Seeking all the more to kill him.

John 5:15-18, The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.” This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

It’s amazing how spiritual blindness works; those who persecuted Jesus did not seem to see the amazing fact that the man who was paralyzed for thirty-eight years had suddenly been healed and able to pick up his mat and walk! And none of them had offered even to stay with him and help him into the water to be first to have that benefit. There are those who say that Jesus was just one of many great teachers, but his own words and the actions of these religious leaders show us that he claimed to be one with the father, fully man and fully God. How amazing that he would endure such persecution “for the joy set before him!”

We thank you for your love for us when we were and are unlovable; we thank you that you are not like other teachers, for you died for us and rose again to ascend to the throne of heaven to intercede for us even now!

ESV Lectionary