But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.
Jesus spoke these words to defend healing the impotent man at Bethesda on the Sabbath, when the leaders accused Him of Sabbath-breaking and put Him on trial for His life. His plain meaning was that the Father never ceases His work of upholding, sustaining and governing all creation, and that He as the Son works continually together with Him. In saying this He declared Himself one with the Father and equal with God, with full divine authority to do a work as sacred and of the same character as the Father's. Therefore His healing on the Sabbath was no desecration or transgression, but in perfect harmony with God's unceasing providence and mercy, for deeds of relieving suffering are always in order upon it. That continual divine working also gives true dignity to human labor, calling all to useful, faithful work for others' good rather than idleness.
Setting and Accusation
The saying was given after the healing of the impotent man at the pool of Bethesda on the Sabbath, when Jesus told him to take up his bed and walk. The Pharisees treated both the healing and the carrying of the bed as breaking the Sabbath, and accused Him of sacrilege. As Lord of the Sabbath He was arraigned before the dignitaries, the Sanhedrin and the Jewish council. He was virtually summoned before an earthly tribunal and tried for His life on the charge of breaking the Sabbath law, at His second visit to Jerusalem.
The leaders hoped open condemnation would weaken His influence. Roman rule prevented them from imposing the death penalty, and fear of the people held them back from killing Him. His Sabbath work angered the authorities, who treated it as a threat to their traditions and sought accusations against Him. That Sabbath healing so kindled the malice of the leading Jews that they plotted against His life, making it unsafe for Him to remain in Jerusalem, so He left Jerusalem for Galilee and made Capernaum the scene of His labors. They denounced Him as an impostor, sent messengers to warn the people against Him and spies to watch and report what He said and did, leaving Him standing under the shadow of the cross.
He answered with a bold declaration of His mission and His joint work with the Father. He refused to plead guilty to any wrong or to submit to being questioned and catechised by the Pharisees, and instead of apologizing for the healing act they complained of or explaining His purpose in doing it, He turned upon the rulers so that the accused became the accuser. He denied their right to question Him or to interfere with His work, for the Jewish system gave them no such authority and their claims rested only on pride and arrogance. His works bore witness that the Father had sent Him, and His words were unanswerable so they could not condemn Him. He declared Himself guiltless and presented evidence of His innocence, for the accusation was false and in no instance could disobedience be proved against Him.
He defended His Sabbath work by pointing to the work of God and the unceasing round of nature, setting forth elevated truths about the Sabbath that carried conviction to conscience. The rulers had no argument from reason to meet them and could only cite their customs and traditions, which were weak and vapid beside His reasoning. They evaded His points concerning the Sabbath and turned the issue to anger against Him because He had made Himself equal with God. His words left His judges in mingled astonishment, rage and conviction, and their fury to seize and kill Him was barely restrained, so the priests and elders had to hold back their hatred and wait for a more favorable time.
The common people were not stirred to violence but listened candidly and justified Him in healing the poor sufferer who had been afflicted for thirty-eight years. His mighty works first arrested attention and aroused wonder, and His searching words disclosing His true character powerfully affected and deeply convicted many to acknowledge Him. That healing should have shown the Jews that Christ was the world's Redeemer and the Son of God, but prejudice, unbelief and opposition led them to reject the evidence.
Father and Son United
The Father and the Son are two distinct persons united in work, for God is the Father of Christ and Christ is the Son of God, and as the Father works so the Son works with Him. In calling God His own Father Jesus meant more than the relation to God claimed by the Jewish nation, declaring Himself one with the Father. He was given an exalted position and made equal with the Father, with all the counsels of God opened to Him. The leaders understood the words as a claim to make Himself equal with God.
He claimed equal rights with God to do a work as sacred and of the same character as the Father's work. In declaring His joint work with the Father He declared His Sonship to the Eternal, His divinity, and His divine authority to work as the Father works. His miracles of healing, His lessons of divine truth, and His cleansing of the temple proclaimed that same Sonship. His mighty works arrested attention and His searching words disclosing His true character convicted many, while the same claim pressed guilt upon the rulers and made them more bitter.
The Son can do nothing of Himself but what He sees the Father do, doing likewise whatever the Father does. This is because the Father loves the Son and shows Him all things that He Himself does. By placing Himself in right relation with the Father to know the mind of God, He carries out His work in unity with the Father and claims the same will, power, and might.
The Father and the Son are united in the work of redeeming humanity, with activity equal to God's. From the moment of humanity's first transgression Christ labored tirelessly for salvation, and God's unfailing care provides daily food while giving courage and hope to the discouraged. Their ongoing work includes exercising mercy to relieve human suffering and to lead people to know God as a loving Father. Those who believe cooperate with Christ in saving souls and do the works of the Father. Christ's work and ways are the pattern for His followers to copy and do what the Son does, for people are accountable to God in the work entrusted to them and must not act independently of Him.
God Sustaining Creation
The work of creating the world is finished and complete, yet the Father and the Son are continually at work upholding, sustaining, directing, governing, blessing and caring for everything made. Created things do not keep existing or functioning by power inherent in matter or in themselves, independently of God, but remain dependent on His active power and care moment by moment. Nature does not act through power of its own, for its laws do not work by themselves. God works through, within and above the laws of nature as His instruments and servants, without annulling them or acting contrary to them, while nature remains subject to His command.
His power is unseen, but its effects appear in living growth through His immediate, momentary and direct agency. That agency guides the heavenly bodies and planets in their ordered course and sustains the earth in its course, motion and fruitfulness. It brings forth vegetation, causes each bud to blossom and leaf and flower to appear, sends sun to warm and nourish, waters to flow, rain and snow to fall, grass to grow, and crops to grow and ripen. It maintains every heartbeat, pulse and breath and supplies the needs of living creatures.
That continual working sustains and blesses humanity through nature and unfailing care providing daily food. It includes the ministry of angels descending and ascending between heaven and earth to minister to suffering humanity. All days belong to God in which to carry out His great plans for the human race, upholding and quickening creation since He laid the foundations of the earth.
Sabbath Mercy Affirmed
The Father's work of providence never ceases, even on the Sabbath, because the world depends on it continually, and the Son's healing on the Sabbath carries on that same work in unity of will, power and might with the Father. All days belong to God for carrying out His great plans for the human race, upholding and quickening creation since He laid the foundations of the earth when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy. If the Jewish interpretation of the law were correct, Jehovah Himself would be at fault, for He who pronounced His work good and established the Sabbath to commemorate its completion would have to bring His labor to an end and stop the never-ending routine of the universe.
God's work does not cease on the Sabbath but is even greater then than on ordinary days. On that day His people leave their usual employments and spend the time in prayerful meditation and worship, asking more favors, seeking His special attention, craving His choicest blessings, and offering importunate prayers for special favors. Those prayers He does not wait for the Sabbath to pass to grant, but gives with judicious wisdom whatever is best for them to have, for heaven's work of doing good and answering prayer never ceases for a moment and men should never rest from doing good.
The work of relieving the sufferings of the afflicted, whether salvation of souls or removal of physical pain, is in harmony with the Sabbath law and in harmony with the work of God's angels descending and ascending between heaven and earth to minister to suffering humanity. Jesus' answer asserts His true position and explains why His Sabbath healing was consistent with the Father's continuing work to sustain and bless humanity through nature and the ministry of angels. That healing was an act of mercy consistent with God's law, not a desecration or transgression of the Sabbath, and the Jews wrongly called it Sabbath-breaking. To repeat that charge sides with the Pharisees in their accusations against Christ and with the great accuser, directly contradicting Christ's own teaching.
In His human nature Christ rendered perfect obedience to the law He had given, proving to all that the law can be kept, and in no single instance could disobedience be proved against Him. At His trial it was necessary to hire false witnesses to testify against Him, for the charge of Sabbath-breaking could never be sustained. He endured the death penalty of the law not to abolish the law and immortalize sin but to take away sin, bearing the punishment in His own body on the cross so that man has a second probation and may return to loyalty and obedience.
The Sabbath does not require creation to stop, nor does it forbid God's life-sustaining work or deeds of mercy. Nature must continue her unvarying course on the Sabbath, sun warming and nourishing, waters flowing, crops growing and ripening, trees and flowers budding and blossoming, or man would miss the fruit of the earth and faint and die, for God must not stay His hand a single moment. In like proportion man has a labor to perform on that day: the necessities of life must be attended to, the sick must be cared for, the wants of the needy must be met.
God does not hold him guiltless who stays his hand from relieving suffering on the Sabbath day. The holy Sabbath was made for man, and acts of mercy and benevolence are always in order upon that day. God does not desire His creatures to suffer an hour's pain that may be relieved upon the Sabbath or any other day, and refusing to relieve suffering when it can be relieved is contrary to His will.
The Sabbath law forbids the toil that gains a livelihood and all labor for worldly pleasure or profit on the Lord's day. The day is for healthful rest, worship, meditation and holy deeds, not useless inactivity or a blissful do-nothing state, and men should set aside ordinary work accordingly. Christ's work in healing the sick did honor to the holy Sabbath, as does necessary work in carrying out God's redeeming work.
That the law allows such work is shown because circumcision was performed on the Sabbath when a child's eighth day fell then, so making a man completely whole was even more in keeping with its spirit. Jesus taught the sanctity of God's statutes while freeing them from human restrictions, and defended the law by applying its principles to relieving the afflicted. His restoring of the man at Bethesda was in harmony with the Sabbath law.
At Bethesda on the Sabbath, while multitudes were going to the temple for worship, Jesus longed to exercise His healing power and pour healing into every soul to make every sufferer whole. He knew that an act of healing on that day would stir the strong prejudice of the Jews against Him and His work, give them ground to accuse Him and seek to put Him to death, and cut His work short. Yet the Father and the Son keep working to bring immediate relief to the oppressed, suffering and sorrowing, even on the Sabbath.
Human Work Ennobled
“My Father worketh hitherto, and I work” means that God is continually at work and that Christ works as the Father does, and His unceasing working gives true dignity to labor. Labor is therefore part of God’s order and design, not anything beneath human dignity. Where the Word of God lies at the foundation of school work, students are to be shown that God is a constant worker. Every teacher is to take hold heartily with a group of students, working with them and teaching them how to work, gaining valuable experience while hearts of teachers and students are bound together to open the way for successful teaching.
Heaven itself is a place of constant work with no idlers there, where angels serve and work is constantly done. Eternal life is active, so when the final triumph comes and the prepared mansions are received, idleness will not be the portion and rest will not be a blissful do-nothing state. The promised rest and joy is for the weary and for faithful servants after finished labor, for those who conquer through the cross and enter their Lord’s joy. The example of the Father continually working and Christ working as well teaches that people are not to be idle, but that God gives each person abilities and expects them to use strength and mind in useful labor. Each is to stay at the occupation God has given, since to every person He has given fitting work, and faithful work now in many lines is required to prepare the way for the King of kings and Lord of lords and to prepare a people to stand in the great day of the Lord.
Those for whom Christ gave His life are to work with Him, for salvation does not leave people passive. They must use their powers, watch and pray, and fight against sin while relying on Christ for strength. Jesus as a constant worker for the good of others shows that true holiness is not idleness, nor devotion that neglects ordinary duties. It is not devotion that neglects family responsibilities and the duties and people directly entrusted to one’s care. It is shown in work for others, in deeds of kindness and mercy and in caring for those whose needs and duties lie directly before us, in love that puts others before self.
Jesus spoke these words to defend healing the impotent man at Bethesda on the Sabbath, when the leaders accused Him of Sabbath-breaking and put Him on trial for His life. His plain meaning was that the Father never ceases His work of upholding, sustaining and governing all creation, and that He as the Son works continually together with Him. In saying this He declared Himself one with the Father and equal with God, with full divine authority to do a work as sacred and of the same character as the Father's. Therefore His healing on the Sabbath was no desecration or transgression, but in perfect harmony with God's unceasing providence and mercy, for deeds of relieving suffering are always in order upon it. That continual divine working also gives true dignity to human labor, calling all to useful, faithful work for others' good rather than idleness.
Setting and Accusation
The saying was given after the healing of the impotent man at the pool of Bethesda on the Sabbath, when Jesus told him to take up his bed and walk. The Pharisees treated both the healing and the carrying of the bed as breaking the Sabbath, and accused Him of sacrilege. As Lord of the Sabbath He was arraigned before the dignitaries, the Sanhedrin and the Jewish council. He was virtually summoned before an earthly tribunal and tried for His life on the charge of breaking the Sabbath law, at His second visit to Jerusalem.
The leaders hoped open condemnation would weaken His influence. Roman rule prevented them from imposing the death penalty, and fear of the people held them back from killing Him. His Sabbath work angered the authorities, who treated it as a threat to their traditions and sought accusations against Him. That Sabbath healing so kindled the malice of the leading Jews that they plotted against His life, making it unsafe for Him to remain in Jerusalem, so He left Jerusalem for Galilee and made Capernaum the scene of His labors. They denounced Him as an impostor, sent messengers to warn the people against Him and spies to watch and report what He said and did, leaving Him standing under the shadow of the cross.
He answered with a bold declaration of His mission and His joint work with the Father. He refused to plead guilty to any wrong or to submit to being questioned and catechised by the Pharisees, and instead of apologizing for the healing act they complained of or explaining His purpose in doing it, He turned upon the rulers so that the accused became the accuser. He denied their right to question Him or to interfere with His work, for the Jewish system gave them no such authority and their claims rested only on pride and arrogance. His works bore witness that the Father had sent Him, and His words were unanswerable so they could not condemn Him. He declared Himself guiltless and presented evidence of His innocence, for the accusation was false and in no instance could disobedience be proved against Him.
He defended His Sabbath work by pointing to the work of God and the unceasing round of nature, setting forth elevated truths about the Sabbath that carried conviction to conscience. The rulers had no argument from reason to meet them and could only cite their customs and traditions, which were weak and vapid beside His reasoning. They evaded His points concerning the Sabbath and turned the issue to anger against Him because He had made Himself equal with God. His words left His judges in mingled astonishment, rage and conviction, and their fury to seize and kill Him was barely restrained, so the priests and elders had to hold back their hatred and wait for a more favorable time.
The common people were not stirred to violence but listened candidly and justified Him in healing the poor sufferer who had been afflicted for thirty-eight years. His mighty works first arrested attention and aroused wonder, and His searching words disclosing His true character powerfully affected and deeply convicted many to acknowledge Him. That healing should have shown the Jews that Christ was the world's Redeemer and the Son of God, but prejudice, unbelief and opposition led them to reject the evidence.
Father and Son United
The Father and the Son are two distinct persons united in work, for God is the Father of Christ and Christ is the Son of God, and as the Father works so the Son works with Him. In calling God His own Father Jesus meant more than the relation to God claimed by the Jewish nation, declaring Himself one with the Father. He was given an exalted position and made equal with the Father, with all the counsels of God opened to Him. The leaders understood the words as a claim to make Himself equal with God.
He claimed equal rights with God to do a work as sacred and of the same character as the Father's work. In declaring His joint work with the Father He declared His Sonship to the Eternal, His divinity, and His divine authority to work as the Father works. His miracles of healing, His lessons of divine truth, and His cleansing of the temple proclaimed that same Sonship. His mighty works arrested attention and His searching words disclosing His true character convicted many, while the same claim pressed guilt upon the rulers and made them more bitter.
The Son can do nothing of Himself but what He sees the Father do, doing likewise whatever the Father does. This is because the Father loves the Son and shows Him all things that He Himself does. By placing Himself in right relation with the Father to know the mind of God, He carries out His work in unity with the Father and claims the same will, power, and might.
The Father and the Son are united in the work of redeeming humanity, with activity equal to God's. From the moment of humanity's first transgression Christ labored tirelessly for salvation, and God's unfailing care provides daily food while giving courage and hope to the discouraged. Their ongoing work includes exercising mercy to relieve human suffering and to lead people to know God as a loving Father. Those who believe cooperate with Christ in saving souls and do the works of the Father. Christ's work and ways are the pattern for His followers to copy and do what the Son does, for people are accountable to God in the work entrusted to them and must not act independently of Him.
God Sustaining Creation
The work of creating the world is finished and complete, yet the Father and the Son are continually at work upholding, sustaining, directing, governing, blessing and caring for everything made. Created things do not keep existing or functioning by power inherent in matter or in themselves, independently of God, but remain dependent on His active power and care moment by moment. Nature does not act through power of its own, for its laws do not work by themselves. God works through, within and above the laws of nature as His instruments and servants, without annulling them or acting contrary to them, while nature remains subject to His command.
His power is unseen, but its effects appear in living growth through His immediate, momentary and direct agency. That agency guides the heavenly bodies and planets in their ordered course and sustains the earth in its course, motion and fruitfulness. It brings forth vegetation, causes each bud to blossom and leaf and flower to appear, sends sun to warm and nourish, waters to flow, rain and snow to fall, grass to grow, and crops to grow and ripen. It maintains every heartbeat, pulse and breath and supplies the needs of living creatures.
That continual working sustains and blesses humanity through nature and unfailing care providing daily food. It includes the ministry of angels descending and ascending between heaven and earth to minister to suffering humanity. All days belong to God in which to carry out His great plans for the human race, upholding and quickening creation since He laid the foundations of the earth.
Sabbath Mercy Affirmed
The Father's work of providence never ceases, even on the Sabbath, because the world depends on it continually, and the Son's healing on the Sabbath carries on that same work in unity of will, power and might with the Father. All days belong to God for carrying out His great plans for the human race, upholding and quickening creation since He laid the foundations of the earth when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy. If the Jewish interpretation of the law were correct, Jehovah Himself would be at fault, for He who pronounced His work good and established the Sabbath to commemorate its completion would have to bring His labor to an end and stop the never-ending routine of the universe.
God's work does not cease on the Sabbath but is even greater then than on ordinary days. On that day His people leave their usual employments and spend the time in prayerful meditation and worship, asking more favors, seeking His special attention, craving His choicest blessings, and offering importunate prayers for special favors. Those prayers He does not wait for the Sabbath to pass to grant, but gives with judicious wisdom whatever is best for them to have, for heaven's work of doing good and answering prayer never ceases for a moment and men should never rest from doing good.
The work of relieving the sufferings of the afflicted, whether salvation of souls or removal of physical pain, is in harmony with the Sabbath law and in harmony with the work of God's angels descending and ascending between heaven and earth to minister to suffering humanity. Jesus' answer asserts His true position and explains why His Sabbath healing was consistent with the Father's continuing work to sustain and bless humanity through nature and the ministry of angels. That healing was an act of mercy consistent with God's law, not a desecration or transgression of the Sabbath, and the Jews wrongly called it Sabbath-breaking. To repeat that charge sides with the Pharisees in their accusations against Christ and with the great accuser, directly contradicting Christ's own teaching.
In His human nature Christ rendered perfect obedience to the law He had given, proving to all that the law can be kept, and in no single instance could disobedience be proved against Him. At His trial it was necessary to hire false witnesses to testify against Him, for the charge of Sabbath-breaking could never be sustained. He endured the death penalty of the law not to abolish the law and immortalize sin but to take away sin, bearing the punishment in His own body on the cross so that man has a second probation and may return to loyalty and obedience.
The Sabbath does not require creation to stop, nor does it forbid God's life-sustaining work or deeds of mercy. Nature must continue her unvarying course on the Sabbath, sun warming and nourishing, waters flowing, crops growing and ripening, trees and flowers budding and blossoming, or man would miss the fruit of the earth and faint and die, for God must not stay His hand a single moment. In like proportion man has a labor to perform on that day: the necessities of life must be attended to, the sick must be cared for, the wants of the needy must be met.
God does not hold him guiltless who stays his hand from relieving suffering on the Sabbath day. The holy Sabbath was made for man, and acts of mercy and benevolence are always in order upon that day. God does not desire His creatures to suffer an hour's pain that may be relieved upon the Sabbath or any other day, and refusing to relieve suffering when it can be relieved is contrary to His will.
The Sabbath law forbids the toil that gains a livelihood and all labor for worldly pleasure or profit on the Lord's day. The day is for healthful rest, worship, meditation and holy deeds, not useless inactivity or a blissful do-nothing state, and men should set aside ordinary work accordingly. Christ's work in healing the sick did honor to the holy Sabbath, as does necessary work in carrying out God's redeeming work.
That the law allows such work is shown because circumcision was performed on the Sabbath when a child's eighth day fell then, so making a man completely whole was even more in keeping with its spirit. Jesus taught the sanctity of God's statutes while freeing them from human restrictions, and defended the law by applying its principles to relieving the afflicted. His restoring of the man at Bethesda was in harmony with the Sabbath law.
At Bethesda on the Sabbath, while multitudes were going to the temple for worship, Jesus longed to exercise His healing power and pour healing into every soul to make every sufferer whole. He knew that an act of healing on that day would stir the strong prejudice of the Jews against Him and His work, give them ground to accuse Him and seek to put Him to death, and cut His work short. Yet the Father and the Son keep working to bring immediate relief to the oppressed, suffering and sorrowing, even on the Sabbath.
Human Work Ennobled
“My Father worketh hitherto, and I work” means that God is continually at work and that Christ works as the Father does, and His unceasing working gives true dignity to labor. Labor is therefore part of God’s order and design, not anything beneath human dignity. Where the Word of God lies at the foundation of school work, students are to be shown that God is a constant worker. Every teacher is to take hold heartily with a group of students, working with them and teaching them how to work, gaining valuable experience while hearts of teachers and students are bound together to open the way for successful teaching.
Heaven itself is a place of constant work with no idlers there, where angels serve and work is constantly done. Eternal life is active, so when the final triumph comes and the prepared mansions are received, idleness will not be the portion and rest will not be a blissful do-nothing state. The promised rest and joy is for the weary and for faithful servants after finished labor, for those who conquer through the cross and enter their Lord’s joy. The example of the Father continually working and Christ working as well teaches that people are not to be idle, but that God gives each person abilities and expects them to use strength and mind in useful labor. Each is to stay at the occupation God has given, since to every person He has given fitting work, and faithful work now in many lines is required to prepare the way for the King of kings and Lord of lords and to prepare a people to stand in the great day of the Lord.
Those for whom Christ gave His life are to work with Him, for salvation does not leave people passive. They must use their powers, watch and pray, and fight against sin while relying on Christ for strength. Jesus as a constant worker for the good of others shows that true holiness is not idleness, nor devotion that neglects ordinary duties. It is not devotion that neglects family responsibilities and the duties and people directly entrusted to one’s care. It is shown in work for others, in deeds of kindness and mercy and in caring for those whose needs and duties lie directly before us, in love that puts others before self.