My Father Is Working Still: John 5 for Fathers

What the Text Says

At the pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem, a crowd of the sick, blind, lame, and paralyzed waits by the water. One man has been an invalid for thirty-eight years. Jesus asks him, “Do you want to be healed?” The man explains he has no one to help him into the pool in time. Jesus simply tells him, “Rise, take up your pallet, and walk,” and he is healed immediately (Jn 5:1-9). It happens to be the sabbath, and the Jewish authorities confront the healed man for carrying his pallet, then confront Jesus once they learn who healed him. Jesus answers them, “My Father is working still, and I am working.” This only increases their hostility, since he is not only breaking the sabbath but “calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God” (Jn 5:16-18).

Jesus then gives a long answer explaining his relationship to the Father: “the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing,” and whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise (Jn 5:19). The Father has given the Son authority to give life and to judge, “that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father” (Jn 5:22-23). Jesus says an hour is coming when the dead will hear his voice, “and those who hear will live,” and an hour when “all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come forth, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment” (Jn 5:25-29).

Jesus then points to the evidence for who he is: not merely his own testimony, but John the Baptist’s witness, the works the Father gave him to do, the Father’s own testimony, and the Scriptures themselves, which testify of him even though the religious leaders study them without recognizing what they point to (Jn 5:31-40). He closes with a hard rebuke: they refuse to come to him for life, they seek honor from one another instead of from God, and Moses himself, whom they claim to trust, will accuse them, “for he wrote of me” (Jn 5:41-47).

What the Church Teaches

Jesus healing on the sabbath is not a violation of the sabbath’s purpose. It is the fulfillment of it. CCC 2173 teaches that Christ “gives this law its authentic and authoritative interpretation,” declaring that the sabbath “was made for man, not man for the sabbath,” and that it exists for doing good and saving life. The healing at Bethesda is not Jesus breaking a rule. It is Jesus showing what the rule was for all along.

The resurrection Jesus describes in this chapter is not vague symbolism. It is the actual Last Judgment the Church professes in the Creed. CCC 1038 quotes this very passage directly: “the resurrection of all the dead, ‘of both the just and the unjust,’ will precede the Last Judgment,” describing “the hour when all who are in the tombs will hear [the Son of man’s] voice and come forth, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment.” CCC 1039 adds that “in the presence of Christ, who is Truth itself, the truth of each man’s relationship with God will be laid bare.”

Personal Reflection: For Fathers

(This section is pastoral application and personal takeaway, not a restatement of defined Church teaching. If you are wrestling with a real question about your own spiritual life or your family’s, bring it to confession or a conversation with a priest or spiritual director rather than treating this reflection as a ruling.)

Jesus asks the invalid man a question that sounds almost strange: “Do you want to be healed?” After thirty-eight years, you might assume the answer is obviously yes. But long suffering has a way of settling into identity, and sometimes a man stops actively wanting change even while he keeps complaining about his condition. It is worth asking yourself honestly whether there is an area of your own life, or your family’s, where you have quietly stopped expecting things to actually get better, and treat that question as directed at you.

Notice, too, that Jesus describes his own relationship to the Father in terms of constant, active work: “My Father is working still, and I am working.” Fatherhood in your own house is not a role you finish and then coast on. It is ongoing labor, showing up again the next day and the day after that, the way the Father’s work never stops. A father who treats provision and formation as a project with an end date will eventually leave gaps his household feels.

And the warning at the end of the chapter is worth sitting with honestly: the religious leaders study Scripture carefully and still miss what it is actually pointing to, because they are seeking honor from each other rather than from God (Jn 5:39-44). A father can know his faith thoroughly on paper and still miss living it if the goal has quietly become looking good to other people rather than actually knowing Christ.

Call to Action

This week, ask yourself honestly, the way Christ asked the man at Bethesda, whether there is a part of your life where you have stopped truly wanting things to change, and bring that honestly to prayer or to confession. Treat your role as father as ongoing daily work rather than a finished project, the way the Father’s work “is working still.” And examine whether any part of your faith has become about looking good to others rather than actually knowing Christ, and if so, redirect it back toward him this week.

Doctrinal note: Claims above are tied to CCC 2173, 1038, and 1039. Translation used: RSV-CE. Please confirm any point you plan to teach publicly with a priest, deacon, or trusted catechist before publishing.

Read Next

If you are raising a son or discipling a young man, share this companion lesson: Rise and Walk: John 5 for Young Men.