[Jesus said,] “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge; and my judgment is just, because I seek to do not my own will but the will of him who sent me.“If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true. There is another who testifies on my behalf, and I know that his testimony to me is true. You sent messengers to John, and he testified to the truth. Not that I accept such human testimony, but I say these things so that you may be saved. He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. But I have a testimony greater than John’s. The works that the Father has given me to complete, the very works that I am doing, testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has himself testified on my behalf. You have never heard his voice or seen his form, and you do not have his word abiding in you, because you do not believe him whom he has sent.
“You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify on my behalf. Yet you refuse to come to me to have life. I do not accept glory from human beings. But I know that you do not have the love of God in you. I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; if another comes in his own name, you will accept him. How can you believe when you accept glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the one who alone is God? Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; your accuser is Moses, on whom you have set your hope. If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But if you do not believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?” (John 5:30–47 NRSV)
These days, who isn’t a multi-hyphenate? We all hold multiple roles and wear different hats. We juggle. We balance. We try to show up fully in the many identities we hold. Try as I might, I struggle to find that delicate harmony. As a second-generation Asian-American, eldest daughter and sister of three, business owner, pastor’s wife, mother of two, and follower of God, I am continually learning what the intersection of these identities looks like. In a broken world, some of these spaces are hostile or confining, even if they have the best intentions. Sometimes, I need to code-switch and diminish parts of my identity to exist peacefully. As I grow, I get better at showing up fully as my whole self, but it’s imperfect in comparison to the perfect fellowship and unity of the Trinity. There is no juggling or striving. No confusion and certainly no diminishment. With no hierarchy, the Trinity exists in complete wholeness.
In the passage, we find Jesus forced to defend himself after healing on the Sabbath. In humility, he lays down the argument and provides evidence for people to believe he indeed is who he says he is. As he explains how God the Father testifies on his behalf, Jesus lovingly paints a picture of the submission and fellowship of the Trinity. To fail to believe in the saving work of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit is to fail to know God himself. You don’t get one without the other. They are perfectly present in all their fullness, yet perfectly united in fellowship at the same time.
To the people who think they are the experts and exist to preserve the sanctity of Jewish Law, Jesus tells them publicly they are missing the entire point. He calls them out and – I paraphrase – he says, “You don’t hear. You don’t see. You search the Scriptures to find eternal life, but you fail to see who is the actual source.” What a searing indictment. The very individuals who claim to be keepers of the law cannot see that Jesus is the fulfillment of the law in himself. They failed to recognize the perfect unity of the triune God. Can you imagine reading the Word and believing eternal life is found merely in the words on the page and adhering to them? Can you imagine believing in a prophet but not in the One whom the prophet testifies about?
When I read this today with distance and hindsight, I can smugly judge their blindness and conclude they missed an obvious point, but would I have fallen into the same misguided mindset? At the root of it, they missed the point of it all. They saw the parts but not the whole. Admittedly, there are times when I treat Scripture like rules that earn my salvation and go about following them without the power of the Spirit. I forget about the victory that has already been won by the saving work of Jesus. I place my hope in other people over the One who has lovingly created us all. I grasp for parts and forget the whole.
May you reflect today on how you may have fallen into this oversight and be reminded of the perfection we find in the Triune God, who is whole and complete, without division or separation.
Adrienne Jang is on the NAB Governing Board and is a member of CTX Church in San Francisco, California.
