John 5:20 tells us that the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he does, and that the Father will reveal even greater works to him so that people will be amazed. Jesus speaks these words to the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem who were angry that he had healed a man on the Sabbath and called God his own Father. He is answering their charge that he has made himself equal with God.
For the Father has affection for the Son, and shows him all things that he himself does. He will show him greater works than these, that you may marvel.
John 5:20 (WEB)
What John 5:20 Means
The verse begins with “the Father has affection for the Son.” The Greek word here expresses warm, personal love, not a cold duty. Jesus is saying that the closeness between him and the Father is the foundation for everything that follows. The love is the reason the Father makes his plans known to the Son.
Next comes “shows him all things that he himself does.” The idea is that the Father openly displays his own work to the Son, so the Son can see and share in it. This matches what Jesus said just before, that the Son does nothing on his own but only what he sees the Father doing. The verse does not describe a student copying a teacher from a distance. It describes a shared life of working together.
The last part, “He will show him greater works than these, that you may marvel,” points forward. The healing these leaders have just objected to is only a small sign of what is coming, including the giving of life and the judgment mentioned in the verses that follow. The verse does not promise any specific miracle to any specific reader. It tells us that God’s work revealed through Jesus is larger than what the crowd had already seen, and it invites wonder rather than suspicion.
The Context of John 5:20
John’s Gospel was written to show that Jesus is the Son of God, and it is full of signs and long conversations meant to lead readers to faith. Tradition attributes the book to John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, and the audience appears to be early Christians and others who needed to understand who Jesus really was. The setting is a Jewish feast in Jerusalem, where the healing of a man lame for thirty-eight years has just taken place.
The verses just before John 5:20 explain why the leaders are so upset. Jesus has said that his Father is still working on the Sabbath, and so he works too. For the leaders, this sounded like blasphemy. Verse 20 is part of Jesus’ reply, and it shows that his claim to work with the Father rests on the Father’s love and openness. Reading the verse in that light, it becomes an answer to the charge of rebellion, not a boast of independence.
Key Phrases in John 5:20
John 5:19
Jesus therefore answered them, “Most certainly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father doing. For whatever things he does, these the Son also does likewise.
(WEB)
This verse comes just before and explains that the Son does nothing on his own but only what he sees the Father doing. It supplies the reason the Father’s showing matters so much.
John 14:10
Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I tell you, I speak not from myself; but the Father who lives in me does his works.
(WEB)
In this later conversation Jesus says that the words he speaks are not his own and that the Father dwells in him. It deepens the same picture of close, shared work between Father and Son.
A Short Prayer From John 5:20
Father, thank you for the love you have for your Son and for the way you share your work with him. Teach me to trust that you are at work in my life even when I cannot yet see the results. Open my eyes to the greater things you are doing, and fill me with wonder rather than doubt. Help me depend on you the way the Son depended on the Father, and let my choices today rest in your love. Amen.
