On Your Toes

𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐂𝐇 𝟏𝟖, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔: 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐓𝐇 𝐖𝐄𝐄𝐊 𝐎𝐅 𝐋𝐄𝐍𝐓

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝟏: 𝐈𝐬𝐚 𝟒𝟗:𝟖-𝟏𝟓

𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐏𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐦: 𝐏𝐬𝐚 𝟏𝟒𝟓:𝟖-𝟗, 𝟏𝟑-𝟏𝟒, 𝟏𝟕-𝟏𝟖 “𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐢𝐬 𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐢𝐟𝐮𝐥.”

𝐆𝐎𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐋: 𝐉𝐧 𝟓:𝟏𝟕-𝟑𝟎                               

𝐊𝐞𝐲 𝐕𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐞: “𝐌𝐲 𝐅𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐈 𝐚𝐦 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠.” (𝐯.𝟏𝟕) 

           If somebody were to appear before you and say he is the son of God or to put in a more direct manner – that he is the son of the Father, what would your reaction be? Over the years, there have been several who came out of nowhere and bravely claimed they were the son of God.

           And for some who doesn’t have the proper training in discernment are known to have been carried away by such claims especially when the word of God is used, albeit tweaked to gain a favorable response from you.

           But this isn’t exactly wrong because if we really look at what the Scriptures say we all are the sons and daughters of the Father who gave us the Holy Spirit that brought about our adoption to sonship which gave us the right to call him Abba Father. (𝐑𝐨𝐦 𝟖:𝟏𝟓)

            The surest way to know the authenticity of such claims is in the works being performed and this brings us to the drama behind the Gospel passage for today where the religious leaders and the Pharisees doubted and sneered at the claim of Jesus to be the Son of God.

             The bone of contention in the passage today (𝐉𝐧 𝟓:𝟏𝟕-𝟑𝟎) was the healing miracles that Jesus performed not just on any day but on a day that happens to be a Sabbath. We all know how the strict observance of the Jews when it comes to the Sabbath and in his defense, Jesus simply replied that he was doing only what His Father was doing.

            The religious leaders actually understood what Jesus said about doing good works on a Sabbath but because the Pharisees were already biased against Jesus,  they changed their position with regards the Sabbath and switched to accusing him  of blasphemy especially when he said: “𝐌𝐲 𝐅𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐥𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐚𝐭 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐝𝐚𝐲, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐈 𝐭𝐨𝐨 𝐚𝐦 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠.” (𝐯.𝟏𝟕) instead of the usual “Our Father” used by the Jews and in doing so he claimed to be equal with God.

             Clearly the Jesus and the Jews were on different planes and there is just no chance these two points will come to an agreement because the Jews have their own concept who the Messiah is and Jesus made himself equal to God because He is God.

         The problem with these two contending forces was that the Scribes and Pharisees have expanded the coverage of the Ten Commandments and the teachings of Moses contained in the Torah into hundreds and thousands of laws and imposed these on the people to follow.

         One such law was that it was forbidden to do anything on the Sabbath. If someone was sick and in pain, the law of the Sabbath will only allow a doctor or a healer to alleviate the pain of the sick person, but it would be against the law of the Sabbath to go beyond relieving the pain and make the person well. In other words, it was alright to apply ointment or herbs to reduce the pain of a sick person but not to make him totally well.

         This was why the Pharisees took issue with the man who lifted his mat and walked because this took the nature of work. And they vented their ire on Jesus because he healed the man who was an invalid for 38 years and made him walk and this was a big no-no.

         So, the question is: 1) 𝘞𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘎𝘦𝘯 2:1-3 𝘣𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘑𝘦𝘸𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘵? (2) 𝘞𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘦𝘧𝘦𝘳, 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘱𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘰𝘳 𝘪𝘨𝘯𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘰 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘧𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘯 𝘢 𝘚𝘢𝘣𝘣𝘢𝘵𝘩 𝘰𝘳 𝘚𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳? (3) 𝘞𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘦 𝘸𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘺 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘎𝘰𝘥 𝘪𝘴 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘍𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘯 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘯, 𝘸𝘩𝘺 𝘤𝘢𝘯’𝘵 𝘸𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘑𝘦𝘴𝘶𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘚𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘎𝘰𝘥 𝘤𝘰-𝘦𝘹𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘎𝘰𝘥?        

         These are the issues in this Gospel passage today that we need to confront and resolve especially during this Season of Lent and as we step into the Holy Week our appreciation of the nature of Christ in relation to our own identities will determine our salvation.

         To be able to digest the substance of this Gospel today, let us look at the nature of the three moving characters in this passage. First we have God the Father who was the Creator of the universe and everything in it and God continues to move in each and everyone one of us and using the skills, talents and gifts he has given us we continue to create that which are good – roads, buildings, schools, hospitals, places of worship, etc.

         We also see Jesus in this passage who presented himself as being one with God and this was what infuriated the Jews because they could not accept the mystery of the incarnation. And we see Jesus meeting their objections head-on (𝐋𝐤 𝟔:𝟏𝟏) and Jesus was not only challenging their view of holiness, but he established Himself as the Lord of the Sabbath and the Lord of all creation (𝐋𝐤 𝟔:𝟓; 𝐂𝐨𝐥 𝟏:𝟏𝟓-𝟏𝟖).

         What Jesus was impressing upon the Jews was that as the Son of Man whose origin was from God the Father, he derives from God His divine nature and by being born of Mary derives from her his human nature. While he claimed to have both divine and human attributes, Jesus acknowledges that “𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐢𝐬 𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐈” (𝐉𝐧 𝟏𝟒:𝟐𝟖) even if “𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐈 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐧𝐞” (𝐉𝐧 𝟏𝟎:𝟑𝟎).

         In Christ there are two natures – 𝒉𝒖𝒎𝒂𝒏 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒅𝒊𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒆 – which presupposes that Jesus has a two-fold knowledge – human and divine. As God he knew all things even the thoughts of man on account of the hypostatic union. He also has a two-fold will – human and divine – although his human will is subject to the divine Will (𝐋𝐤 𝟐𝟐:𝟒𝟐). And he also has a two-fold activity – a divine activity such as miracles and prophecies and a human activity such as preaching, teaching, praying, eating, sleeping and suffering.

         And because of his unity with God, Jesus lived as God wanted him to live and because of our identification with Jesus having been chosen by God (𝐉𝐧 𝟏𝟓:𝟏𝟔) and predestined (𝐄𝐩𝐡 𝟏:𝟑-𝟏𝟎) which means that God already held us in the palm of His hands even before we were born, we are thus mandated to honor him and live as he wants us to live and to work as the Father had worked in creating the universe and as Jesus worked to heal even on a Sabbath.

         This means that we are to be on our toes 24 hours a day, seven days a week because as Christian disciples who have been baptized to follow our Lord, our calling is to be on our toes to love, honor and serve God all the days of our lives.

         The Pharisees also called God their Father, but they could not grasp the enormity of Jesus who claimed a unique relationship with God and under the circumstances they were in, the Pharisees were confronted with two choices to make: to believe in Jesus or to reject and accuse him of blasphemy. They chose the second (𝐯.𝟏𝟕).

         This Gospel passage therefore has a two-fold message: One is that God works even on the Sabbath because when the opportunity to do good presents itself it should not be ignored because that which is good is not bound by time nor rules. The other message is that we shouldn’t do what the Pharisees did because Jesus was specifically sent and that those who will listen to him and believe in him will have eternal (𝐯.𝟐𝟒).

         Here Jesus was also saying that even the dead (spiritually dead) who have ears to hear, minds to understand, and who will accept him are also assured of eternity. And those who will reject him will also be resurrected (𝐯𝐯.𝟐𝟖-𝟐𝟗) but they will be subject to God’s final judgment.

         Indeed, there are those who live in today’s world in wild abandon crediting themselves for their good fortune claiming that the fruits of their labor were because of their talent, wealth, education, connections, and industriousness and they totally ignored the role of God in their human development.

         As we step deeper into our Lenten observance, let us dwell on the promise of Christ that those who will accept him will have life in them – a life of abundant peace and joy (𝐉𝐧 𝟏𝟎:𝟏𝟎). But if we will reject him then we will have to prepare for an eternal separation from an all-loving God who makes Himself available even on a Sabbath. (𝘌𝘥 𝘔𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘺 - 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩 18, 2026)