ACC ~ John 5 v10 - 18

OVERVIEW:

The Lord heals the man and then enjoins him to break the sabbath law (CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA). The Jewish leaders do not charge Jesus with breaking the law in healing; rather, they charge the one healed with doing the work of carrying his bed (AUGUSTINE). The paralytic could have answered their charges deceptively by concealing the cure and remaining out of trouble, but instead he decides to make a bold confession of the healing (CHRYSOSTOM). Jesus did not remain after the healing, however, so the man was unsure of his healer’s identity (THEODORE). Jesus had withdrawn, leaving the best testimony to the witnesses among them to testify on his behalf (CHRYSOSTOM). In the grand scheme of things, the healing was not a great miracle, since he left the rest of those at the pool unhealed, but Jesus’ larger concern was for the cure of the soul (AUGUSTINE). On further questioning, the former paralytic implicates Jesus as the one who healed him, which helps explain in part why Jesus gives him a stern warning (THEODORE). Another explanation, however, may be that Christ does not find fault with the man’s past sins but rather sought to warn him, and us, against future sins (CHRYSOSTOM), since we have been healed for a new life with God and should seek to remain pure (GREGORY OF NAZIANZUs).

The Jewish elders blame Christ for healing on the sabbath, but even they performed acts of healing on the sabbath when they circumcised a man, and yet they did not condemn themselves (IRENAEUS). Jesus responds to their accusation by citing divine precedent in working on the sabbath and by asserting that he is doing his Father’s work as his Father works in him (HILARY) and through him, since they are of one and the same essence (ATHANASIUS). By his actions and through his words, Christ was establishing himself as having equal authority with the Father (AUGUSTINE, THEODORE). When Jesus says the Father is still working, this does not imply that he is still doing the work of creation from which he rested in Genesis. In fact, the Sabbath rest there pointed towards Christ’s Sabbath rest in the tomb. The Father is still working with and in his creation as he preserves and extends that creation which otherwise would cease to exist without his providential hand. And so, the Jews should not be surprised that Jesus works on the sabbath since, if the Father has continued to work by upholding his creation, the Son also continues to work in upholding creation, just as he had also been working at the beginning of creation with his Father (AUGUSTINE).

The Jews further note that he not only called God his Father but his own Father, which also made himself equal to the Father (THEODORE). As what might be termed hostile witnesses, they understood that Jesus was claiming divine prerogative in breaking the sabbath (AMBROSE), which no one would do unless he were truly equal to the one who had established the sabbath law (CHRYSOSTOM). In thinking that Jesus asserted equality with the Father, they understood something the Arians did not (AUGUSTINE). Still, some may try to get around this assertion of Jesus’ equality with the Father by saying this was only the mistaken perception of the Jews; however, the facts of what he did, coupled with their reaction, establish the claim that he was indeed equal with God. Otherwise, the Evangelist would have corrected their perception in the narrative, as he did elsewhere (CHRYSOSTOM). But they reacted as they did because they only saw the flesh and not the Word (AUGUSTINE).

5:10 | Unlawful to Carry a Burden on the Sabbath

SABBATH LAWS NO LONGER IN EFFECT

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: Jesus does not pray to relieve the patient’s sickness in case he [Jesus] should seem to be like one of the holy prophets. Rather, as the Lord of powers, he commands with authority that it be so. He tells him to go home rejoicing, to take his bed on his shoulders, to be a memento to those who would see the might of the one who had healed him. And so the man does as he is asked and by obedience and faith gains the threefold longed for grace…. Christ heals the man on the sabbath, and when healed immediately enjoins him to break through the custom of the law. He induces him to walk on the sabbath, [1] and this while carrying his bed, although God clearly cries aloud by one of the holy prophets, “Neither carry a burden out of your house on the sabbath day.” [2] And no one, I suppose, who is sober-minded would say the man was then a despiser or unruly in the face of the divine commands. They would instead see that, as in a type, Christ was making known to the Jews that they should be healed by obedience and faith in the last times of the world (for this is what I think “the sabbath” signifies, being the last day of the week). But once they have received healing through faith and are remodeled into a new life, it was necessary that the old letter of the law should become of no effect and that the typical worship in shadows and empty Jewish customs should be rejected. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 2.5. [3]

[1] See Jer 17:22.

[2] Jer 17:22.

[3] LF 43:238-39**.

CARRYING, NOT HEALING, IS THE PROBLEM

AUGUSTINE: They did not charge our Lord with healing on the sabbath since he would have replied that if an ox or an ass of theirs had fallen into a pit, would they not have taken it out on the sabbath day. Rather, they addressed the man as he was carrying his bed, as if to say: Even if the healing could not be delayed, why command the work?… He shields himself under the authority of his healer: The one who made me whole is the one who said to me, “Take up your bed, and walk,” meaning: Why should I not receive a command if I also received a cure from him? TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 17.10. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 7:114-15*.

5:11 | Take Up Your Bed and Walk

A BOLD CONFESSION OF CURE

CHRYSOSTOM: Had he been inclined to deception, he might have said, “I am not doing this on my own but at the request of another. If it is a crime, accuse the one who commanded it, and I will lay down my bed.” In this way, he would have concealed his cure, knowing, as he did, that the real cause of their offense was not the breaking of the sabbath but the curing of his illness. But he neither concealed it nor asked for pardon. Instead he boldly confessed the cure. This is how he acted. But consider how unfairly they acted. They do not say, Who is it who made you whole? Rather, they keep bringing up the seeming transgression. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 37.2. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 14:129-30**.

5:12 | Who Told You to Do This?

IDENTITY HIDDEN OUT OF HUMILITY

THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: The healed one did not know who it was who healed him because Jesus hid as soon as he had healed him. It would have been typical of someone looking for glory if he had stayed around with the one whom he had healed. It would have been typical of someone who desired public exposure. But we see our Lord cautiously avoiding this. In fact, it would have been easier to have himself seen as God. Since, however, he appeared as a man and many had this opinion about him, he protected himself from the opinion of those who saw him. COMMENTARY ON JOHN 2.5.10-11. [1]

[1] CSCO 4 3:100-101.

5:13 | Jesus Had Withdrawn

JESUS WITHDRAWS, LEAVING A PERFECT WITNESS

CHRYSOSTOM: He did this first of all because the man who had been made whole was the best witness of the cure and could give his testimony with less suspicion in our Lord’s absence. His second reason for doing so was so that the fury of people might not be excited more than was necessary. For the mere sight of the object of envy is no small incentive to envy. For these reasons he departed and left them to examine the fact for themselves. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 37.2. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 14:130**.

A MODEST MIRACLE BY HUMAN STANDARDS

AUGUSTINE: If we judge this miracle on the basis of low and human standards, it is not at all a striking display of power, and it is only a moderate display of goodness. Of so many who lay sick, only one was healed; although, had he chosen to do so, our Lord could have restored them all by a single word. How should we account for this? We might suppose that his power and goodness were asserted more for imparting knowledge of eternal salvation to the soul than for working a temporal cure on the body…. That which received the temporal cure was certain to decay at some point when death arrived, whereas the soul that believed passed into eternal life. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 17.1. [1]

[1] HE WORD IN THE BEGINNING | JOHN 1:1

5:14 | Jesus’ Admonition

JESUS IS BETRAYED BY THE HEALED MAN

THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: After the paralytic apologized, saying that another had ordered him to take up his mat on a sabbath, the Jews turned their rage against the one who had given the order…. When he pointed Jesus out to such an enraged and furious people, however, he did not act as a friend. Rather, in order to comply with the rules of the Jews, he betrayed his own benefactor. Nor can one excuse his actions as being done out of necessity because he felt pressured by the violence of the questioners. Therefore when our Lord came to him in the temple, he spoke these words to the healed man, who had [already] demonstrated his inclination to sin. COMMENTARY ON JOHN 2.5.12-15. [1]

[1] CO 4 3:102.

PEDAGOGICAL PUNISHMENT OF THE BODY

CHRYSOSTOM: Here we learn in the first place that his disease was the consequence of his sins. Second, we learn that there is really a hell; third, that it is a place of lasting and infinite punishment…. But someone might ask, “Do all diseases proceed from sin?” Not all, but most do. Some proceed from different kinds of loose living, since gluttony, intemperance and sloth produce similar sufferings…. But why is it that in the case of these paralytics [1] Christ mentions their sins?… I know that some slander this paralytic, asserting that he was an accuser of Christ and that therefore this speech was addressed to him. [2] But what about the paralytic in Matthew who heard nearly the same words? For Christ also told him, “Your sins are forgiven you.” And so it is clear that this man was not addressed in this way because of what they allege…. Rather, Jesus was securing him against future sins.

In healing others, however, he makes no mention of sins at all. And so, it would seem to be the case that the diseases of these men had arisen from their sins, whereas those of the others had come from natural causes only. Or perhaps through these, Jesus is admonishing everybody else…. Or he may have admonished this man, knowing his great patience of mind, anticipating that he would bear an admonition, keeping him healthy both by the benefit of the healing and the fear of future ills…. It is also a disclosure too of his divinity, for he implies in saying, “Sin no more,” that he knew what sins he had formerly committed. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 38.1-2. [3]

[1] See also Mt 9:2, since Chrysostom is speaking about both accounts.

[2] See previous comment of Theodore.

[3] NPNF 1 14:131-32*.

HEALED TO A NEW LIFE IN GOD

GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS: Yesterday you were flung upon a bed, exhausted and paralyzed, and you had no one to put you into the pool when the water should be troubled. Today you have him who is in one person man and God, or rather God and man. You were raised up from your bed, or rather you took up your bed and publicly acknowledged the benefit. Do not again be thrown on your bed by sinning…. But as you now are, so walk, mindful of the command…. Sin no more lest a worse thing happen to you if you prove yourself to be evil after the blessing you have received. ON HOLY BAPTISM, ORATION 40.33. [1]

[1] NPNF 2 7:372*.

5:16 | The Jews Persecuted Jesus Because He Violated the Sabbath

JEWISH ELDERS ALSO HEALED ON THE SABBATH

IRENAEUS: The Jewish elders were unwilling to be subject to the law of God, which was to prepare them for the coming of Christ. But they even blamed the Lord for healing on the Sabbath days, which the law did not prohibit. For they did themselves, in one sense, perform acts of healing upon the Sabbath day, when they circumcised a man [on that day]. But they did not blame themselves for transgressing the command of God through tradition and the previously mentioned pharisaical law. Nor did they condemn themselves for not keeping the commandment of the law, which is the love of God. AGAINST HERESIES 4.12.1. [1]

[1] ANF 1:475*.

5:17 | Jesus and the Father Still Working

DIVINE PRECEDENT IN THE FATHER

HILARY OF POITIERS: He refers to the charge of violating the sabbath, brought against him. My Father works up to this time, and I work. He means that he had a precedent for claiming the right he did, and that what he did was in reality his Father’s doing who acted in the Son. And to quiet the jealousy that had been raised, because by the use of his Father’s name he had made himself equal with God, and to assert the excellence of his birth and nature, he says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father do.” [1] ON THE TRINITY 7.17. [2]

[1] Jn 5:19.

[2] NPNF 2 9:124-25**; CCL 62:277-78.

THE FATHER WORKS IN CHRIST WHILE CHRIST WORKS

HILARY OF POITIERS: Their anger was so kindled against him that they wanted to kill him, because he did his works on the sabbath. But let us see also what the Lord answered: “My Father is still working, and I also am working.”… He speaks that we may recognize in him the power of the Father’s nature employing the nature that has that power to work on the sabbath. The Father works in him while he works. Without doubt, then, Jesus works along with the working of the Father…. We must regard Jesus as referring to that very work of the Father’s which he was then doing since it implies the working of the Father at the very time of his words…. If the Father works and the Son works, no union exists between them that merges them into a single person. ON THE TRINITY 9.44. [1]

[1] NPNF 2 9:170*. See also Ambrose On the Holy Spirit 2. Intro (2).

THE FATHER AND SON ARE OF THE SAME ESSENCE

ATHANASIUS: The word still [1] shows [the Son’s] eternal existence in the Father as the Word. For it is proper to the Word to do the Father’s works and not to be external to him…. He is either seen to be the efficient cause of things that he himself has brought about, or he has no power to cause anything at all…. For none of the things that are brought to be is an efficient cause, but all things were made through the Word who would not have brought anything into being if he himself were numbered among the creatures…. For by the Word, the things that were not have come into existence. And if through him [i.e., the Son] the [Father] creates and makes, [the Son] is not himself of things created and made. Rather, he is the Word of the Creator God and is known, from the Father’s works which he himself works, to be “in the Father and the Father in him”… because the Son’s essence is proper to the Father, and he is in all points like his Father. DISCOURSES AGAINST THE ARIANS 2.16.20-22. [2]

[1] “My Father is working still.”

[2] NPNF 2 4:359-60*.

THE SON EQUAL TO GOD

AUGUSTINE: Here he has already indicated that he is equal to God. “My Father,” he says, “is working until now, and I too am working.” Their literal-minded understanding of the sabbath is disturbed. They imagined that it was because the Lord was tired that he rested, in order to do no more work. They hear, “My Father is working until now,” and they are disturbed. But then he adds, “And I too am working,” making himself equal to God, and again they are disturbed. SERMON 125.6. [1]

[1] WSA 3 4:257**. See also Novatian On the Trinity 28 (ANF 5:639).

THE SON HAS THE SAME POWER AS THE FATHER

THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: Here he brings up his Father, who always acts according to his will and authority. He too does not abstain from those works on the sabbath that are beneficial to us. Christ, too, knew that any time is suitable for our salvation. He brings up the Father, he says, in order to show us that this same authority is also in him. As the Father always has the authority to do work without being subject to the law—even though he has decreed the law of rest on the sabbath—so the Son has the same privilege. And there is no precept or law that might prevent him from doing whatever he wants. COMMENTARY ON JOHN 2.5.17. [1]

[1] CSCO 4 3:103. See also Ephrem, Commentary on Tatian’s Diatessaron 13.4 (ECTD 206-7).

HOW DID GOD REST ON THE SEVENTH DAY?

AUGUSTINE: How can both be true when it says that God rested on the seventh day from all his works which he had made, and what he himself through whom they were made says in the gospel, “My Father is working until now; and I myself am working.”… The Lord Jesus Christ, who suffered only at the precise time he willed, underlined the mystery of this [Genesis] rest by his burial. It was of course on the day of the Sabbath that he rested in the tomb, and he had the whole of that day as a kind of holy vacation, after he had finished all his works on the sixth day, that is, Preparation Day … when he said, “It is finished; and bowing his head he surrendered his spirit.” [1] So why should we be surprised if God wished to point forward to this day on which Christ would rest in the grave, before proceeding from then on to work the unfolding of the ages, in order to verify these other words too, “My Father is working until now?”

God can be understood to have rested from establishing different kinds of creatures, because he did not now establish any new kinds any more. But he rested like this in such a way as to continue from then on and up till now to operate the management of the things that were then set in place, not as though at least on that seventh day his power was withheld from the government of heaven and earth and of all the things he had established. If that had been done, they would immediately have collapsed into nothingness. It is the creator’s power, after all, and the virtuosity, the skill and tenacity of the almighty, that causes every created thing to subsist. If this tenacious virtuosity ceased for one moment to rule and direct the things that have been created, their various species would at once cease to exist, and every nature would collapse into nothingness. It is not, you see, like a mason building houses; when he has finished he goes away, and his work goes on standing when he has stopped working on it and gone away. No, the world will not be able to go on standing for a single moment if God withdraws from it his controlling hand.

Indeed, the very expression employed by the Lord, “My Father is working until now,” points to the continuousness of his work by which he holds together and manages the whole of creation. It could, you see, have been understood differently if he had said, “and is now working,” where we would not have to take the work as being continuous. But by saying “until now,” he forces us to understand it in the other sense as meaning, that is, from the time when he had worked at the original establishment of all things. ON THE LITERAL INTERPRETATION OF GENESIS 4.11[.21]-12 [.23]. [2]

[1] Jn 19:30.

[2] WSA 1 13:253-54**.

THE FATHER CONTINUES THE WORK OF CREATION THROUGH THE SON

AUGUSTINE: Therefore it is as if he said to the Jews, “Why do you expect that I should not work on the sabbath? The sabbath day was ordained for you as a sign about me. You observe the works of God: I was there when they were made. They were all made by me…. The Father made the light, but he spoke that there should be light. If he spoke, it was by his Word that he made it. I was his Word, and I am [his Word]. The world was made by me in those works, and the world is also ruled by me in those works. My Father worked when he made the world, and he still works while he rules the world. Therefore, just as it was by me that he created when he made the world, so it is by me that he rules when he rules.” TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 17.15. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 7:116*.

5:18 | Making Himself Equal to God

HE CALLED GOD HIS OWN FATHER

THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: If he had simply called God his father, they would have not grumbled. But he called him his own Father as if he proceeded directly from him and was equal to him. COMMENTARY ON JOHN 2 5.18. [1]

[1] CSCO 4 3:105.

THE REASON FOR HOSTILITY

AMBROSE: The Evangelist testifies that in calling himself God’s own Son, Jesus made himself equal to God. For the Jews are not presented as saying, “For this cause we sought to kill him.” Rather, the Evangelist, speaking for himself, says, “For this reason the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him.” Moreover, he has discovered the cause, [in saying] that the Jews were stirred with desire to slay him because, when as God he broke the sabbath and also claimed God as his own Father, Jesus ascribed to himself not only the majesty of divine authority in breaking the sabbath but also, in speaking of his Father, the right pertaining to eternal equality. ON THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 2.8.68. [1]

[1] NPNF 2 10:232*.

A LESSER BEING COULD NOT BREAK THE SABBATH LAW WITH IMPUNITY

CHRYSOSTOM: If he had not been the very Son and of the same essence, the defense he offered here would have been worse than the charge. For no viceroy could clear himself from altering a royal law by asserting that the king also broke the law. Not only would he not escape, but he would even increase the weight of the charge against him. But in this instance, since the dignity is equal, the defense is valid. And so he says, in effect, “Absolve me from the same charges from which you absolve God.” HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 38.2. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 14:133**.

JEWS UNDERSTAND WHAT ARIANS DO NOT

AUGUSTINE: So, the Jews understood what the Arians do not. For the Arians say that the Son is not equal to the Father, and hence sprang up that heresy that afflicts the church. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 17.16. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 7:116*.

THEY KNEW WHAT CHRIST WAS CLAIMING

CHRYSOSTOM: But those who do not want to receive these words with a reasonable mind assert that Christ did not make himself equal to God, but only that the Jews thought he did. Come then and let us go over what was said from the beginning. Did the Jews persecute him or not? It is clear to everyone that they did. Did they persecute him for this [1] or something else? Again, it was for this. Did he then break the sabbath or not? No one can have anything to say against the fact that he did. Did he call God his Father, or did he not call him so? This is true too. Then the rest also follows. To call God his Father, to break the sabbath and to be persecuted by the Jews for these things does not belong to the realm of false imagination but is actual fact. This means that his making himself equal to God was a declaration that is true as well. [2] HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 38.3. [3]

[1] That is, of breaking the sabbath.

[2] Lit.“of the same meaning.”

[3] NPNF 1 14:133-34**.

THE EVANGELIST WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN SILENT IF THE JEWS WERE WRONG

CHRYSOSTOM: If Jesus had not wished to establish his equality and the Jews had made such a supposition without reason, Jesus would not have allowed their minds to be deceived. He would have corrected them. The Evangelist also would not have remained silent but would have plainly said that the Jews thought this but that Jesus did not actually make himself equal to God, which is what [John] had done elsewhere. [1] HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 38.3. [2]

[1] See Jn 2:19.

[2] NPNF 1 14:134**.

THE FLESH SEEN, BUT NOT THE WORD

AUGUSTINE: In one sense the Jews were right [about their indignation], because a man dared to make himself equal to God. But they were also wrong because they did not understand that it was God in the man. They saw the flesh, but they did not know God. They looked on the dwelling place, but they did not know the dweller. That flesh was a temple; God dwelt within it. Therefore Jesus did not equate his flesh to the Father. It was not the form of the servant that he compared to the Lord—not what he became for us, but what he was when he made us. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 18.2.1. [1]

[1] FC 79:125-26**.