Jesus on Trial

In John chapter 5, Jesus graciously heals a man who had been lame for 38 years, and this man’s lameness is presented as a symbol of our spiritual inability. Just as we’re spiritually blind towards God and can’t even see his kingdom unless we’re first granted new life, so too, all of us by nature are unable to walk in his paths or climb our way up to heaven. As the authorities interrogate Jesus in this chapter for healing this disabled man, Jesus turns the tables on his accusers by revealing himself to be their ultimate Judge. Not only is he able to raise up the lame and to make them walk, but he’s also the one who will “raise up the dead and give them life.”