"Crossing from Death to Life"

 

"Very truly I tell you; whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life."

 

            When Jesus gives his defense of his actions of healing a lame man on the Sabbath, he says that those who believe in him have "crossed over from death to life." What does that mean? The healing of the lame man gives a very specific example. The Old Testament mentions Sheol, a dark and shadowy place of the dead, neither a punishment nor a reward, a place of rest, and of waiting for the judgment of God. It is as if this man has been living in Sheol: lying on a mat for 38 years, struggling to live, struggling to be healed, waiting for someone to help him. His life goes by year after year almost as if he were dead. And Jesus comes and gives him life, restoring him to walk, to rejoin his family, to become truly part of the community. Sometimes people can be in a similar position without hope in God. It is as if they were dead, dead in sin, dead and yet living, struggling to find God, to find hope, to know a deep love that brings true life. Through faith in Christ we can cross over from death to life.

            Because Jesus healed on the Sabbath, he was charged by the authorities with breaking the law concerning not working on the Sabbath, and also of claiming to be equal to God, by calling God his father.

            What would you say if that charge was leveled against you? I think I would argue that carrying a bed on the Sabbath Ð not a big bed, but a mat Ð is really breaking a small law, number 39 on the list of laws that are not in the Bible but are part of the oral tradition. Compared to the greatness of the miracle, this law does not seem to matter very much. The authorities should get over it, and put their attention on the great miracle of God. If they continue to press this small legal point, they might find themselves actually on the wrong side of God's will.

            But Jesus' answer is really quite different from that. He does not say that Sabbath law is unimportant, or that the greatness of the miracle excuses a lack of  compliance to the law. In the charge of making himself equal to God, he is being accused of Adam's sin of pride. Adam and Eve did attempt to be like God, to be more than they were created to be. But Jesus is not saying he replaces God. In fact, Philippians 2 says "he did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant."  

            The authorities would agree that priests were allowed to do their work on the Sabbath. They also said that God remained active on the Sabbath, or else all life would cease to exist. The work of God, they said, was to uphold the universe, to grant life to babies being born on the Sabbath, and to judge those who died on the Sabbath. But anyone else working on the Sabbath would be claiming to be equal to God.

            Jesus is saying that he is not a rival to God, but that he is completely dependent on the Father. He is, like any son to his father in that day, an apprentice to the Father's work. Almost all work was learned father to son, watching and doing. The son learned not by independent thinking and creativity, but by doing exactly what the father did. Education was a matter of imitation.

            We have lost most of that in our world. Sons and daughters are on their own to make a way, to learn a skill. My father worked on a lathe at Boeing during the war, and I understand he was very good at it. But, even if he had stayed at that work, there was no opportunity for me to go to work with him and learn that skill from him. Few sons today learn from their fathers as they did in Jesus' day.  

            Jesus says the Father loves the son and shows him all he does. There is complete disclosure here. Gary Burge writes that Jesus saw and heard things no one else had seen or heard. He knew by observation the complete work of God.

            Henry Blackaby takes this verse and builds a whole system of discipleship from it. God is always at work around you. He loves you and invites you to be involved with him in His work. So you watch and listen as you read the Scripture, as you pray, as you discern the events and circumstances of your life and as you hear God's call upon your life. You allow the voice of the church to speak into your heart. That is why we have youth retreats and camps and days of prayer and family retreats and Bible studies – so that God can speak through his Word and through his people. Then, when you hear the invitation of God to join him in some part of the Kingdom work, you respond in faith, and make adjustments to your life, and then you obey. It is the same apprenticeship model that Jesus speaks of here. "The Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does."

            Raymond Brown points out that what Jesus has seen the Father do, and so does himself, is the same work that according to Jewish tradition was proper for the Father to do on the Sabbath. The Father grants life on the Sabbath, so Jesus grants life. He gave life to the lame man. Then he tells the man to stop sinning. He has crossed over from death to life, and the only threat to that new life is further sin. Jesus' gift of life is not temporary. He wants the man to fully experience what he has waited so long to receive.

Jesus also is the Judge, because the Father has entrusted all judgment to the Son. We usually think of judgment in a negative way. We think of it in terms of punishment. The judge finds out what you are doing wrong and gives the verdict. But in the scripture judgment is primarily positive. The judge vindicates the righteous, the good.

 Deuteronomy 32:36: "The Lord will judge his people and have compassion on his servants."

 God as judge saves his people from the evil schemes of the proud and the wicked. So we draw close to the judge. He is our protector and defender, the one who hears our cry for mercy. When we entrust our lives to the Judge, we are not judged.

 "Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life."

 That is also found in Romans 8:1: "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death."

            Raymond Brown writes, "The judgment of Jesus and crossing from death to life are part of the hour which is now here. Those who stand before Jesus and hear his words have the opportunity to receive life. These words are the source of life for those who are spiritually dead."

            Today do you find that you are like the man who wanted so much to cross over from death to life but could not do it himself? He tried every time the water stirred, but there were too many others, there was no help and the pool was not stirred often enough. Maybe that is you today. You feel far from God. You feel dead inside. What the church offers does not seem to help or feel like it's the thing you need. You would like to know someone who could help you, but you really don't know whom to talk to. So you are waiting, and maybe have given up hope. Jesus is the one who can give you life. Today you can trust in him. His work is to give life, and he sees you just as he saw the man lying in the middle of the crowd by the pool. He says to you, "Do you want to get well?" "Believe in me, and you will cross over from death to life."

            Maybe today you are hearing Jesus invite you into his work. You know there are many among us and in our community who need help in that process of crossing over from death to life. But you need to have faith in Christ and then make some changes in your life in order to join him in his work. There are many people today in our communities who need help, encouragement, someone to talk to, a ministry that fits their needs, an invitation. They need help, not to get into the pool of activities that might or might not help, but to find Jesus and receive life in his name. You can be a witness to the work of Christ. You can be an inviter, an initiator, one who ministers to people and directs them to the one who gives life. Say "yes" to God's invitation to join him in his work.

            Amen.