The work of the son

JESUS

answered the Jews: “My Father is at work until now, so I am at work.” For this reason the Jews tried all the more to kill him, because he not only broke the sabbath but he also called God his own father, making himself equal to God. Jesus answered and said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, a son cannot do anything on his own, but only what he sees his father doing; for what he does, his son will do also. For the Father loves his Son and shows him everything that he himself does, and he will show him greater works than these, so that you may be amazed. For just as the Father raises the dead and gives life, so also does the Son give life to whomever he wishes. Nor does the Father judge anyone, but he has given all judgment to his Son, so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life and will not come to condemnation, but has passed from death to life. Amen, amen, I say to you, the hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in himself, so also he gave to his Son the possession of life in himself. And he gave him power to exercise judgment, because he is the Son of Man. Do not be amazed at this, because the hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and will come out, those who have done good deeds to the resurrection of life, but those who have done wicked deeds to the resurrection of condemnation. 30“I cannot do anything on my own; I judge as I hear, and my judgment is just, because I do not seek my own will but the will of the one who sent me.”

REFLECTION I SEEK… THE WILL OF THE ONE WHO SENT ME.

“A son cannot do anything on his own, but only what he sees his father doing” ( v 19). We can be easily misled into reading this statement to mean the inferiority of the Son, when in fact it discloses his equality with the Father and the intimacy of their relation. The Son “cannot do anything,” not because he is unable, but because his whole will is set on doing nothing “of his own accord.” Consequently, the Son doing “only what he sees the Father doing” says that everything he does is perfectly attuned to the Father’s will. Thus, everything the Son does necessarily reveals the Father’s will. Our insurmountable obstacle in comprehending this revealed truth is our almost total inability to see obedience as anything but subservience and subordination. Genuine obedience, such as the obedience of the Son to the Father, far from being the subordination of one to the other, is the manifestation of their union with one another.

To slaves, obedience will seem an insoluble paradox, but to lovers, it is only a truism. Those who truly love can do no other.