Jesus tells the truth about self-righteous leaders. They love to honor one another, give one another honorific titles, and pat each other on the back. Jesus chastens them often over their self-congratulatory attitudes.

“I do not receive glory from men…How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the only God?” (John 5:41, 44 LSB)

The glory of men is intoxicating. I know a lot of Christians who won’t touch alcohol, but I see many who constantly sip at the bottle of glory. What’s that saying about pointing at others and there are three fingers pointing back at you? Yes, in many ways we struggle with receiving glory from men.

In a section of John 5, Jesus is instructing the Jews about His identity, and they are very clear on at least one thing, Jesus is “making Himself equal with God” (Jn 5:18). As Jesus teaches, He doesn’t try to diffuse the bomb he has handed to them, but rather adds more gunpowder to the already explosive conversation.

Christ speaks about being able to break the Sabbath, and how he keeps the Father’s will perfectly. This includes the power to judge and give life. Both of these references were not meant to simply refer to common everyday judgment and life-giving actions, but rather to the eternal prerogative of God, to cast into hell or raise into heaven, as well as to raise the dead in the resurrection.

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