The Apprenticeship Model
Jesus gave them this answer: “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing of himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does” John 5:19,20
This is apprenticeship imagery. An apprentice copies the work of a qualified artisan. In the ancient world the artisan was often the father and the apprentice was one of his sons. The artisan would show his son what to do. The son would watch every move the father made and learn to do it exactly the same way.
‘For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does.’ Our understanding of God acting through His Son is grounded not only in the love of God for the world (3:16), a love which moves the Father to impart Himself to sinners, but also in the love of God for His Son, a love which moves the Father to reveal His deeds to His Son.
The context of this passage of scripture is the Jews’ charge against Jesus that by healing a paralytic on the Sabbath He has broken the Law. Jesus has already explained that just as God the Father continues to ‘work’ seven days a week (including the Sabbath) to care for His world, so, says Jesus, does He (5:17). The Jews understood Jesus to be setting Himself up as a rival to God (5:18). It would never have occurred to the Jews that Jesus was claiming to be the unique Son of God. He was never in a rivalry with God. He knew He had an equality with God but in the sense of a unity in which the Son so submitted to the Father that the two were one in the works they did. “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can only do what he sees the Father doing, because whatever the Father does, the Son also does.”
At some point in their lives most thinking Christians have to work through the perceived difference between the God of the Old Testament and the life of Jesus. The early church faced this exact problem in countering the Marcion heresy. Our starting point is the wonderful truth that Jesus spoke the Father’s words (14:10) and did the Father’s deeds (5:19). Before coming to earth He had always been in the Father’s presence (1:1) and perfectly conveyed the Father’s heart to this world. Start here and you will soon discover further wonderful truths that shed increasing light on this ‘perceived’ difference.
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