The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live

 Then Jesus answered and said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.  For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does; and He will show Him greater works than these, that you may marvel.  For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom he will.  For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son, that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father.  He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.  Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.

Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live.  For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself, and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man.  Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth -- those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation."

- John 5:19-29

On Saturday, we read that there was a feast of the Jews (considered to be the Jewish Pentecost, or the Feast of Weeks), and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.  Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches.  In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water.  For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had.  Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years.  When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, "Do you want to be made well?"  The sick man answered Him, "Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me."  Jesus said to him, "Rise, take up your bed and walk."  And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked.  And that day was the Sabbath.  The Jews therefore said to him who was cured, "It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your bed."  He answered them, "He who made me well said to me, 'Take up your bed and walk.'"  Then they asked him, "Who is the Man who said to you, 'Take up your bed and walk'?"  But the one who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, a multitude being in that place.  Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, "See, you have been made well.  Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you."  The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.  For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath.  But Jesus answered them, "My Father has been working until now, and I have been working."  Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God.

Then Jesus answered and said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.  For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does; and He will show Him greater works than these, that you may marvel.  For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom he will.  For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son, that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father.  He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.  Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life."  Jesus continues His discourse on the unity of the Father and Son and Holy Spirit.  The Father and Son, as Jesus expounds on the topic, are completely unified in nature, will, and action.  Here, Jesus states that the Son fully shares the divine attributes of both giving life and also executing judgment.  He teaches that judgment is based upon both faith (v. 24, "He who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me"), and also works (at the end of today's reading, in verse 29, "Those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation").  Jesus clearly links faith in the Son to faith in the Father -- the refusal of one is the refusal of the other.

Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live.  For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself, and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man.  Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth -- those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation."  My study bible says that the dead (in "The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God") refers both to the spiritually dead, who will find life in Christ, and to the physically dead who will rise in the general resurrection.  In John's Gospel (11:28-44), this is confirmed by the seventh sign given, the raising of Lazarus from the dead, before Jesus goes to His own death.  These verses are read at the Orthodox funeral service, affirming their truth for all who fall asleep in faith.

That "the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live" is a very intriguing statement.  First of all it is an interesting understanding of time that is given here.  The hour is coming indicates a future action, but Jesus adds that it now is, meaning the time is here -- somehow this is a very present reality.  We must pay attention, is the message.  It gives rise and echoes what we say in making the sign of the Cross, an affirmation of faith in the Holy Trinity:  "now and ever."  The tenses change again within the same verse, when we read that the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God (future tense), and in the Greek, the tense switches back to past, as if to say those who heard -- and then to future again, will live.  I would posit that the switching "times" tells us something powerful about the nature of Judgment and of time itself within this context, that will hold up in the Gospels and in Jesus' teaching about "end times" -- that we don't know exactly when this time is, nor what it looks like.  Indeed, when speaking of Judgment and the end of the Age, Christ's words switch back and forth between events that are close to happening and events that are quite distant in the sense that "of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only" (Matthew 24:36).   His words suggesting that the hour is coming, and now is suggest a great mystery, and also the mystery of time, which is the prerogative of God as well.  There are overlapping realities here, that exist both in our time and the present, and in the future when time takes on a different nature, an eternal time.  All of this is to say that Christ both shares in this mystery as Son in the fullness of unity with the Father, and also that those present -- even standing before Him or reading these words -- must pay attention.  The time begins here and now for faith and judgment.  We can't separate either one into a time in the future that doesn't also apply right this moment.  The unity of Father and Son extend to more than the divine prerogative over time, but right down into each and every heart.  So much so, that without faith in One, one refuses faith in the Other.  The Son is God's gift to the world, given for the life of the world.  Do we hear His words calling to us?  They are always there, always present to us.  We can hear them at any time, or we may choose to refuse them at any time.  But He is always present, and so is this reality that He brings with Him, the choice to love God, to hear His voice, to live in faith and work the works for faith in our lives -- and for our lives, even for the life of the world.