John 5:18Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Did they persecute Him for this, or for something else? All likewise agree that it was for this.

Did He break the Sabbath, or did He not? Certainly no one will deny this either.

Did He call God His own Father, or did He not? This too is true.

In the same way one may draw the conclusion about what follows. His calling God His own Father, breaking the Sabbath, and being persecuted by the Jews for the latter, and especially for the former, were not a false suspicion, but actual truth.

So also the statement that He made Himself equal with God was said in the same sense.

This can be seen still more clearly from the words spoken before. The words, “My Father works, and I work,” express precisely equality with God.

Here He shows no distinction. He does not say, “The Father works, and I serve Him in His works.” He says, “As the Father works, so also I work.”

In this way He expresses perfect equality.

If He Himself had not wished to express this, and the Jews merely thought so in vain, He would not have left them in such an erroneous opinion, but would have corrected it.

The Evangelist also would not have passed it over in silence. He would have said clearly that the Jews thought this, but Christ Himself did not make Himself equal with God.

This is what we find in other places, when the Evangelist saw that something was said in one way, but understood in another.

For example, Christ said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up,” meaning His own body.

But the Jews did not understand this and thought He was speaking about the Jewish temple. They said, “This temple has been built for forty-six years, and will You raise it up in three days?” (Jn 2:19-20).

He was saying one thing, while they supposed another. He was speaking about His body, while they thought this was said about their temple.

The Evangelist, noting this, or rather correcting their opinion, added: “But He was speaking of the temple of His body” (Jn 2:21).

So here also, if Christ had not made Himself equal with God and had not wished to prove this, but the Jews merely thought so, the Evangelist would have corrected their thought here too.

He would have said, “The Jews thought that He was making Himself equal with God, but He was not speaking of equality.”

Nor does only this Evangelist do this in this place. Another does the same on another occasion.

When Jesus Christ commanded His disciples, “Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees,” they reasoned among themselves and said, “This means that we took no bread” (Mt 16:6-7).

He was saying one thing, calling their teaching leaven. The disciples understood another, thinking that He was speaking about bread.

This time the Evangelist does not correct it, but Christ Himself does, saying: “How is it that you do not understand that I did not speak to you about bread?” (Mt 16:11).

Here, however, there is nothing of the kind.

They did not yet know that for our sake God the Word appeared in the form of a servant. He is the Life springing from the Father, that is, the Only-begotten.

To Him alone God is called and is Father in the proper and true sense.

This is not so for us, for we are sons by adoption. We ascend to this dignity beyond nature by the will of Him who honored us with it.

We receive the name of gods and sons because Christ dwells in us through the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, considering only the flesh and not knowing God who dwelt in the flesh, they cannot bear Him who rises immeasurably above the limit of human nature in calling God His Father.

In the phrase “My Father,” He most justly expresses precisely this thought.

They suppose that He for whom the Father is properly God must be equal to Him by nature. In this one thing alone they understand correctly, for this is indeed so, and not otherwise.

But when He expresses this thought in His speech, they only grow more indignant, twisting the right word of truth.

On verses 17-19: “My Father has been working until now, and I am working. Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also called God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.”

The Jews are indignant against our Savior, Christ, because while appearing as man, He calls God not the common Father, but His own personal Father, saying: “My Father has been working until now.”

From His calling God His own Father, they pass to a certain natural and true contemplation. They say that He arrogates to Himself equality with God.

For what has proceeded by nature from something is equal to that from which it proceeded, according to the principle of the quality of being, κατά τον τού πώς είναι Λόγον.

Therefore, when even the Jews had such surmises about Christ, who will say that those who think the same have fallen away from rectitude and truth?

They think that by calling God His own Father, Christ made Himself equal to Him who begot Him.

Yet the Savior Himself, though He is always the defender of truth and through it guides those who approach Him to unerring and pure judgment, does not dispute this surmise of the Jews.

On the contrary, He seems to confirm what they supposed by what He says next: “For whatever the Father does, these things the Son likewise does.”

Therefore He insists that God is His own Father, and that He is equal to Him, having in all things the natural likeness. How, then, can such a Son be a creature?

Accordingly, what did the Evangelist say next? “And even more the Jews sought to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also called God His Father.”

But He did not simply call Himself so. How did He do it? “Making Himself equal with God” (Jn 5:18).

For we all say to God, “Our Father, who art in heaven” (Mt 6:9). We read also that the Jews said, “For You are our Father” (see Isa 63:16; 64:8).

Therefore they were not angry because He called God His Father, but because He said this in a way wholly unlike men.

See, the Jews understand what the Arians do not understand. The Arians, as is known, say that the Son is not equal to the Father. Therefore they were cut off from the Church as heretics.

See, then: the Jews were blind, murderers of Christ, and yet they understood the words of Christ.

They did not understand that He was the Christ, and did not consider Him the Son of God.

Nevertheless, from His words they understood that He was presenting Himself to them as the Son of God in such a way that He proved to be equal with God.

They did not know who He was, but they knew that such a One was spoken of in the prophecies. For He called God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.

What then? Was He not equal with God? He did not make Himself equal with God, but He who begot Him begot Him equal.

If He had made Himself equal with God, He would have fallen through robbery.

For the one who wished to make himself equal with God did not attain it, but fell. From an angel he became the devil, and gave man to drink the same pride by which he himself was cast down.

For after falling, he said to man, envying his position: “Taste, and you will be like gods” (cf. Gen 3:5).

That is, “Seize by robbery and claim for yourselves the right to be what you were not created to be, for I too was cast down through robbery.”

He did not entrust this, but advised it. Christ, however, was born equal to the Father, and did not become equal to Him, for He was begotten from the substance of the Father.

Therefore the Apostle speaks of Him in this way: “Who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God” (Phil 2:6).

What does “did not consider it robbery” mean? It means that He did not seize equality with God, but remained in that equality in which He was born.

And how can we come to the One equal to God? “He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant” (Phil 2:7).

Therefore He emptied Himself, not losing what He was, but taking upon Himself what He was not.

The Jews despised this form of a servant (cf. Phil 2:7), and could not understand that the Lord Christ is equal to the Father.

Yet they did not at all doubt that He was saying this about Himself, and therefore they grew angry.

Still, He continued to bear with them, and thought upon healing those who had grown angry.

He confirmed what He said by special signs, that is, proofs, so that they might believe in Him and receive His word as unconditional truth.

Persuading His hearers of the truth of everything He had said, He explained to them that He was not preaching His own teaching as man.

Rather, He preached what He had heard from His Father, and what the Father who sent Him had commanded Him to say.

Thus, by calling God His Father in the special sense of sonship belonging exclusively to Him, the Lord affirms that authority belongs to Him, as to the Father, to act even on the Sabbath.

Consequently, as God, He placed Himself above the Sabbath, expressing by this precisely His equality with God.

In doing this He shows no difference. He does not say, "The Father works, and I serve Him in the works."

He says, "As the Father works, so also I." In this way He expresses perfect equality.

The Lord does not reject their understanding of His words, and thereby confirms its correctness. Their conclusion alone is false, that He blasphemes and is guilty of death.

By the further explanation of His relations with the Father, He justifies and unfolds the truth of the words He had spoken, which so disturbed the Jews. He also refutes their false conclusion from them.

If the interpretation that the Jews gave to Jesus' words had been incorrect, Jesus would not have left them in such an erroneous opinion, but would have corrected it.

Moreover, the Evangelist would have said plainly that the Jews thought so, but that Christ Himself did not make Himself equal to God.

The Evangelists do not omit to note even in less important cases that certain words of the Savior were misunderstood.

Examples are the words about the temple in Jn 2:19-20, or about the leaven of the Pharisees in Mt 16:6-7.