Jehovah's Witness (John 5:31-40)

I am preaching this Sunday on Jesus' testimony before his critics in John 5:31-40. Here, Our Lord is in a kind of court-like situation. Having been accused of blasphemy and Sabbath-breaking (5:18), Jesus responds to this accusation. He responds that he is doing only what the Father has shown him (5:17, 19) and moves from here to describe the glorious things that the Father will indeed show him in time to come. In the end, Jesus reveals that the Father has shown him that he will indeed be the glorious Lord who will call the dead from the grave.

The question that presents itself (implicitly) is whether or not Jesus can prove it. In answer to this, Jesus brings in his witnesses: John the Baptist, his messianic works, but above all, the Father himself (along with Scripture and Moses). In the end, it is this last witness that counts the most. Our Lord claims that the Father is the one who endorses him--and in so doing, has tied the Father's honor to himself. If Jesus is lying, then the Father is lying. But since God cannot lie, then Jesus is telling the truth.

While we can be skeptical of this seemingly circular sort of reasoning on the part of our Lord, I think it is telling that he uses such reasoning to begin with. For him, the Father's witness is enough. It is sufficient. And it should be sufficient for us as well. Yes, we can appeal to all the evidences for Christianity that we want; we can use all the testimonials that we can gather, and there is much merit in those things. They are aids to our faith. But in the end, the Father is evidence enough. The Father is the ground for the Son's identity. He is the supreme witness. And if the Father proves the Son, then we shoud agree with the Father's testimony. Not to do so would be to call God a liar. And no man who defames YHWH's name will be guiltless. May the Lord cause us to agree with his evaluation of the Son. May the Lord give us the ability to agree with everything in us that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Lord of the Day of Judgment--and to love that truth above all else.