5:18 Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was {c} his Father, making himself equal with God.
(c) That is, his alone and no one else's, which they gather from his saying, And I work, applying this word work to himself which properly belongs to God, and therefore makes himself equal to God.
5:18 Because he not only had broken the Sabbath. The Pharisees were horrified, not only at what they deemed the breaking of the Sabbath, but at the high ground on which the Lord placed his defense.
But said also that God was his Father. This high claim seemed to them blasphemous.
5:18 His own Father - The Greek word means his own Father in such a sense as no creature can speak. Making himself equal with God - It is evident all the hearers so understood him, and that our Lord never contradicted, but confirmed it.
5:17-23 The Divine power of the miracle proved Jesus to be the Son of God, and he declared that he worked with, and like unto his Father, as he saw good. These ancient enemies of Christ understood him, and became more violent, charging him not only with sabbath-breaking, but blasphemy, in calling God his own Father, and making himself equal with God. But all things now, and at the final judgment, are committed to the Son, purposely that all men might honour the Son, as they honour the Father; and every one who does not thus honour the Son, whatever he may think or pretend, does not honour the Father who sent him.
