Last week, someone came to see me. He works for the government. He was doing background checks on a friend of mine. Before I told him anything, I wanted to see his identification.  He made a joke about getting it at the local magic trick store. But we both took the ID seriously. It let him ask the kind of questions he was asking.

Some of you reading these words are doing so because you know me face to face. You know how to read me, you know my heart (and where the holes in it are). Several of you are here because my friend Chris sent you here.  You never would have come if I emailed you and said, “Hey, you should listen to me.” But his testimony has validity.

In John 5, Jesus is talking to religious people. They are upset that he’s saying that God is his Father, which, for them, meant that he was saying he was equal with God.

The more I think about it, the more I think that their concern was legitimate, at least at face value.

So was his response.

He started by pointing out that they had been captivated by his relative John, who had given Jesus a glowing reference.

Literally.

Jesus says that John was a light, and that the people had enjoyed that light, that bright spot on the religious landscape. Jesus says that although he doesn’t need humans to tell him anything, humans need humans. And the humans looking at Jesus at that moment had looked pretty favorably at John. They had even gone to see him. They had even been dunked by him.

John should haven’t given the message of Jesus credibility in their eyes. It wasn’t, apparently, enough.

Wait, says Jesus, there’s more.

There will be. Tomorrow.