pleasures. No matter how many painful hangovers or other destructive consequences the drunk or drug addict experiences, he or she still resists the cure. And often it is much less dramatic than this. Dishonesty. Slothfulness. A failure to be faithful at work, at school. Oh, and there are the twin Goliaths for so many today. Materialism and Pornography. Many are derailed by one and many by the other. Some by both.
And Jesus comes to us and says, “I will not only forgive your sins and take you to heaven one day, but as you trust me and walk in obedience to me day by day, I will heal you, I will transform you, I will remake you.” But you must yield to that transforming power and seek him with all your heart. Jesus has the healing power and is willing to give it to you. But you must be willing to be healed.
Do you want to be healed?
Father, I want to be healed. I want to be healed of every sin, every habit, every personality quirk that is not pleasing to you. May I be a man like your Son – more and more every day!
Think and Pray
Are there areas of your life where you are holding on to sin that you know you need to let go of or refusing to obey God where he has made his will clear to you?
Will you today do a spiritual inventory and let Jesus Christ have full control of your life?
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