John 5:24: Part One - The Burden of Legal Righteousness

by Evangelist Frank Tyler

I. Introduction

Nicodemus, a Pharisee and teacher of Israel (John 3:1-21), a woe-begotten Samaritan adulteress (4:4-26), an entire village of Samaritans accounted as a whitened harvest (John 4:28-42), and a nobleman from Cana pleading for his son’s life (John 4:46-53)—Jesus’ disciples, themselves a motley group of whoevers (John 1:35-51), witness the power of Jesus’ loyal covenantal or promissory love poured out freely on an ever-widening array of unrepentant whoevers under the most unpredictable of life circumstances. Each of these individuals comes to Jesus and believes in Him as the Christ, the Son of God and in His promise of eternal life; each of these individuals receives the very thing our Lord promises to whoever believes in Him—eternal or everlasting life.

In John chapter 5, our Lord returns from Galilee to Judea, the very heartbeat of Judaism, in order to undertake in earnest His ministry to the Judean authorities. Many critics contend that this chapter marks the start of a fictionalized account riddled with the anti-Semitic prejudices and theology native to the late first century and early second century church. Are the Judean authorities, Pharisees, Sadducees, Priests, and Scribes, the slandered victims of early church prejudices? Or, do the interactions between Jesus and the Judean authorities recorded in this chapter manifest the depths of God’s loyal covenantal love, chesed? If Jesus loves these leaders and they remain zealous for their God in seeking Israel’s Messiah and His kingdom, then how do Jesus and His promise of eternal life, so transparent and obvious to all of the aforementioned whoevers, escape the very individuals entrusted to seek out, on behalf of the nation of Israel, the Messiah and His Kingdom?

II. Does Chapter 5 Reveal an Anti-Semitic Bias in John?

The Apostle records Jesus healing a man at the pool by the Sheep Gate and the reaction of the Judean authorities (John 5:16-18) to that healing. Why would the Judean authorities persecute and seek to kill Jesus? To many this proves vexing. Afterall, He has just healed a man who suffered an infirmity for 38 years. Some scholars suggest you and I simply dismiss John’s account of Jesus relationship with the Jews in chapter 5 as an anti-Semitic diatribe.

The Charge of Anti-Semitism

According to the esteemed Jewish scholar Geza Vermes in his book, The Changing Faces of Jesus:

Contrast this with the heinous intent displayed again and again from the relatively early stages by “the Jews” in John (5:16, 18 ; 7:19, 25). The Fourth Gospel represents Jesus as forced to escape to Galilee because in Judaea the Jews (Ioudaioi) were threatening his life (7:1). According to John, this bloodthirstiness revealed the true color of the Jews: they behaved like their father, the devil, who was a “murderer from the beginning” (8:44). Though they claim to be “the sons of Abraham” (8:37, 40), they were descended from the prince of darkness. John’s hatred of the Jews was fierce. I often wonder whether he could possibly have been Jewish himself. (underlining added)

If Vermes questions whether John was even Jewish, then clearly, he questions the historicity of John’s account also.

In his book A Moral Reckoning, Daniel Jonah Goldhagen notes roughly 130 anti-Semitic passages in John and asks the larger question, “Put simply, how can anyone see this immoral and hate-inducing charge against the entire Jewish people of collective and intergenerational guilt for what was indisputably the Roman authorities’ crucifixion of Jesus as being anything but antisemitism and a blood libel?” Again, is the Gospel of John the product of an early church theology imbued with hatred for the Jewish people? If so, then the rejection Jesus experiences in John chapter 5 marks the beginning of a carefully orchestrated theological tale and not a legitimate historical record of the conflict between Jesus and the leadership of Israel.

Some Christian authors engage this same issue… granted from a different point of view. In his commentary originally copywritten in 1945, Arthur Pink writes:

Unspeakably solemn is this, for it makes manifest, in all its hideousness, that carnal mind which is enmity against God… That a wondrous miracle had been wrought could not be gainsaid. Unable to refute it, the Jews now vented their malice by persecuting the Divine Healer, and seeking to put Him to death. They sought to kill Him because He had healed on the Sabbath day. What a situation! (underlining added)

Former Pastor of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia (1968-2000) and teacher on The Bible Study Hour radio program, James Boice writes:

What does this mean? Well, it means that the Jews of Christ’s day did what organized religion often does. They formed a committee. The purpose of this committee was to find a way to trap Jesus.We would call it a lynching committee. (underlining added)

Another popular author and commentator, John MacArthur writes:

The die was cast… As impossible as it is to imagine, the Jews’ opposition to their own Messiah would harden and intensify until they finally were able to satisfy their wicked hearts when they “crucified the Lord of glory ” (1 Cor. 2:8)

Ironically, the words of many Christian writers, like Pink, Boice, and MacArthur, only help legitimize Vermes and Goldhagen’s accusation that John is anti-Semitic.

Dating the Gospel of John

Many conservative Christian scholars date the Gospel of John from 80 to 90AD:

Because the writings of some church fathers indicate that John was actively writing in his old age and that he was already aware of the synoptic Gospels, many date the Gospel sometime after their composition, but prior to John’s writing of 1, 2, and 3 John or Revelation. John wrote his Gospel c. A.D. 80-90, about fifty years after he witnessed Jesus’ earthly ministry.

Many liberal scholars who dismiss John as a theological account from the early second century church date John from 100 to 110AD. Vermes writes:

[T]he highly evolved doctrine of John points to a period posterior to the redaction of the Synoptic Gospels, which is estimated to have taken place in the course of the last quarter of the first century A.D. Likewise the split reflected in John between Judaism and Christianity, with followers of Jesus being expelled from the synagogue, is hardly conceivable before the turn of the first century A.D. I subscribe therefore to the opinion held by mainstream New Testament scholarship that the work was published in the early second century probably between the years 100 and 110.

Both conservative and liberal ranges, 80-90AD and 100-110AD respectively, fail to adequately consider the prophetic ramifications of Jerusalem’s destruction in 70AD and the date of John’s witness implied in chapter twenty-one of his account.

Prior to the cross, Jesus prophesizes vivid details of the city’s impending destruction.

19:41 Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it,

19:42 saying, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.

19:43 For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side,

19:44 and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation.” (Luke 19:41-44)

Jesus weeps knowing the 70AD destruction of Jerusalem and its future ramifications for His people. To ignore the fulfillment of this prophecy in dating the New Testament as a whole, manifests a thinly veiled disregard for the catastrophic nature of Jerusalem’s destruction in 70AD.

In victory, the Romans slaughtered thousands. Of those spared from death: thousands more were enslaved and sent to toil in the mines of Egypt, others were dispersed to arenas throughout the Empire to be butchered for the amusement of the public. The Temple’s sacred relics were taken to Rome where they were displayed in celebration of the victory.

Josephus records that over a million Jews died and that Rome utterly decimated the temple and city; no New Testament writer, let alone the beloved disciple John, would fail to record this fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy.

Those who fictionalize John’s eyewitness account as the work of the early church overlook the historical reality of his eyewitness at their own expense. Consider the Apostle John’s own words as he concludes his account:

21:24 This is the disciple who testifies of these things, and wrote these things; and we know that his testimony is true.

21:25 And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. Amen.

(John 21:24-25; underlining added)

In light of the immediate context established previously in John 21:2, [ Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of His disciples were together (underlining added)], serious consideration of verse 24, [ and we know that his testimony is true (underlining added)] reveals that John wrote his account before the death of his brother James in ca. 41AD.

That Jesus’ prophecy regarding the destruction of Jerusalem was brutally fulfilled and yet no New Testament writer mentions its fulfillment renders any date after 70AD highly improbable. Similarly, to date the writing of John’s gospel by ignoring the internal witness within his account reveals a preexisting bias that John wrote a spiritual or theological account that by nature must remain historically suspect. Given the weight of internal evidence, you and I ought to conclude that John recorded his eyewitness testimony of Jesus on or before ca. 41AD, well before the late first century or early second century Christian church.

Translating Ioudaioi

Most translations of John render the Greek word, Ioudaioi, as an entire people group defined by ethnic background, the Jews; however, according to New Testament scholar J. Ramsey Michael, a better translation in John is “priestly or scribal leadership.”

But more likely, “the Jews” (hoi Ioudaioi) serves here and throughout the Gospel as an umbrella term for both priestly and scribal leadership in Israel, especially in Jerusalem. Because of the close link to Jerusalem, “Judeans” (that is, residents of Judea) is a possible translation in some places, but the accent in the term is on religion rather than geography, specifically on religious authority and the determination of religious practice.

Judean authorities would include those persons in positions of authority or administration within Judaism: Pharisees, Sadducees, Priests, and Scribes. To properly exercise authority over the nation of Israel requires access to the temple, hence the importance of living in close proximity, Judea, to the heartbeat of Judaism, Jerusalem. Vermes acknowledges this possibility, “…one of the most dismaying features of the Fourth Gospel is its determined claim that the Jews, or at least the inhabitants of Judea—the Greek Ioudaioi can designate either—were profoundly and universally inimical to Jesus.”

Immediate Context

As already noted, within John, Jesus offers the gift of eternal life to an ever-widening array of individual whoevers: his disciples (Galilean Jews), a Pharisee named Nicodemus and his students (Judean Jews), a Samaritan adulteress and the men of her village (Samaritans), and a nobleman from Cana (Galilean or Judean Jew). Furthermore, within John’s account, Jesus, Himself, a Judean, reaches out to bless a wedding in Cana of Galilee, a nobleman from that same town in Galilee, and a man who has been infirmed for 38 years, likely a Judean. Not once does Jesus show a scintilla of prejudice towards any of these individuals. The charge that beginning in chapter 5, the Apostle John portrays the Jewish people in a hateful manner finds little traction within the immediate context. Perhaps most vexing of all, Jesus responds to the Judean authorities in John 5 by promising them eternal life. Surely, this act does not reflect anti-Semitism.

Summary

Although some scholars dismiss the Gospel of John as an early church diatribe against the Jews, the apostle John writes his account before his brother’s death ca. 41AD. As an eyewitness, John documents in detail an ongoing conflict beginning in chapter 5 between Jesus and the Judean authorities—not the Jewish people. The immediate context prior to John chapter 5 reveals no trace of hatred against any individual or group of individuals whether Judean, Galilean, Samaritan or Gentile. Lastly, as commentator D. A. Carson aptly observes, “Certainly ‘anti-Semitism’ is scarcely a reasonable charge against the Evangelist (Apostle John) in any case, granted that he himself was a Jew.”

III. The Yoke of Legalism and Legal Righteousness

Jesus’ actions and words addressed to the Judean authorities reveal a very serious concern for them—not a prejudice against the Jewish people. The authorities’ failure to believe in Jesus as the Christ and receive the gift of life and righteousness He promises to them cannot be dismissed as the by-product of an anti-Semitic caricature or theological diatribe propagated by the early church. The yoke that binds these authorities has far deeper roots.

The Restoration of the Second Temple

The origins of the conflict between Jesus and the Judean authorities date to the restoration of the second temple. Knowing the time of Israel’s 70 year dispersion would soon come to an end, Daniel acknowledges Israel’s sin, repents for the nation of Israel, and petitions the Lord for His blessing. According to Daniel, the law of Moses condemns the nation, but the great mercies or loyal covenantal love of God brings deliverance: O my God, incline Your ear and hear; open Your eyes and see our desolations, and the city which is called by Your name; for we do not present our supplications before You because of our righteous deeds, but because of Your great mercies (Daniel 9:18; underlining added). The righteousness of faith permeates Daniel’s prayer from start to finish. In response to this greatly beloved prophet, God sends His angel Gabriel and reveals His timetable for Messiah’s coming (Daniel 9:23-27). God is faithful; Israel’s Messiah comes!

Upon returning to the land, Ezra learns of disobedience among both the people and leadership of Israel, but especially the leadership:

9:1 “The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands, with respect to the abominations of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites.

9:2 For they have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons, so that the holy seed is mixed with the peoples of those lands . Indeed, the hand of the leaders and rulers has been foremost in this trespass. ” (Ezra 9:1-2; underling added)

The leaders and rulers entrusted with the holy seed not only allowed, but also encouraged by their example, the mixing of that seed with foreign pagans. From the seed of David comes Israel’s Messiah; no one in leadership could mistake God’s Word on this matter; knowing the consequences for the nation of Israel, Ezra laments bitterly. Rebuilding the walls and temple of the Holy City and then dedicating the temple and celebrating Passover (Ezra 6:15-22) without God’s blessing and hope in His coming Messiah represent the epitome of vanities. Recall that when Daniel prayed for Israel’s return to the land, God answered him with a timetable for Messiah’s coming. Rightly, Ezra cried out: O my God, I am too ashamed and humiliated to lift up my face to You, my God; for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has grown up to the heavens (Ezra 9:6).

Thankfully, God’s loyal covenantal love or chesed for the nation proves greater. As Ezra weeps, others follow his example in lamenting the nation’s sin, until Shechaniah speaks to Ezra:

10:2 We have trespassed against our God, and have taken pagan wives from the peoples of the land; yet now there is hope in Israel in spite of this.

10:3 Now therefore, let us make a covenant with our God to put away all these wives and those who have been born to them, according to the advice of my master and of those who tremble at the commandment of our God; and let it be done according to the law.

10:4 Arise, for this matter is your responsibility. We also are with you. Be of good courage, and do it.” (Ezra 10:2-4; underlining added)

Ezra dutifully responds and leads the nation in repentance and obedience, but instead of placing faith in the one True God of Israel—His tender mercies and boundless grace—and crying out for His Messiah, Ezra leads Israel in making a new covenant with God. First the leadership (Ezra 10:5), and then the people (Ezra 10:11-12) covenant themselves to put away their pagan wives. Even among the priesthood they gave their promise that they would put away their wives; and being guilty, they presented a ram of the flock as their trespass offering (Ezra 10:19).

Nehemiah records the making of a covenant also (Nehemiah 9:1-38):And because of all this, [w]e make a sure covenant and write it; [o]ur leaders, our Levites, and our priest seal it (Nehemiah 9:38).

10:28 Now the rest of the people—the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, the Nethinim, and all those who had separated themselves from the peoples of the lands to the Law of God, their wives, their sons, and their daughters, everyone who had knowledge and understanding—

10:29 these joined with their brethren, their nobles, and entered into a curse and an oath to walk in God’s Law, which was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the LORD our Lord, and His ordinances and His statutes :

(Nehemiah 10:28-29; underlining added)

Verse 29 clearly links this process of covenanting within the larger framework of the blessings and curses found in the Mosaic Covenant (Deuteronomy 30:11-20). Sadly, at this time, Israel fails to understand the purpose of the law to bring the nation and people to faith in their Messiah who will circumcise the heart of His people: the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live (Deuteronomy 30:6; Jeremiah 31:31-34). As his account closes, Nehemiah records his personal struggles with priests who have intermarried with pagan wives (Nehemiah 13:23-29) and concludes: Thus I cleansed them of everything pagan. I also assigned duties to the priests and the Levites, each to his service, and to bringing the wood offering and the firstfruits at appointed times. Remember me, O my God, for good! (Nehemiah 13:30-31).

A More Rigorous Approach

With the establishment of the second temple, the battles, like those Ezra and Nehemiah engaged to bring God’s people into conformity with the law of Moses, encourage a more rigorous approach to understanding and enforcing the law. Despite having 613 written laws, the Judean authorities (Pharisees, Sadducees, Priests, and Scribes) will develop an unwritten administrative tradition in order to interpret and enforce the law of Moses. Today these administrative traditions are commonly referred to as the oral traditions or the Oral Torah. In his blog, The Times of Israel, Israel Drazin writes: “The general scholarly and rabbinical view is that the Oral Torah blossomed during the Second Temple period, when Judeans, as Jews were called at that time, who had returned from the Babylonian exile were faced with new problems that the [Written] Torah did not address and others that were addressed but needed updating to fit the situations they found” (underlining added). Eventually, these oral traditions were written down: “According to Jewish tradition, the Oral Torah was passed down orally in an unbroken chain from generation to generation until its contents were finally committed to writing following the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE , when Jewish civilization was faced with an existential threat, by virtue of the dispersion of the Jewish people” (underlining added). The written record of the oral traditions, you and I know today as the Talmud composed of both the Mishnah and Gemera.

Rabbis of the Talmudic era conceived of the Oral Torah in two distinct ways. First Rabbinic tradition saw the Oral Torah as an unbroken chain of transmission… Second, the Rabbis also viewed the Oral Torah as an interpretive tradition, and not merely as memorized traditions . They saw the written Torah as containing many levels of interpretation. It was left to later generations, who were steeped in the oral tradition of interpretation, to discover those (“hidden”) interpretations not revealed by Moses . (Underlining added)

During Christ’s earthly ministry, you and I might identify the Pharisees as the primary practitioners of this “interpretive tradition.” However, the Judean authorities, including the Sadducees, Priests, and Scribes, all depended upon the unwritten oral traditions to one degree or another to administer the Mosaic law to God’s people. While there is no explicit statement within God’s word revealing an oral tradition, the concept of an Oral Torah with authority similar to the Written Torah evolves over time to further refine the application of the Mosaic law.

The Law as Tutor

Although avoiding another exile from the land motivates the Judean authorities to develop the oral traditions or Oral Torah, the ultimate and God-given function of the law remains as a tutor to bring God’s people to understand their need for Messiah, His deliverance and kingdom. As earnest as the flesh of man may be at any moment in time to obey the law, only God can circumcise the heart through faith in His Son. Nevertheless, in order to bless the nation, the formula expressed by Moses to Israel, repent and obey God’s commandments (Deuteronomy 30:1-2), remains the standard for the Judean authorities during Christ’s earthly ministry. In contrast, when calling the nation to receive her Messiah and His kingdom, Jesus gives the command to repent and believe the gospel (Mark 1:15). As the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29), He will soon fulfill the righteous requirement of the law of Moses on the cross.

In Deuteronomy 30:12-14, Moses speaks of the imminence of the commandment:

30:12 It [the commandment] is not in heaven, that you should say, “Who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’

30:13 Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, “Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’

30:14 But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it. (Deuteronomy 30:12-14; underlining added)

In his epistle to the Romans, the Apostle Paul refers to this very passage, but changes the referent from the commandment to Christ:

10:6 But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ down from above)

10:7 or, “ ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).

10:8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach):

(Romans 10:6-8; underlining added)

Again, note the shift from the commandment in Deuteronomy to Christ in Romans—from doing the law of Moses to faith in Christ that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved (Romans 10:9). For the born-again believer, the power to live a righteous life does not reside in the law, but in the power and strength of our Lord and Savior and the indwelling Spirit: For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation (Romans 10:10). Jesus delivers all those who believe in Him unto righteousness; and for those who have believed in Him, He continues delivering from the death dealing consequences of sin—those believers who confess with their mouth. The power of the law to justify and sanctify, if ever it had any semblance of power, was broken once for all on the cross. Jesus justifies all who believe in Him and sanctifies all who confess with their mouth.

The Apostle Paul sums up the dilemma faced by the nation of Israel

and its leadership.

10:3 For they [unbelieving Jews] being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.

10:4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

10:5 For Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law, “The man who does those things shall live by them.” (Romans 10:3-5)

The issues stumbling the Pharisees, Sadducees, Priests, and Scribes during Jesus’ ministry to the nation of Israel have very deep roots, but ultimately revolve around issues of righteousness and how that righteousness is attained: at the corporate or national level, repent and obey the law of Moses or repent and believe in the good news of Messiah. In John chapter 5, the contrast could not be starker for the individual between righteousness attained by works and righteous imputed by faith in Jesus.

As leaders of Israel, concerned with the deliverance of the nation from foreign oppression, these individuals diligently search for the coming Messiah and His kingdom (John 1:19-27). Sadly, they mistakenly hold on to the righteousness of the law and are blind to the righteousness of faith; they remain under God’s tutor, the law of Moses, awaiting the knowledge of Christ, even as Christ, Himself, stands before them.

Far from being an anti-Semitic ploy on the part of John, their reaction to Jesus in John chapter 5, though sinful, is quite earnest. The law makes sin more apparent (Romans 5:20).

5:16 For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath.

5:17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.”

5:18 Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God . (John 5:16-18; underlining added)

That Jesus elects to heal an infirmed man on the Sabbath challenges the Judean authorities as individuals to move from their dependence on the law and their oral traditions to faith in Him as the Christ, the Son of God.

John 5:1-18: The Healing of an Infirmed Man on the Sabbath

At the pool of Bethesda, God manifests His love and compassion for His people by miraculously healing the blind, lame and paralyzed, such that a great multitude continually await the stirring of the waters (John 5:3-4).

5:5 Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years.

5:6 When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?” (John 5:5-6)

This man may be a paralytic; afterall, he suffers from a serious long-term infirmity that leaves him crippled and laying on his bed unable to walk to the pool when the waters are stirred up (John 5:7).

5:8 Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.”

5:9 And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked. And that day was the Sabbath. (John 5:8-9)

The instantaneous healing of this man is a sign that corresponds directly with the ongoing miraculous healings experienced by others at the pool; Jesus demonstrates the same love and compassion for the infirmed that God the Father has already manifest at the pool of Bethesda.

The reaction of the Judean authorities embodies their understanding of righteousness according to the law: It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your bed (John 5:10). Enforcing what is right before God according to the law or oral traditions takes precedence over an individual’s healing. Upon hearing from the previously infirmed man the identity of the One promoting this seemingly blatant violation of the Sabbath (John 5:15), the Judean authorities persecute Jesus and seek to kill Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath (John 5:16). When Jesus answers, My Father has been working until now, and I have been working (John 5:14), the Judeans understand Him to mean that He is equal to God; Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him (John 5:18).

A man caught carrying his bed on the Sabbath grieves the authorities; however, Jesus’ miraculous healing of this individual on the Sabbath grieves them far more, for it undermines the oral traditions developed by the Judean authorities over centuries following the building of the second temple. More importantly, Jesus’ claim of equality with God rings as blasphemy in their ears. In their eyes, Jesus promotes disobedience and sets a dangerous precedent which eventually leads not to blessing, but cursing. The very notion of a blasphemer promoting lawlessness and evidencing Himself with miraculous signs as Israel’s Messiah deeply rankles these Judean authorities.

At the heart of the Judean’s virulent response resides a divine affirmation that God approves Jesus’ miraculous healing of the infirmed man on the Sabbath; otherwise, how does Jesus heal the man? Likewise, how does God hear sinners let alone heal them on the Sabbath lest He forgive their sins? In time, the response of these authorities to this affirmation will grow so virulent that they themselves begin acting as a rabble deafened by the din of their own indignation. Consider the future interaction between Nicodemus and his fellow Pharisees.

7:48 Have any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed in Him?

7:49 But this crowd that does not know the law [oral traditions] is accursed.”

7:50 Nicodemus (he who came to Jesus by night, being one of them) said to them,

7:51 “Does our law [oral traditions] judge a man before it hears him and knows what he is doing?”

7:52 They answered and said to him, “Are you also from Galilee? Search and look, for no prophet has arisen out of Galilee.” (John 7:48-52)

Again, the intensity of their response will eventually cause them to openly disregard their oral traditions and the law of Moses without hearing Jesus. Nonetheless, the Divine affirmation stands: My Father has been working until now, and I have been working (John 5:14). The Messiah they so diligently seek, stands before them as a threat to their understanding of the law and oral traditions they consider vital to proper relations with the One True God of Israel.

Keeping the Sabbath

First recorded in Exodus 20:8-11, keeping the Sabbath is one of the ten commandments God gave to Moses on Mount Sinai. Consider the later elaboration of this command God in Exodus 31:12-17:

31:14 You shall keep the Sabbath, therefore, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people.

31:15 Work shall be done for six days, but the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death . (Exodus 31:14-15; underlining added)

For individual Israelites, God spells out the consequences for violating the Sabbath, physical death; however, the consequences for the nation are no less draconian as the leadership of Israel has learned from the harsh realities of despotic foreign rule, both during the time of Daniel and currently under the heel of the Romans (Deuteronomy 30:11-20). In light of these fears, what are the works Israel must avoid on the Sabbath to ensure compliance with God’s commandment?

To gain an idea of how heavy the yoke of legalism was during Jesus’ day, consider that even to this day, the Mishna lists 39 melakhot as categories defining various works to avoid on the Sabbath.

The Four Orders of Bread, Garments, Hides and Construction

Bread	Garments	Hides	Construction
Planting, Plowing, Reaping, Gathering, Threshing/Extraction, Winnowing, Sorting/Purification, Dissection, Sifting, Kneading/ Amalgamation, Cooking/Baking,	Shearing, Scouring/ Laundering, Carding/Combing Wool, Dyeing, Spinning, Warping, Making Two Loops/Threading Heddles, Weaving, Separating Two Threads, Tying, Untying, Sewing, Tearing,	Trapping, Killing, Flaying/Skinning, Curing/Preservation, Smoothing, Scoring, Measured Cutting,	Writing, Erasing, Construction, Demolition, Extinguishing a Fire, Ignition, Final Completion/ Fine- tuning/Perfecting, Transferring Between Domains

During the time of Jesus’ ministry, some of these same categories of work were likely defined differently in the oral traditions. Even so, you and I struggle to find any of these explicit categories of work in the command God gives Moses in Exodus 31:12-17. In this sense, the Judean authorities’ offense, though entirely genuine, is unfounded.

The Prophet Jeremiah, himself a contemporary of Daniel, exhorts both the people and leaders of Israel to:

17:21 … bear no burden on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem;

17:22 nor carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day, nor do any work, but hallow the Sabbath day , as I commanded your fathers.

17:23 But they did not obey nor incline their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear nor receive instruction.

17:24 “And it shall be, if you heed Me carefully,” says the LORD, “to bring no burden through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but hallow the Sabbath day, to do no work in it,

17:25 then shall enter the gates of this city kings and princes sitting on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their princes, accompanied by the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and this city shall remain forever .

(Jeremiah 17:21-25; underlining added)

According to this passage, would a healed man carrying his bed on the Sabbath qualify as failure to hear and heed God’s command to hallow the Sabbath? How to interpret terms like burden, carry, work, hallow, etc. becomes imperative for those who rule over the nation; indeed, to those who heed God carefully comes the fulfillment of the blessed promise of Messiah’s kingdom… and this city shall remain forever (Jeremiah 17:25). While the Judean authorities may have worked diligently for centuries to interpret the meaning of these Scriptures and their oral traditions, there stands before them One who knows the meaning perfectly… indeed He is Himself that Word (John 1:1). He is the One who circumcises the heart.

The Branch of Righteousness

According to the Prophet Jeremiah, although God condemns Judea for ungodliness, and although He will soon exile Judea to a foreign land, God promises He will raise to David a Branch of righteousness.

23:5 “Behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD,

“That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness;

A King shall reign and prosper,

And execute judgment and righteousness in the earth.

23:6 In His days Judah will be saved,

And Israel will dwell safely;

Now this is His name by which He will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. (Jeremiah 23:5-6; underlining added)

Following the rebuilding of the second temple, the Judean authorities diligently search for Israel’s Messiah, the One who executesjudgment and righteousness in the earth whose name is The Lord Our Righteousness. The stakes could not be any higher, for the Lord also promises: Therefore, behold… As the LORD lives who brought up and led the descendants of the house of Israel from the north country and from all the countries where I had driven them.’ And they shall dwell in their own land (Jeremiah 23:7-8; underlining added). God reaffirms His promise again in Jeremiah 33:14-16 with a subtle variation: In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell safely. And this is the name by which she will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS (Jeremiah 33:16; underlining added). God fulfilled His promise to return His people to the land following their seventy year exile. Centuries later, Jerusalem stands, but how can she be called by her Messiah’s name, The Lord Our Righteousness while groveling under the heel of Rome? Likewise, the second temple stands, clothed in Herodian splendor, awaiting her Messiah; how can a mere man who breaks the oral traditions and blasphemes God by insinuating He is equal to God beThe Lord Our Righteousness? Where is theBranch of righteousness… who executes judgment and righteousness in the earth? The challenge faced by the Judean authorities could not be more profound, for the Branch of righteousness is God the Son, who has made Himself fully man.

Summary

Today, you and I very easily account for the radical reality of Jesus’ person with the well-attested theological doctrine of the trinity, yet before we dismiss the dilemma faced by the Judean authorities with Jesus’ person and ministry, remember the trinity remains a source of continued debate within some circles in Christendom. As a doctrine, it defies human logic and easy explanation, because it describes the ineffable and utterly miraculous relationship between Jesus, the Father and the Holy Spirit. While the trinity is our most attested and best explanation of Jesus’ person in relationship to God the Father, it is an explanation the Judean authorities could not have readily grasped during our Lord’s earthly ministry.

With the advent of the second temple, the leadership of Israel focused evermore intently upon making the nation comply with the Mosaic law through the development and enforcement of the oral traditions. This focus, however well intended, led to the pursuit of legal righteousness. Today, Christians, not under the Mosaic law, but grace, oftentimes view this kind of activity as an extravagant and pointless exercise in legalism. On the other hand, given the consequences for failing to keep the Mosaic law, and had Jesus not gone to the cross to satisfy the righteous requirements of the law on behalf of all mankind, you and I might better sympathize with the efforts of the Jewish authorities to understand and enforce the law and oral traditions.

IV. Conclusion

John chapter 5 reveals no hint of the anti-Semitic prejudices and theology native to the late first century and early second century church. John wrote his account on or before 41AD and uses the term Jews to reference not the Jewish people, but the Judean authorities. Jesus evidences no bias against His people, the Jews, but must confront the Judean authorities mired in legalism with the truth of His person and ministry.

Small wonder that during His earthly ministry Jesus invites the multitudes to come to Him: Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light (Matthew 11:29-30). Tragically, the yoke that the Judean authorities seek to enforce is difficult for the people of Israel, but even more burdensome for themselves, because as leaders they remain blinded by a tyranny of their own making, the oral traditions and the pursuit of legal righteousness. Israel and in particular the Judean authorities remain under the tutor of the law. To this very lost group of individuals, Jesus now reaches out with an apologetic revealing the loyal covenantal or promissory love of God and the righteousness that comes only by faith in Him. The Messiah and God’s coming New Covenant alone can resolve the dilemma these Judean authorities face. Jesus is their only hope.

© 2020 by Frank Tyler; you may copy, print and give away freely, but you may not sell.

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