NOTES for Joh 5:1-24
Gradually the Lord begins to reveal to the disciples, and not only to them, the mystery of His ministry. He came to earth to “do” what His Father “does.” Just as the Father gives life to people on the Sabbath, so Jesus gives them life with the Father's own life. He has the right to do this because He is the Father's presence and the one who carries out His work—to judge and to give life. The Evangelist calls us to the breakthrough that he names faith: to see what is not obvious, to see behind what happens in our lives—whether a healing or a sense of divine peace in the heart—the face of Jesus, who fulfills the Father's will and leads us to know the One whom we cannot see by ourselves, but whom we await and honor. And whoever honors the Father must treat the One He sent with equal honor and love.