‘The Apprentice’ who never gets fired – 4th Week of Lent, Wednesday
John 5: 17- 30

You are listening to Christology from the very lips of Jesus, not some theologian. Jesus is discussing His equality with the Father and He does this in a number of places in the gospels. It is this teaching, combined with His healing of the cripple on the Sabbath, that triggers off the plot to kill Jesus (verse 18).

In this pericope, we see two sections describing the activity of the Son; namely that He ‘gives life’ and He ‘judges’. It is through Jesus that one goes to the Father. He is not only the ‘true agent of the Father’ (JBC), but He is also an excellent ‘apprentice’! All through his gospel in 7:18, 8:28 and 14:10, John will tell us that Jesus never acts on His own authority, but only on what He hears from the Father.