Welcome to day 25 of our 40 day challenge! Today, we are in John 5

(You can catch up on our Intro, Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 7, Day 8, Day 9, Day 10, Day 11, Day 12, Day 13, Day 14, Day 15, Day 16, Day 17, Day 18, Day 19, Day 20, Day 21, Day 22, Day 23, Day 24 if you missed them)

John 5:16-29

The Authority of the Son

¹⁶ So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. ¹⁷ In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” ¹⁸ For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

¹⁹ Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, 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.²⁰ For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed. ²¹ For 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. ²² Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, ²³ that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.

²⁴ “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. ²⁵ Very truly I tell you, 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. ²⁶ For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. ²⁷ And 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 ²⁹ and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned. ³⁰ By 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.

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Jesus was healing on the Sabbath. When it appears that He is breaking the Sabbath law, the religious leaders are upset and begin to persecute Him. They believed they had the law on their side and had no idea that they were, in fact, persecuting the lawgiver. We should be safe from having that same problem today, but as Jack would say, the Pharisees are not all dead yet, and sometimes they are us.

Which side do you think you would have been on if you had lived then? The religious leaders or the people?

Most of us reading this will know the scriptures well enough to be challenged by the same issues the Pharisees face. They have their rules and customs, and they take them seriously, but do they know the heart of God when it comes to applying them?

I can see how the Pharisees came to their point of view. I can look at the command to keep the Sabbath holy and how serious it is, punishable by death, and see how they could be scandalized by His behavior. I can see how they could easily believe that the messiah could never do these things based on the passages they know by heart. How did the people who did not know the passages by heart know Jesus before the religious leaders? I think one answer is simply, need. Those who need God to intervene in their lives will tend to seek Him and see Him first. This is why Jesus told us how much harder it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom. If the kingdom of the world is going well for them, they aren’t seeking another.

If Jesus walked into this room right now, doing something that our culture thinks the Messiah would never do, would we recognize Him? If He were breaking a rule, or loving someone we think He wouldn’t hang around with, would we see Him for who He is? Would we be the Pharisees or the people?

Would our hearts be so sensitive to Him that even if we had what we thought was a very clear command on the Sabbath and thought He was breaking it, would we recognize Him? It makes me really emotional to think about it, to think about the possibility that He could be working and I could miss it because I’ve put more faith in rules than in Him.

One of the biggest issues I see in Christianity today isn’t progressive versus conservative, or views on eternal security, or even partisanship (although that is a huge problem in the US). It’s believing in a false Jesus that agrees with us all the time and loves who we love and hates who we hate (ok, there’s also crossover with partisanship there). A savior who never challenges us, and always agrees with us, is incredibly dangerous because it’s just the worship of self.

I’ve found, in my relationship with Jesus, the opposite. He’s constantly challenging any notion I have of who is in and who is out, who is blessed and who is not. And this is the Jesus we see in scripture as well. He is constantly challenging and reorienting them, so a Jesus that always agrees with my point of view would be alarming, to say the least.

I read about a survey for new students at a seminary years ago. On one form, students answered questions about what they think of God, what is God like? And later, they filled out another form that asked them about their beliefs. And wouldn’t you know it, the answers were the same. The students believed God felt the same way about things that they did. Whatever they were against God was also against. Whatever they were in favor of, God was too. Politics, theology, the same priorities in the same order, the same opinions, all of it.

There are, and will be, many who use the name of Jesus, and even perform miracles in His name, but who never knew His heart and will be told to depart from Him (Matthew 7:23). This should be a weighty thing for us today.

In scripture, we see that the most likely not to miss Jesus are those at the bottom of society, and the most likely to miss Him are those with standing in society and a religious knowledge. This is a selah moment for sure.

Options for further  journaling or discussion throughout the challenge:

• Choose a part of the passage to write out by hand. Writing by hand helps us slow down and focus on what the Lord might highlight for us in the passage. Our brains can focus and remember better by writing than just reading alone.
• Journal about what the passage brings to mind. Does the passage tell us anything about God? Does it tell us anything about our response to Him?
• Does your heart respond in gratitude to any part of the passage? Write or pray your gratitude to the Lord.

We’ll see you tomorrow for Day 26, in Romans 4

♥ Samantha