The Greater Things
“For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, to your amazement he will show him even greater things than these. For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgement to the Son, that all may honour the Son just as they honour the Father. He who does not honour the Son does not honour the Father who sent him” v John 5:20-23
Jesus had already performed many amazing miracles in Jerusalem, culminating in the healing of the paralytic at the pool of Bethesda (5:1-9). ‘Yes, to your amazement he will show him even greater things than these.’
The two ‘greater things’ the Father will ‘show’ His Son are that the Son will raise the dead (5:21) and that He will be the judge of all people (5:22). The Jews would have seen both as God’s right alone.
It was already a popular belief in Jesus’ day that God would raise the dead. There would come a day, they believed, when God, who as the Creator was committed to bringing justice to the world, would bring it to account. All evil would be exposed and condemned and all who had followed God’s way would be vindicated. To do this God would bring back people into bodily-life to face the consequences of their earthly life.
What Jesus is now saying is that the work of raising the dead has already begun. This is central to the work He is seeing the Father do and that He is doing alongside Him. It has already been demonstrated in the healing at the Pool of Bethesda. The word translated “Get up” there (5:8) is the usual term for resurrection (c.f. 5:28,29). It will continue with the raising of Lazarus and reach its peak when Jesus Himself goes through death and out the other side in resurrection life.
But the resurrection life that The Son will confer at the end of time is already being imparted in the here and now to those who respond to the voice of the Son. ‘I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life’ (5:24). The miracle of resurrection life is taking place inside these ones now so that, when they die physically, God will simply complete what He has already begun. The new birth is our present resurrection in this life and will finally produce the future bodily resurrection in the next life.
The second ‘greater thing’ the Father will ‘show’ His Son and bring ‘amazement’ is that the Son will be the judge of all people. ‘The Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgement to the Son.’ A few verses further on Jesus will explain ‘he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man’ (5:27). The term ‘Son of Man’ draws on Daniel 7 where ‘one like a son of man’ (Daniel 7:13) is given authority over the world, and particularly to bring God’s just judgement on the forces of evil that have oppressed God’s people.
The twin roles of raising the dead and judging the world are clearly linked. Bringing new creation to birth can only be done if the evil that has corrupted the old creation is named, shamed and judged justly. God will have the last say and He will do it through His Son.
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