"My Father is at work until now, so I am at work."
For this reason they tried all the more to kill him,
because he not only broke the sabbath
but he also called God his own father, making himself equal to God.
Jesus explained the sense in which it was appropriate for him to work on the sabbath by stating that it was in keeping with the way his Father himself worked on the sabbath, as a commentary says, "Jewish reflection on the nature of God’s sabbath rest (Gen 2:2–3) led to the conclusion that God continued to perform two major activities on the sabbath: giving life and passing judgment on the dead, as seemed evident from the fact that people are born and die on the sabbath"¹.
Amen, amen, I say to you, the Son cannot do anything on his own,
but only what he sees the Father doing;
for what he does, the Son will do also.
For the Father loves the Son
and shows him everything that he himself does,
The basis was not merely that God did it and it was thus acceptable for anyone. It wasn't as though everyone was eligible to dispense both life and judgment. Rather Jesus said it was appropriate for the Son to do what he received from the Father. He had a privileged relationship with the Father that was different from that of others. To say a normal man could do something because God did it would be blasphemy. For example, we are not to give our own moral laws or dictate our own ideas about good and evil. Jesus was indeed acting like God, but because he was himself God from God and True God from God.
and he will show him greater works than these,
so that you may be amazed.
For just as the Father raises the dead and gives life,
so also does the Son give life to whomever he wishes.
Jesus did give life on the sabbath, in the sense of restoring those whom he healed. But he promised to demonstrate greater works than those healings. Those healings, and his judgment on those who were critical of them, were only meager foreshadowings, since the lives of those whom he healed would still end in death. But they pointed beyond to the resurrection on the last day. On that day those who had heard the words of Jesus and believed in him would pass definitively from death to life. The dead would hear the voice of the Son of God and live. So too would there be definitive judgment on that day, not merely like the temporary judgment of Jesus on the religious leaders, after which repentence was still possible. When the dead heard the voice of Jesus and came out from their tombs those who had done good deeds would be raised to life, but those who had done wicked deeds would go on to the resurrection of condemnation. Thus the activities from which God did not cease on the sabbath, that Jesus continued in his earthly ministry, would find their fulfillment on the last day when the just would enter into the perpetual sabbath rest of life together with God, and the wicked would be cast out.
I cannot do anything on my own;
I judge as I hear, and my judgment is just,
because I do not seek my own will
but the will of the one who sent me.
The opponents of Jesus may have been concerned that he was setting himself up as an alternative, a potential rival, to the God of Israel. They knew that for a mere human to actually have such power would result in selfish egotism preventing judgment from being truly objective. But, humanly speaking, Jesus did not introduce any of his own preferences or predilections into the judgment of God. Rather, he did what mere humans could not and perfectly received, internalized, and conveyed the will of the one who sent him. Thus he was able to judge with perfect justice. But not only that. Because of his connection to the Father he is the one who is able to help lead us beyond our own self-will in order that we too may truly seek the will of the Father. In this way, God fulfilled in Jesus what he promised through Isaiah.
In a time of favor I answer you,
on the day of salvation I help you;
and I have kept you and given you as a covenant to the people,
To restore the land
and allot the desolate heritages,
Saying to the prisoners: Come out!
To those in darkness: Show yourselves!
1) Martin, Francis; Wright, William M. IV. The Gospel of John (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture): (A Catholic Bible Commentary on the New Testament by Trusted Catholic Biblical Scholars - CCSS) (p. 100). (Function). Kindle Edition.
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