Now because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began persecuting him. So he told them, “My Father is working until now, and I too am working.” For this reason the Jewish leaders were trying even harder to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was also calling God his own Father, thus making himself equal with God.
John 5:16-18 NET
Did Jesus ever come right out and claim that he was God? You will never find Jesus saying “I am God” in any of the gospel accounts. At least not in those words. But the religious leaders of his day certainly believed he had made that claim.
Jesus healed a man who had been lame for 38 years. And he did it on the Sabbath. Because of that, the Jewish leaders began to oppose Jesus. Breaking the Sabbath was a big deal to them. But Jesus’ response to them only made matters worse.
Jesus pointed out that his Father was always working. The Jews accepted that God was always working, even on the Sabbath. God never takes a day off from sustaining his creation.
And the Jews were not averse to addressing God as Father in prayer. But Jesus went a step beyond that. He claimed to be doing what God was doing. And the Jews saw in that a claim that Jesus was making himself equal with God. In their mind, he might as well have said that he was God.
Jesus could have corrected their misunderstanding. If that was what it was. But he didn’t. He accepted their assessment as being true. He was God, one with the Father (John 10:30) while, in some way, being distinct from him (John 5:19-30).
