Judgment

The mutual love that binds the Father and the Son is manifested in the oneness of their will and their actions.

Jesus Christ - His Life and Teaching, Vol. 5: The Lamb of God, by Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev

Having healed a man on the Sabbath, the Jews sought to kill Jesus. Facing this risk, Jesus doubled-down:

John 5: 17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.”

He didn’t say that the Father worked and Jesus served; He worked, just as the Father worked.

18 Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God.

Whatever the Father does, the Son does in a like manner. In judgment, Jesus claims they have equal authority, and the Son should be honored just as the Father is honored:

21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will. 22 For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son, 23 that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.

For the Son to have life in Himself, He must be God, because only God has life in Himself; only God is “I AM,” a being not dependent on another:

26 For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself,

And all judgment in placed in the hands of the Son:

27 and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man.

We see here a very judicial point: the Son is the judge, one put in place to determine guilt or innocence. I understand that the Eastern Church prefers to focus on the healing found in salvation (the hospital), but the Western emphasis on the forensic aspect (the courtroom) cannot be ignored. Certainly, Jesus does not ignore it – and we see that both aspects are true and necessary for salvation.

Condemnation was not the purpose of the Son, as we recall from an earlier passage:

John 3: 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

Nevertheless, judgment is made and the possibility of condemnation is a reality:

18 He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

The picture of a courtroom is not nearly complete. Jesus then introduces witnesses:

John 5: 31 “If I bear witness of Myself, My witness is not true. 32 There is another who bears witness of Me, and I know that the witness which He witnesses of Me is true. 33 You have sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth.

Of course, the Jews would not consider this sufficient witness; more witnesses are presented:

36 But I have a greater witness than John’s; for the works which the Father has given Me to finish—the very works that I do—bear witness of Me, that the Father has sent Me.

If His works are insufficient, there is a witness even greater:

37 And the Father Himself, who sent Me, has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form.

Still, this is not all:

39 You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.

Many of the disputes between Jesus and His opponents regarded the interpretation of Scripture. Knowing the Scriptures was something which the Scribes believed belonged to them alone; they were the experts. Jesus, of course, regularly challenged this. The Scribes failed to see that the Scriptures testified of Him, the Messiah and the Son of God.

While John does not directly quote Scripture as often as do the authors of the other three gospel accounts, his allusions to Scriptural passages are numerous; without the Old Testament, his gospel is a riddle.

Some version of “witness” is used in this passage ten times. Testimony is offered: from John, from His works, from Scripture, and from God Himself – but the Jews do not accept this testimony, because they do not know the Father.

Finally, what trial is possible without an accuser?

45 Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father; there is one who accuses you—Moses, in whom you trust. 46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me. 47 But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?

It is possible that Jesus is referring to this passage:

Deuteronomy 18: 17 “And the Lord said to me: ‘What they have spoken is good. 18 I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him.

It is also possible that the use of “Moses” by Jesus is shorthand for Moses and the prophets, or the law and the prophets. Such phrases are commonly used by Jesus in the gospel accounts.

Moses wrote of the certainty of a witness against Israel; the first witness is the Lord God:

Deuteronomy: 31: 19 “Now therefore, write down this song for yourselves, and teach it to the children of Israel; put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for Me against the children of Israel.

The second witness was the words of the Law:

24 So it was, when Moses had completed writing the words of this law in a book, when they were finished, 25 that Moses commanded the Levites, who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord, saying: 26 “Take this Book of the Law, and put it beside the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there as a witness against you; 27 for I know your rebellion and your stiff neck. If today, while I am yet alive with you, you have been rebellious against the Lord, then how much more after my death?

There are many examples in the Old Testament where the interchange between God and His people is presented as a trial. Jesus continues in this way, where His conversations with the Jews are a continuation of the litigation God pursued with His people.

Conclusion

Jesus, like Moses, stands as accuser. Yet Jesus, like Moses, also stands as mediator:

…Jesus…tirelessly presents them with the message of salvation. For, ultimately, He came not to condemn them, but to save.