UNBLOCKING THE WELL OF THE LIVING WORD

John 4:43-5:47

Focus verse: ‘The Son can do nothing by himself. He can do only what he sees his father doing.’ (John 5:19) 

Old Testament lens: ‘Behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man.’ (Daniel 7:13) 

Jesus performs a healing miracle at the Pool of Bethesda, telling a man who had been paralysed for 38 years to ‘Get up, take up your bed, and walk’ — and he does. But this happens on the Sabbath, and that sparks strong opposition from ‘the Jews’ (likely including Pharisees), who see Jesus as breaking the Sabbath law. But Jesus doesn’t back down. Instead, He explains that His actions are not lawless — they’re part of the Father’s work. He boldly claims that He’s doing what He sees the Father doing and that He’s been given authority by God Himself. This deeply challenges the religious leaders, because Jesus, a man from Galilee with no formal religious education, is claiming to be equal with God. This chapter reveals that the opposition to Jesus wasn’t just about Sabbath laws — it was about who Jesus claimed to be.

Richard Hays, a New Testament scholar, points out that the religious leaders were deeply committed to the Scriptures, but ironically missed the one to whom the Scriptures pointed.(1)

Jesus calls Himself both the Son of God and the Son of Man in this passage. ‘Son of God’ recalls Old Testament texts like Psalm 2 and 2 Samuel 7, referring to a royal figure — God’s chosen king. But in John’s Gospel, Jesus reveals that He is God’s unique, only begotten Son, with heavenly origin and divine authority. He refers to Himself as the Son of Man, a title rooted in Daniel 7:13–14, where ‘one like a Son of Man’ comes with the clouds and is given authority, glory, and an everlasting kingdom. Here ‘Son of Man’ represents God’s people being vindicated. He shows that He both represents God’s people and is the one through whom God will judge the world. John makes clear that Jesus has been given authority to judge because He is the Son of Man (John 5:27). 

Tom Wright describes Jesus watching His Father work and doing the same, as a son learns a trade from his father.(2) And the greatest task the Father is doing, and that the Son now shares in, is raising the dead and giving life. Every time someone believes in Jesus, they are moving from death to life, a spiritual resurrection. 

The second half of John 5 (verses 30–47) shifts to the theme of witness. Jesus says He’s not testifying about Himself alone. John the Baptist testified about Him. The works Jesus does testify too. Even the Scriptures, including the Law of Moses, bear witness to Jesus. But His opponents refuse to come to Him for life. Jesus confronts them directly: ‘You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me.’ (John 5:39) He points out that Moses, whom they claim to follow, actually wrote about Him. So if they truly believed Moses, they would believe Jesus. This failure reveals they don’t really understand the Scriptures as they think they do. Finally, He says that they do not seek the glory that comes from God. (John 5:44) 

The Early Church Fathers who inspired the Celtic Church 

St Benedict of Nursia (480-547), Italy 

‘Listen carefully, my son, to the master’s instructions, and attend to them with the ear of your heart.’(3) 

This expresses the heart of St Benedict’s teaching: a listening, obedient, and loving heart open to God. Intimate prayer where the Son is in tune with the Father, hearing with a listening ear, was important to Benedict. It is also helpful to note that Benedict was from a different stream. He was a Church Father from the West rather the East. 

One particular story from the life of Benedict that would have likely inspired the Celtic Church was the story of the poisoned cup. In the early years of his monastic leadership, some monks became resentful of Benedict’s strict way of life. They attempted to poison his wine. Before drinking, Benedict, filled with discernment, blessed the cup, and it shattered, revealing the danger. He remained unharmed. ‘He made the sign of the cross over the cup, and it broke as if struck by a stone, spilling the poison.’ This episode became one of the signature miracles of St Benedict, symbolising divine protection and discernment. 

It is helpful to note that writings about the lives of the saints were often idealised pictures and often present the subject of these biographies in an extremely positive and often flawless light. 

St Brigid of Kildare rendered poison or impurity harmless through blessing. St Columba discerned danger in food or drink and blessed it so that it became safe. St Molua and St Ciarán of Clonmacnoise also have miracle stories involving blessing tainted drink or food. These parallels show a pattern rooted in early Christian stories of the saints, indicating divine protection through a saint’s blessing over harmful elements. A key feature of these stories, though, was a desire to seek the glory that comes from God (John 5:44) and to do what the Father was doing. They sought to encounter God and be transfigured into glory, and these stories (though possibly legendary rather than factual) all point to the relationship of the saints to Jesus. Jesus was asking regularly what the Father was doing, and so were the Celtic saints. 

REVIVAL

The Scriptures are meant to bring us into a living relationship with Jesus the Messiah, who boldly claimed that He did what He saw the Father doing. The works Jesus does — miracles, healings, signs — were real. They were not idealised pictures painting Jesus in a positive light. They testified to Jesus.

The early Christians were called people of ‘The Way’. They lived the Jesus way. What was the Jesus way? The Jesus way was to ask regularly of the Father, ‘What are you doing today, Father?’ 

Is this a prayer you pray when spending time with the Lord at the start of each day? Ask the Father today, ‘What are you doing today, Father?’ Corey Russell says that the longer he prays for revival, the shorter his prayers have become and the more he prays with tears, sighs and groans, not knowing exactly what he’s saying, but knowing that God hears him. The prayer that St Benedict describes in his ‘Rule’ was passionate as well as contemplative. Three times in his ‘Rule’, Benedict refers to tears: ‘tears of compunction’, ‘prayer with tears’ and ‘tears and spiritual concentration’. 

PRAYER

The Son does nothing on His own, but copies what the Father has shown. And just as life is in the Lord, the Son gives life by His own word. Lord, teach me how to line up with the prayers on Your heart, on the Father’s heart, that Your kingdom might come on earth as it is in heaven. Lord, teach me how to pray, even with tears, sighs and groans.

The Son does nothing on his own : (CLICK ON PICTURE TO LISTEN TO SONG)

________________________

(1) Hays, R. Echoes of Scripture in the Gospels, Baylor University Press, (2018), 3323, 333

(2) Wright, N.T. John for everyone, Part 1, SPCK, (2002), 62.

(3) Benedict of Nursia, Rule of St Benedict. (Prologue 1) Liturgical Press (1980)