John 5:17-18 17But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.” 18For this reason therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because he not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God
Evidently, the Jews in the temple courts confronted Jesus while he was there and accused him of breaking the Sabbath laws by healing the man. They cared more for their regulations than about the law of loving one’s neighbor. Jesus’ response to their persecution is powerful and introduces one of the key ideas of the Gospel of John: Jesus’ identity and relationship to God. Verse 17 is the first time in the Gospel that Jesus explicitly calls God his Father. The theme of Jesus’ relationship to God becomes central as the Gospel continues. Jesus as the Son of God has already been mentioned numerous times, but Jesus now calls God my Father.
Jesus’ answer to the criticism of his working on the Sabbath points to how God works every day. Jesus does not say how, but the evidence is all around with God as the sustainer of creation. Without God, creation would cease to exist. God’s providential care of nature and in people’s lives is obvious to those open to seeing it. The Jews in the temple would have known this. Now two things were bothering them: 1) Jesus’ healing on the Sabbath and 2) his calling God his Father. The Jews, in general, considered corporately God as their “Father,” but Jesus claimed this relationship in a personal way.
The Jews took both claims very seriously, so much so that they would even stone a person for blasphemy. To associate that closely violated their understanding of God as holy, transcendent, and beyond creation. The Jews had learned through the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple and experiencing exile that idolatry in any form would be judged by God. A father and son share in similarities, so to set oneself up in close relationship to God like what Jesus did would be blasphemy and worthy of death. How could a mortal person associate so closely with the immortal God? Jesus was claiming deity by this close association. The issue of Jesus’ relationship to God has been controversial ever since that time. Christians are not di-theists (two gods) or tri-theists (three gods) but monotheists (one God). John goes on to record a passage that helps explain this core theological claim.
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