NOTES for Ин 5:30-6:2
Speaking about the essence of His conflict with the Pharisees, Jesus places their distrust of God first. This would seem a strange accusation, for these were deeply religious people, ready to do much for their religion, including, if necessary, to make a sacrifice. Their religiosity did, of course, sometimes contain much harshness: readiness to die for their faith often went hand in hand with readiness to kill for that same faith. Yet both were done in the name of God and faith! Nevertheless, Jesus speaks of His listeners’ lack of love for and trust in God. Was this a peculiarity of Pharisaic religiosity? If it were, everything would be simpler, especially for us, who have nothing to do with the Pharisees’ religion. But matters are evidently not so simple. Jesus says plainly that it is not He who judges the Pharisees who reject Him, but the Torah, whose violation they try to accuse Him of. He replies that the Torah bears witness to Him. Such a statement may seem strange, for the Torah, unless one tries to interpret it through familiar forced readings, says nothing about the Messiah. Yet the Torah, on which Judaism is founded, has never been fully contained within it, just as it cannot be contained entirely within any religious framework. On the other hand, it was precisely the Torah, and above all, of course, the inner Torah of which those same Pharisees could not have been unaware, that should have led Jesus’ listeners beyond the bounds of their own religion and revealed something greater to them, if only they had been wholly consistent in following it. But this is the trouble with every religion: having initially encouraged a person toward spiritual life, at some point it inevitably begins to hinder that life, setting a certain spiritual ceiling and requiring its adherents to compromise between its own demands and what God calls those who follow the path of righteousness to do. A person must then choose between God and a religion that is so familiar and convenient. Jesus sees that His listeners have chosen their religion. He says that the Torah, which points the way to the Kingdom, will henceforth become for them not a support but a judgment. The same is true for anyone who rejects God and the Torah for the sake of anything at all, even for the sake of one’s own religion, whatever that religion may be.