Joh 5-7

5: Conflict with the religious leaders starts. Jesus claims his own authority to heal on the Sabbath. Notice that in the other gospels Jesus makes an argument about getting your cattle out of a hole. Here he simply claims an equality with God. Quite a difference to the previous three.

As a part of that argument we can get a picture of the relationship between the Father and Son. The Father gives all things to the Son, who does what the Father desires - at least in simplest form that is how we can understand it. Yet there is a reciprocity. So the Father gives the Son his glory, but in showing forth that glory, the Son glorifies the Father, and in so doing also glorifies himself. This theme of glory becomes a central part of Jesus story as he approaches his Passion, for in it (though it is obviously humiliating and shameful) he brings glory to himself and the Father by his obedience to the Father's desire. So we have to leave linear thinking aside if we are to really understand the gospel of John.

6: Food; necessity. Jesus here performs the only miracle that is recorded in all four gospels by feeding the hungry with food left over. We are then launched into a lengthy meditation, told in dialectic form, of the significance of this miracle. Jesus is asked questions and given requests. His answers draw us away from the mere physical benefits of food toward the importance of developing a trusting relationship with God, who will fill us in times of trouble. Of course we have a direct connection here with the Sacrament of the table - our holy food, which is just a little bread and a little wine - that is somehow enough for the journey.

7: Conflict with religious leaders escalates. Jesus goes to Jerusalem clandestinely, but then begins to preach. The leaders are not happy with his outrageous claims. They argue, but the people are amazed at his arguments. Even the police who are called to arrest him don't do anything. They are flabbergasted. There is a clear prejudice amongst the leaders from Jerusalem against their country cousins from rural Galilee. The idea that some peasant from the north could come down and give them such a hard time bewildered them.