Testimony of Jesus: When anyone refuses to honor the Son, this is the same as refusing to honor the Father who sent him. John 5:23

The testimony of Jesus about himself was something the divine teacher was very careful about; oppression in Jesus' time was commonplace. Jesus feared for his life numerous times, and John the Baptist, for denouncing Herod's sins, paid for this with his life. The Kingdom of God for Jesus was not a matter of games, and with the intention to talk about him and this mysterious kingdom that was to transform the world, he had to use words and fantastic stories that were difficult to understand, such as the parables. And the Gospel of John was a reflection of all this spiritual reality.
The Gospel of John recounts that Jesus arrived in the city of Jerusalem and there healed a paralytic at the pool of Bethesda as a sign of the eternal life promised by the Lord to all who believe in him. And since it was the Sabbath, in that place, Jesus spoke about himself and about his mission in the world: to do the will of the Father. And so Jesus presented himself as the one sent by the Father, as a foreshadowing of the seven "I am" statements in the Gospel of John. Without explicitly stating it, Jesus presented himself as the embodiment of God's perfections with these words: "When anyone refuses to honor the Son, this is the same as refusing to honor the Father who sent him" John 5:23. With this affirmation, Jesus taught that recognizing him was knowing God. And also with these words, Jesus avoided presenting himself as the expected Messiah to avoid being condemned for heresy, something his enemies were hoping for.
And then Jesus explained that following him involved a spiritual change, a transition from sin to true life, and he explained this spiritual truth with these words: "I tell you for certain that everyone who hears my message and has faith in the one who sent me has eternal life and will never be condemned. They have already gone from death to life" John 5:24. To know Jesus is then to know that true life that comes with the new birth according to the spirit, a birth to which all who believe in him are called. And so Jesus presented himself as the personification of eternal life, of which the healing of the paralytic was a testimony. As Jesus taught through the testimony of this miracle, the kingdom of God is the rehabilitation of men to a new life. Like the paralytic who had to learn to walk again, all who believe in Jesus, as the personification of God's perfections, must learn a new path, the path to eternal life.

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