Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                 Chapter Five

                                                                                                                                      Verses 16-19

The unbelieving Jews persecuted Jesus by threatening to kill Him, probably by stoning Him to death, simply because He had healed the impotent man on the Sabbath. They threatened Jesus with immediate death many times in His ministry, but His Father always protected Him until the time came for Him to go to the cross. If they had stoned Jesus, or thrown Him off a cliff, the Romans probably would not have cared. But when those who hated Jesus finally arrested Him and sentenced Him to death, they ignored their own law and turned Him over to the Romans to be crucified because they wanted to humiliate Him and cause Him to suffer in the most horrible way possible.

Jesus did not back down from them. In fact, He gave them an even better reason for their desire to kill Him. Jesus told them that He could do the same good works that His Father could do. Since there happens to be only one God, then these unbelieving Jews understood perfectly that Jesus claimed to be God. Jesus' claim enraged these unbelievers even more, but they could not hurt Jesus because He used His great power to neutralize their wills to do so.

Jesus must have enjoyed watching them become even more enraged, and yet impotent in their wills to stone Him because He doubled His claim to be God. Jesus told them that He could see everything that His Father did and that He could do everything that His Father did. One can only imagine how enraged they became after Jesus said that, and yet, they were not able to pick up any stones to throw at Him. One wonders why they did not ask themselves why they were not able to stone Jesus.