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The Son Does Only What He Sees the Father Do
Where We Are
We continue in John's Gospel this week, and today the readings push us into deeper theological territory. Yesterday Jesus healed at the pool of Bethesda. Today the Pharisees press him on it, and he responds with an extraordinary claim: "My Father is working still, and I am working" (John 5:17). Isaiah meanwhile speaks one of Scripture's most tender promises: even if a mother could forget the child she nurses, God will not forget you. The fourth week of Lent draws us toward a question that matters beyond our Lenten practices: who do we believe Jesus to be?
The Word
Isaiah records God's promise: "Can a woman forget her nursing child? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. I have engraved you on the palms of my hands" (Isaiah 49:15-16). God speaks not of covenant obligations but of maternal intimacy, remembering carved into flesh. Jesus, confronted for healing on the Sabbath, claims the Son of God does nothing on his own but only what he sees the Father doing. The Father raises the dead and gives life; so does the Son. Whoever hears his word and believes has passed from death to life (John 5:23).
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Reflect
The statement Jesus makes here is either the most important claim in human history or blasphemy; there is no middle ground. The Pharisees understand that perfectly, which is why John notes they sought to kill him. Jesus is not asking for admiration of his teaching. He is asserting a unity with the Father so complete that to honor the Father you must honor him.
But notice what this unity looks like in practice. It is not Jesus asserting independent authority; it is Jesus doing only what he sees the Father doing. The pattern of obedience runs upward before it runs outward. The Son of God watches the Father and replicates the action. He heals because the Father heals. He gives life because the Father gives life. He judges because the Father has entrusted judgment to him. This is a picture of radical dependence coexisting with full equality.
For those of us trying to follow Jesus, this is instructive. Discipleship is not primarily rule-following; it is learning to see what the Father is doing and moving in that direction. The Lenten practices we have taken on, fasting, prayer, almsgiving, are not ends in themselves. They are supposed to be clearing our vision, tuning our attention to what God is already doing so that we can cooperate with it.
Isaiah’s image sharpens this. God has written our names on the palms of his hands. This is the Father whose works Jesus replicates. The one who raises the dead and gives judgment to the Son is also the one who cannot forget a nursing child. The fearsome and the tender are the same Person. And Jesus, who does only what he sees the Father do, reveals both.
Living It
Sit with Isaiah’s image. Read Isaiah 49:15-16 slowly. Let the image of your name engraved on God’s palms sink in past intellectual assent into something felt. You are not an afterthought to the God who made you.
Ask what the Father is doing. In your prayer today, try a different posture: instead of presenting your agenda, ask God to show you where He is already working in your day and how you might join that work.
Examine your image of Jesus. Do you relate to Jesus primarily as a teacher, a helper, or the Son of God who has authority over life and death? Today’s Gospel invites a larger view. Ask where your picture of him is smaller than the one John presents.
Prayer
Father, we confess that we often shrink Jesus to a size we can manage. The claim he makes today is larger than a wise teacher or compassionate friend. Give us faith large enough to hold that truth. And remind us that you engrave our names on your palms and cannot forget us. Amen.
Today’s reflection draws from John 5:17-30 and Isaiah 49:8-15 (CPDV), per the Ordo Lectionum Missae.
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