John 5:19-43: Jesus reveals himself to the Pharisees

Analysis

After Jesus healed the infirm man from the pool of Bethesda, John 5:16 states that “because of the healing that took place on the Sabbath”, the Jewish authorities started (actively) persecuting Jesus.

In v19 to v47 Jesus is talking to the Jewish leaders and is making some amazing claims in their presence; i.e. raising the dead (v21), give life to who he wills (v21), He has authority to judge (v22), gives eternal life (v24), can execute judgement (v27) and people in tombs will come out (v28)! How does he do it ? v19 – He only does what He sees the Father doing. Jesus is following His lead from the Father under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

What evidence does Jesus give to substantiate His claims? In John 1 to John 4 Jesus did a lot of signs, wonders, miracles, teachings and even received an indirect confession from Nicodemus that “God is with him.” But now Jesus is going to call some witnesses in accordance with Law given by Moses where two or three witnesses are needed.

Verses 21-39 calls four witnesses:

1. Jesus himself – even though Jesus says that “If I testify about Myself, My testimony is not valid.” (v31);
2. John the Baptist – even though Jesus says that “I don’t receive man’s testimony,…” but it is to our benefit that John testifies and we believe Him;

At this point it is maybe pertinent to note that the first two testimonies might be dismissed the next two cannot be doubted. These are true and valid testimonies:

1. The Father (God) – (v37) “The Father who sent Me has Himself testified about Me” and He testifies how ? in v36 it says “…works I am doing testify about Me that the Father has sent Me”; and
2. The scriptures (the Law, Prophets and Writings) – v39 Jesus says “You exalt yourself in the Scriptures because you think you have eternal life in them, yet they testify about Me, the one standing in front of you.”

At the end of the passage Jesus drops the bomb when he shows them their own hypocrisy in v43 to v47 when he says that if you don’t believe the testimony of (i) the Father (the God of righteousness) in whose name I come or (ii) the scriptures that testify about me, then you will not believe.

Both of these witnesses are true. If this does not convince them, then nothing will.

Response

The emphasis of Jesus’ teachings as related by John is that he is the Messiah. John goes to great pains to emphasise this fact. He uses scripture references, the relates proofs given to the scribes and teachers of the law and he describes the miracles done by Jesus in detail. But all of these things are just words and objects if you do not have belief in the fact that Jesus is who he says he is.

You can only understand the true power of the Lord is you believe first. After belief, Jesus truly comes alive through the scriptures and the Holy Spirit helps us understand the scriptures. But it starts with Jesus and believing in him.

Even with all the knowledge possessed by the Pharisees they could not see the true Christ because they did not believe.