John 5:15-30

16So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted him. 17Jesus said to them, "My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working." 18For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

Let this silence the watered-down notion of Jesus as a good person who said sensible things. C. S. Lewis has, of course, belabored this point, and Josh McDowell has more recently gone on to misinterpret Lewis and abuse the argument, and I'm sick of the whole thing anyway at this point, especially when it gets phrased alliteratively, as in "lunatic, liar or Lord?" You want to know about the Trilemma, go ask Andrew Rilstone about it. But let it be said, Jesus is very definitely not talking like someone who is only a moral teacher.

He's talking now to the people who are angry about Him performing miraculous healings on the Sabbath, as seen in the last installment. And He is about to lay a series of bombshells on them.

9Jesus gave them this answer: "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. 20For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, to your amazement he will show him even greater things than these. 21For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it.

The son gives life. First off, He's telling them that God Almighty has given Him the power to not only heal the sick, but raise the dead. So far, so good, great prophets have done as much before. But Jesus' habit of talking obliquely about things other than what His listeners are expecting has been well-established by this point. The life that the Son gives isn't just the restoration of the meatbag corpus, it's the revivification of the dead spirit. That's bomb #1.

22Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, 23that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.

Here's #2: The Son is the one to whom judgment is deferred. On the one hand, Christ as Judge is kind of a spooky notion if the Christ you're most familiar with is the gently smiling blond guy who often appears in soft-focus prints on Sunday School classroom walls.

Frank Miller, in his introduction to the excellent Batman: Year One, says "If your only memory of Batman is that of Adam West and Burt Ward exchanging camped-out quips while clobbering slumming guest stars Vincent Price and Cesar Romero, I hope this book will come as a surprise." (And how nerdy is it that I typed that sentence pretty close to word-perfect from memory, some years after last reading it?) Miller then proceeds to deliver a comic book featuring an intense, realistic, frightening Batman who might just punch you in the mouth if you even mentioned the words "Bat-shark-repellent." If you've seen Batman Begins, you get the general idea. The jump from Adam West to Frank Miller is quite similar, I think, to the shock that awaits someone acquainted only with the mild, genial Sunday-school Jesus when they look at the Gospel accounts of what Jesus actually said and did.

On the other hand, that Sunday-School Jesus (minus the blond hair, blue eyes and perfect Nordic features, about which do not even get me started) is certainly based in reality. So from another angle, here's a piece of comfort: the Judge in this courtroom is also our defense attorney. And he is not on good terms with the prosecutor.

And then there's bombshell #3, and this would be the blockbuster as far as the crowd was concerned. "He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him."

In other words, this man is the Son of God, God's Emissary and representative, and any insult to Him is an insult to the Almighty. The presumption of such a statement is breathtaking. Outrageous, disgusting blasphemy.

If the one saying it is just a man.

24"I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. 25I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. 26For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself. 27And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.

28"Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice 29and come out—those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned. 30By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.

This is by way of being the very crux (so to speak) of Jesus' message. It's a grand promise, too. Eternal life, free acquittal (and an undeserved acquittal for undeniably guilty parties, at that), and the breaking of the very bonds of Death. The bars are broken, the ropes cut, the charges dropped, and the uncrossable river has been bridged. This is the promise of freedom and mercy and life eternal.

It is also, by my count, the fourth time in the space of this one speech that Jesus has claimed divine authority. Again, for more details on this, just go read some C. S. Lewis or something, but this is a huge deal.

So that's four times in the space of one speech. And Jesus isn't done talking yet.

Next: The thrilling conclusion!