GOSPEL REFLECTION, WEDNESDAY, 4TH WEEK IN LENT, 18 MARCH 2026

John 5:16-30.  Today’s gospel reading, the first long discourse in John’s gospel, puts before us Jesus as Messiah.  Like the Father, Jesus has the capacity to heal and to judge, and like the Father Jesus does so on the sabbath.  Of course, that all depends on whether or not we accept Jesus as Messiah.  If Jesus were simply another rabbi healing on the sabbath and implying that he was messiah, then according to Jewish tradition he would be blaspheming.  But Jesus is called in this gospel by a revealing name – The Son of Man – a name extending back into the Old Testament. The Jewish authorities rejected such a claim from Jesus, and such a claim would end in Jesus’ death.

If we do accept that Jesus truly is The Son of Man, then it follows that in obedience and love he does what the Father asks him to do.  For us, this is a matter of trusting faith – that Jesus truly is The Son of Man and Messiah.  In Lent we consider this claim carefully yet again, and where we stand on it.  It matters deeply, for if Jesus was simply a man claiming to be Son of Man and therefore Messiah, he would be subject to the full consequences of Jewish Law as a criminal and blasphemer claiming an intimate relationship with the Father.  That was the position of the religious authorities who could not (or would not) accept this, who could neither hear nor understand.

If we DO accept in trusting faith that Jesus is the Son of Man and Messiah – and that IS the question for us – Do we accept that he is?  If we do, it makes all the difference in the world about how we understand Easter, the great Pascal Mystery, which is the very foundation of Christian thought, faith, experience, and practice.