Some of Jesus' most disturbing words for the Jews came on the occasion found in John 5.1-29. It was just a typical Saturday at the colonnade in Solomon's temple. The courtyard was buzzing with people. They were crossing the open area next to the refreshing pool to get where they were going, mingling with each other or meeting someone there. It was a typical Saturday at the beautiful, historic Sheep's Gate Courtyard and Pool.
Also at this place were a number of invalids. They were blind, crippled, and paralyzed. I'm sure they liked being around the daily buzz, but they also had a chance to be healed there. Some of the later manuscripts of John added that people helped the invalids to get into the pool when the pool water bubbled. It was thought that an angel was stirring the water, and whoever got into it first would be healed.
Jesus made it a point to be at the courtyard that day. The reason was not stated. Perhaps it was a hot day, and this was a good place to rest and cool down because of the 5 ornate colonnades around the pool for people to stand under. Maybe Jesus was meeting someone there. Or, he could have gone there just to observe people. It was a great place for that.
But, while he was there, he decided to go over and talk to the invalid everybody knew because he had been sitting around the pool for 38 years - most of his life. The man had been young and had grown old there. As they talked, Jesus wanted to show the man what faith could do, so he healed him and disappeared into the crowd. The Jews around the pool saw the newly healed man. Their thoughts revealed the incredulous attitude they had toward things out of the ordinary for them. Instead of sharing his ecstasy of being able to walk in the first time for at least 38 years, they found fault with him being healed because he was carrying his old invalid mat with him. Saturday rules said he couldn't. Well, at least some of the Jews' interpretation of the Saturday rules had been construed to mean he couldn't carry his mat. 38 years of bondage to being crippled and some of the Jews were worried about him carrying his mat because of Saturday rules! You can't be serious.
It is this attitude that Jesus absolutely abhorred because it was the attitude that kept people from having life. People were so condescending and for no good reason. Eventually, the word spread that Jesus had healed the man on Saturday with all of its special rules and "the Jews," presumably the ones that read the Talmud with all of its oral traditions, who were in the colonnade that day, confronted Jesus with his faux pas. Jesus was not in the least bothered or embarrassed by what he did and shared his affrontive remarks with those Jews. His comments boiled down to this (verse 24):
Ἀμὴν ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν ὅτι ὁ τὸν λόγον μου ἀκούων καὶ πιστεύων τῷ πέμψαντί με ἔχει ζωὴν αἰώνιον καὶ εἰς κρίσιν οὐκ ἔρχεται, ἀλλὰ μεταβέβηκεν ἐκ τοῦ θανάτου εἰς τὴν ζωήν
(Most assuredly you should believe me when I tell you that the person hearing my message and believing him who sent me has life for the ages. That person does not come under judgment but has made a transition from death to life).
The whole point of healing this man was to give him a second lease on life, a literal, physical second life. But after the Jewish rule-keepers approached Jesus with their offensive, condescending attitudes, Jesus decided to take his teaching of second lease on life to the level they couldn't see, the non-physical, spiritual plane. Already Jesus knew they couldn't handle him putting himself equal with God, even coming from God (his father) [verse 18]. So, he drew a clear line in the sand. "Believe my message and receive a life for the ages," which is a moral life, not a second lease on physical life. The moral life is not a rule-keeper's life. It is a life of accepting others, treating others decently, and watching out for each other. A rule-keeper's life is all about himself/herself. A moral life is all about not putting others under your judgment of them. There was a huge difference.
And, Jesus wanted to address straightforwardly the main concern of this Jewish audience of condescending, pious onlookers: he absolutely was equal to God. John says that the Jews were already talking about killing him for this (verse 18). So, Jesus had nothing at all to lose by continuing to talk about who he was with the group he knew he couldn't convince. In verse 27 he called himself the Son of Man, which was his term for the messiah, making it clear that he claimed to be God's chosen one in Jewish history. But in the same breath, he didn't want to leave any doubt that the messiah was also God's son. So, he says it plainly (verse 25).
ἀμὴν ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν ὅτι ἔρχεται ὥρα καὶ νῦν ἐστιν ὅτε οἱ νεκροὶ ἀκούσουσιν τῆς φωνῆς τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ οἱ ἀκούσαντες ζήσουσιν
(Most assuredly you should believe me when I tell you that an hour is coming, actually here now when the dead will hear the voice of God's son and, having heard, will live.)
Jesus is clear. If one believes his message that he is the promised chosen one and God's son, then he or she will live. But the life is not the physical life now, nor is it the life to come. It is a moral life that "is here now." It is not life according to the Jewish way of thinking that one should keep rules to please God or the more minor theme of keeping rules to enter the next life. It is deliverance from the death people give themselves by feeling pious enough to condescend and judge others by their own rules. It is the life of accepting and helping others on their journey in the same way people desire acceptance and help that they themselves. It is a spiritual rather than physical life.
A tasty little morsel is found in verse 29.
καὶ ἐκπορεύσονται οἱ τὰ ἀγαθὰ ποιήσαντες εἰς ἀνάστασιν ζωῆς, οἱ δὲ τὰ φαῦλα πράξαντες εἰς ἀνάστασιν κρίσεως
(And they will come out. Those who have done good things will experience a resurrection of life. Those who have carried on with careless, thoughtless, and indifferent attitudes and actions will experience a resurrection of judgment.)
The verse was a direct quotation from Daniel 12.2. Jesus decided to quote from a book of the Old Testament that would attest to the truth of what he was saying. If the Jews wouldn't believe him, maybe they would believe something they did trust. However, he chose a rather recent addition to the Old Testament, an enigmatic one at that, and one that didn't have a lot of oral tradition built around it. It's almost a choice to see if the Jews would repudiate something considered sacred ground.
Daniel spoke of a time that would come when people would be dead and rise to life - the same transition Jesus used earlier (verse 24 above)in explaining to the Jews that they should not be so worried about him "working" on a Saturday but celebrating the man's second lease on life and showing that their own morality embraced life not the sterility of judgment (or death) which is the same as supporting death. Their ideas about what constituted work and not rest were a misguided application of the Old Testament principle of holding the Sabbath sacred. Thus, Jesus applied Daniel's words of death and life to moral death and moral life. Jesus used the scripture to illustrate that Daniel's coming time was "now here" and that the death spoken of was moral death leading to his judgment of them, one and the same with God's judgment of them. Jesus accomplished both objectives with one quotation. That was pretty strong medicine. Then again, what other kind of medicine is there when people can't believe you are God's son.
Whenever I read John, I can't help but notice the emphasis he gives to the idea of life. The idea fills his book. He also helps me with a standard that I have to work on for myself. All of us find ourselves in the human condition, imperfect and flawed. We need each other. We need to watch out for each other and treat each other decently. I want others to see me as a person who will accept them and their station in life. I want people to count on me for making it to the end of our journey here on Earth with them - one with the other, not one without the other.
[I realize that not everyone agrees on the dating of the book of Daniel. I accept the late dating of Daniel in the time of the Macabbees, and thus make my comments accordingly.]
No comments:
Post a Comment