NOTES for Joh 5:30-6:2
Speaking about the essence of His conflict with the Pharisees, Jesus puts their distrust of God first. It would appear to be a strange accusation, since the people in question are deeply religious, ready to do much for the sake of their religion, including, if necessary, sacrifice. Of course, there was often no small amount of harshness in this religiosity; readiness to die for one's faith often stood side by side with readiness to kill for that same faith. But after all, both were done in the name of God and faith!
And still Jesus speaks of the absence of love and trust toward God in His listeners. What is this: a feature of Pharisaic religiosity? If that were so, everything would be simpler, especially for us, who have nothing to do with the religion of the Pharisees. But the matter, as we can see, is not so simple. Jesus says directly that He is not the one judging the Pharisees who reject Him; rather, the Torah, whose violation they are trying to accuse Him of, judges them. And in reply He says that the Torah bears witness to Him.
Such a statement may seem strange: after all, in the Torah, unless one tries to interpret it with obvious stretches, nothing is said about the Messiah. But the Torah, on which Judaism is based, never fit completely within Judaism, just as it does not fit entirely within any religious framework. On the other hand, it was precisely the Torah, and above all, of course, the inner Torah about which the same Pharisees could not fail to know, that should have led Jesus' listeners beyond the limits of their own religion, opening to them something greater, if only they had been fully consistent in following the Torah.
But the whole trouble with every religion is that, at first stimulating a person toward spiritual life, at some point it inevitably begins to hinder him in that life, setting a certain spiritual ceiling and demanding from its adherents a compromise between its own requirements and what God calls the one walking the path of righteousness to do. And then a person has to choose between God and a religion that is so familiar and convenient. And Jesus sees that His listeners have made their choice in favor of their religion. And He says that the Torah, which points the way into the Kingdom, will from now on become for them not a support, but a judgment. As it does for everyone who rejects God and the Torah for the sake of anything at all, even for the sake of his own religion. Whatever that religion may be.