John 5:42Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

"But if you search Scripture without hindrance, it itself will accuse you before God. Moses, in whom you hope, wrote directly about Me. He, and not I, will accuse you before My Father."

The Evangelist tells us nothing here about the results of this discourse. But from what follows we see that at the next Pascha the Lord could not go to Jerusalem. Even after one and a half years had passed since this discourse, the Jerusalem Pharisees still remembered it and sought Jesus' life (Jn 7:21-23).

There it speaks directly of one work, the healing of the whole man on the Sabbath, that is, both in body and in soul, as in Jn 5:14. Thus from this time the Jerusalem Pharisees began to persecute Jesus as their most dangerous enemy.

From this one may conclude that soon after that discourse the Lord was compelled to leave Jerusalem, which was hostile to Him.

Yet the seed of the divine teaching undoubtedly did not remain altogether without fruit even then. More attentive and impartial hearers of the Lord, such as Nicodemus, received in these instructions a new light for understanding the divine person of the Savior.

Jesus delivered it entirely calmly and dispassionately, without the least desire to exalt Himself. His sole aim was to bring the erring Pharisees to understand that the true Messiah must be the Son of God, not a conquering king. He wanted them to understand that He, Jesus, is this Messiah, the Son of God.

The arguments brought forward to convince the Pharisees of this truth are strictly logical. Only God can perform miracles. No one doubts this. And since He, Jesus, performs them, He is therefore equal to God. Thus there are no grounds for refusing to acknowledge Him as the Son of God.

Conscious of the logic of these arguments, and not daring to deny that Jesus performed miracles, the Pharisees a little later devised a blasphemous objection to the Lord. They began to spread among the people the rumor that He performed miracles not by divine authority, but by the power of the devil (Mt 12:24; Mk 3:22; Lk 11:15).

The stubborn scribes were not convinced by Jesus' arguments. They did not reject Scripture, but they had lost the ability to understand it. They were not awaiting a Messiah who would reprove them and place them below tax collectors.

They awaited one who would value them according to their worth and set them above all in his kingdom. They awaited a Messiah who would come in his own name and act on his own behalf.

Therefore they rejected Jesus, who came in the name of His Father, from God.

For if true love for God were in your heart, this love would also show itself in your relation to the One sent from God the Father.

Just as in your Scriptures you have eternal life, but do not appropriate it to yourselves, so also in the same Scriptures you have love for God, but it is not in your hearts. "Although you everywhere put forward the claim that you persecute Me out of love for God" (Theophylact), you have not made it your own. It is outside you. It is a good alien to you, and you are deprived of it.

Therefore the One who preached self-denial and promised neither honors nor renown, but the persecution of the world, could not please these people. Jesus appeared to them as a stumbling block (1 Cor 1:23).

"If another comes in his own name, him you will receive." Another will come in his own name, not sent by the heavenly Father, without any signs of a heavenly messenger, and with obvious signs of one seeking his own interests. "Him you will receive."

Why? Because he will flatter the passions and prejudices of men. He will promise an earthly kingdom, cherished in the dreams of earthly souls.

Since the coming of Christ, more than sixty false messiahs have appeared among the Jews, and they received each one with enthusiasm and triumph.

Yet another christ will appear, the antichrist. As the heavenly Father was revealed in Christ, so in the antichrist Satan will be revealed with false miracles (2 Thess 2:9-10). They will receive him also, before all others, as their own messiah.

So the ancient Fathers thought about the Jews, including Irenaeus 5.25, Chrysostom, Ambrose, and others, pointing to these words of the Savior.

In it one can clearly distinguish traces of Babylonian and Persian influence; see the Kabbalah. In order to introduce certain ideas into the biblical text, Jewish Kabbalists even read the words of Scripture as anagrams. This is apart from allegorical interpretation in the broadest measure; see Franck, La Kabbale, p. 70. On the other hand, Greco-Roman influence brought into the circles of the Sadducees especially the views of philosophical schools wholly contrary to the spirit of the Old Testament books. The upper class, especially favored by the Romans, belonged to these adherents of teachings foreign to Israel. Yet they strictly observed the rites of Judaism, so as not to lose influence over the crowd. At the same time, by means of strict ritual life, they kept that crowd in obedience. Thus, among the learned Jews, some were partly infected by idolatrous and superstitious religious teachings. Others were infected by the indifference, and even the atheism, of the Greek philosophers. There were no men who studied the word of God in the simplicity of an honest soul seeking truth and righteousness. It is no wonder that they neither understood nor grasped the true meaning of the Messianic prophecies. They sought in the Bible what they wanted, not what was actually there. If they had been able to study their sacred books with a pure heart, good will, and an undamaged mind, they would not have rejected Him who came into the world to save it. He came not in glory and majesty, but in abasement, suffering, and sorrows, “to bear our infirmities and carry our diseases” Is 53:4. “You do not will,” says the Lord, “to come to Me.” “I know you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves.” The Lord directly accuses the Jews of evil will and of the absence of love for God. He sees these hearts, seeking only earthly goods, in which there was neither love for God nor love for neighbor. He sees these distorted minds, which set their own thoughts and dreams in place of God’s wisdom. They thought to obtain salvation by petty ritual fulfillment of the law. He therefore tells them plainly that the very Scriptures on which they think they will receive eternal life are their accusers. For those Scriptures spoke of Him, the Son of God, who came into the world to save sinners. If they had acknowledged themselves as sinners and as lacking understanding, the Lord would have saved and enlightened them. But they considered themselves righteous and knowledgeable, while having neither the desire for good nor the love of God. Therefore the Lord left them: “Behold, your house is left to you desolate” Mt 23:38. “If you were blind, you would have no sin. But now you say, ‘We see’; therefore your sin remains” Jn 9:41. In verse 41 there is another indication: “I do not receive glory from men,” says the Lord. In these words there also seems to be a hint that the scribes and Pharisees were especially embittered against the Lord because He did not seek their favor. Not only did He not rely on them in order to influence the people, but He also exposed the blackness of their hearts and the corruption of their minds. This class, as is evident, had completely forgotten God and the moral significance of man. For them, human glory stood above all else.