But this is the challenge for us naturally sinful human beings, we automatically hear Jesus saying, ‘By myself I can do nothing,’ and think, oh, that’s a shame; he’s making himself sound weak.
Or we hear him say, ‘I judge only as I hear,’ we think, oh, he’s somehow diminishing himself; this is somehow less impressive, less wondrous. And yet, this is who he says he is, and the reality is that there’s nothing greater or more beautiful than such statements.
For us, we see the Lord Jesus speaking in such a way, and we think, ah, he is just like us, and therefore he is rubbish. And yet, actually, if we dig down deep into what the Lord Jesus is like, his willingness to submit to his Father’s will shows that he is nothing like us.
If the meat and drink of the Lord Jesus is to do his Father’s will, if Jesus loves to be told what to do, then that really does set him apart from us as humans. That is, in fact, what really shows us that he is Lord. Because we, as humans, from the very beginning, have proved ourselves to be selfish and opinionated, we have sought independence and autonomy, and have resisted the Lord’s attempts to show us that the best way is in obedience and submission.
We don’t like it, and we don’t like it when we hear Jesus speaking like that. And yet, that is what he is like. He is constantly choosing to do his Father’s will.
And so, listen to him here: on the one hand, with all his greatness and divinity pulsing through these verses about Judgement Day, about the authority to raise from the dead and to judge who will rise to live and who will rise to be condemned—and yet also hear him saying, ‘By myself I can do nothing.’ But this is the way that he has chosen—the most divine, godly way of proving that he is Lord.
The cults use these verses to seek to prove that he is not Lord, but the truth is clear: Jesus is the opposite of who they say he is. He is, in verse 30, saying, ‘By myself I can do nothing. I judge only as I hear, and my judgement is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.’
Here we have, as we saw a couple of weeks ago from Moses, a moment that emphasises the unity of the Godhead—from the lips of the Son, his unity with his Father: I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.
