John 5:16-23

Jesus calls God "my Father...". Not "our Father," or "the Father," but "my Father." No wonder the Jews tried to kill him. And how intimate the relationship he describes! "I do what I see my Father doing." It's like a kid in his father's workshop, watching his daddy's every move and copying it on his own set of smaller tools. And it's not just a little of what the Father does that Jesus copies, but everything, even raising the dead.

Is Jesus talking here about the last days, when all the dead shall be raised when the Father raises them? Or is it about his miracles? Or does the word "dead" describe all of us, people "dead in our trespasses and sins" (Ephesians 2:8), whom the Father raises constantly as He draws people to Himself? Probably all of them are in Jesus' mind as he speaks, for the Pharisees are as astonished that Jesus eats with tax collectors and sinners as that he raises Lazarus.

And this is where judgment comes in, the judgment that God has given to the Son, for when we reject the work of Jesus, we reject God's work, and we reject God Himself.

Father, help me to see and rejoice in the work that Jesus does in the world, for in doing so I bring praise to You. In Jesus' name, amen.