Gospel Notes by Michael Whelan SM
Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come under judgment, but has passed from death to life.
25 “Very truly, I tell 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. 26 For just as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself; 27 and he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. 28 Do not be astonished at this; for the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice 29 and will come out—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation (John 5:24-29 – NRSV).
Introductory notes
General
Johannine scholar, Pheme Perkins, distinguishes the following parts in the Gospel of John:
I Prologue: The Word coming into the world – 1:1-18
II Book of Signs: ‘His own did not receive him . . .’ – 1:19-12:50
- Gathering disciples – 1:19-4:54
- Disputes over Jesus’ deeds and words: Is he from God? – 5:1-10:42
- Jesus gives life and receives death – 11:1-12:50
III Book of Glory: He gives them power to become children of God – 13:1-20:31
- The Last Supper Discourse – 13:1-17:26
- The Passion Narrative – 18:1-19:42
- Jesus is raised – 20:1-29
IV Epilogue: The Lord appears in Galilee – 21:1-25
Our text is situated in the Book of Signs – Disputes over Jesus’ deeds and words: Is he from God? The scene has shifted from Galilee to Jerusalem: “The Book of Signs opens a new subsection (5:1–10:42), which treats Jesus’ relation to some major Jewish liturgical feasts: sabbath (5:1–47), Passover (6:1–71), Tabernacles (7:1–10:21), and Dedication (10:22–42).
“John 5 begins with Jesus healing a paralyzed man on the sabbath (5:1–9), and this event becomes the cause of controversy (5:10–18). Like Jesus’ other miracles in John, this healing is a sign, and Jesus teaches that this sign reveals his unique relationship with the Father and the divine power with which he acts (5:19–47). These events mark the beginning of open hostility to Jesus from the Jerusalem religious authorities, whom John calls the Jews” (Francis Martin and Wright, William M. IV, The Gospel of John (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture) (p. 96). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition).
Specific
who hears … and has faith … possesses eternal life: “The same promise is given to everyone who believes in the Son, in 3:16, 36” (Raymond E Brown, (2008). The Gospel according to John (I–XII): Introduction, translation, and notes (Vol. 29), Yale University Press, 2008, 215).
whatever he (the Father) does: “The personal pronoun used for ‘he’ in reference to the Father is the strong ekeinos. This ‘lays stress upon the separate divine Person’ (Barrett, Gospel 259)” (Francis J Moloney, The Gospel of John, The Liturgical Press, 1998, 182).
the Father loves the Son: “This is the second time this has been affirmed (cf. 3:35). God’s love for the world is also the motive for the sending of the Son (cf. 3:16). This theme will gather momentum, but in this context it is the reason for the Father’s showing “all (panta) that he himself is doing.” See Hoskyns, Gospel 267–268” (Ibid.).
As the Father … so also the Son: The close association of the Father and the Son in giving life is made clear by “As … so also” (hōsper … houtōs). Jesus first affirms that the Son gives life, and later explains that this authority is given to him by the Father (v. 26) (Ibid).
has passed from death to life: The use of the perfect tense (metabebēken) of the verb ties the passage from a situation of sin (“death”) to “life,” to the acceptance of the word of Jesus within the present situation of the believer. This has been long regarded as “the strongest affirmation of realized eschatology … in the nt” (Beasley-Murray, John 76)” (Ibid).
The hour is coming and now is: “The association of the expression “and now is” (kai nun estin) with “the hour is coming” collapses traditional end-time eschatology into the present, yet the verbs of affirmation in the rest of v. 25 are in the future: “the dead will hear (akousousin) … those who hear will live (zēsousin).” While these futures are still to be read as belonging to the more realized view of “eternal life,” they look forward to the introduction of the traditional end-time eschatology in vv. 28–29 (Cf. Stimpfle, Blinde Sehen 84). On “life” and “eternal life” in the Fourth Gospel see J. G. van der Watt, “The Use of aiōnios in the Concept zōē aiōnios in John’s Gospel,” NT 31 (1989) 217–228” (Ibid).
as the Father has life … so he has granted the Son also to have life: “The Son’s life-giving activity was linked with the activity of the Father by means of “as … so also” (hōsper … houtōs) in v. 21. In v. 26 the basis of the Son’s lifegiving authority is provided. It is granted him by the Father. Again the parallel between the Father and the Son is created by “as … so” (hōsper … houtōs). God’s Sabbath activity does not cease; it is granted to the Son (cf. v. 17)” (Ibid).
Life?
In today’s Gospel – John 5:24-29 – the Greek noun, zōē – “life” – is used five times. The same noun recurs almost fifty times in John’s Gospel. The word is used at the very beginning of the Gospel when John announces the great mystery of the Incarnation: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people” (1:3-5). In the middle of the Gospel, Jesus proclaims: “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (10:10).
Sometimes in the words of remembrance for a loved one, we hear it said that they “lived life to the full.” That is a nice thing to say about someone. But is it using the word “life” with the same meaning that it has in John’s Gospel?
On seventeen of those occasions when John’s Gospel speaks of “life,” he uses the adjective aiōnios – “eternal.” He speaks of “eternal life.” Our experience is that life is limited by death. That is, life is not eternal. Jesus is saying that the “life” he is offering embraces and overcomes everything we know as limitation. Death, the great limitation, becomes the servant of “life.” At the tomb of Lazarus, Jesus says to Martha: “‘I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die’” (11:25-26).
This moves us towards what we Christians mean when we speak of “life.” In the parable of the vine (15:1-9), Jesus describes the “life” he is offering as an abiding in his love. This may not seem like “life to the full” as measured by the world. Indeed, Jesus’ death on the cross looks like the very opposite of what we think of as “life to the full.” However, John tells us otherwise: “For this is how God loved the world: he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life” (3:15-16).
The “life” about which we Christians speak – the Christian “life” – comes through Jesus’ death. We believe that his dying has liberated our true potential for “life to the full.” Through him, with him and in him, we have discovered the greatest of all paradoxes, that we live by dying. I am speaking of the daily dying of personal sacrifice, self-forgetfulness to care for another, willingness to suffer for the sake of the truth, commitment to enduring the tedious and the uncomfortable for the sake of the common good. In this way we enter a pattern of living that makes our final dying Passover rather than termination, a beginning rather than an ending.