I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day:
the night cometh, when no man can work (John 9:4).
Our Lord Jesus Christ said this just before healing a man born blind. It was the third and last year of His public ministry: the year of opposition after a year of obscurity and a year of popularity. To speak figuratively, dusk was coming on (cf. John 8). His mission was almost done. This statement declares His perspective on His calling and ours. It takes the form of a couplet with two major thoughts.
My Present Responsibility
The first line is Jesus’ declaration of a mandate, a commission from God to do something. The first two words (in English and in Greek) are a forceful statement of His sense of compelling responsibility, even duty: “I must.” The two Greek words could be literally translated, “Me / it behoves.”1 The strong verb means “to be under necessity of happening, it is necessary, one must, one has to.”2
“Him that sent me” is unquestionably one of the Lord’s many references to God, the Father of Jesus in a unique sense (John 5.23, 30, 37; 6.39, 44; 8.16, 18, 29; 12.49; 14.24; cf. 3.16; 20.17).
Christ had an overwhelming sense of divine mandate to do what He did and say what He said. He knew He was not acting on His own. “Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things. And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him” (John 8.28-29). “To work the works of him” was to carry out fully and minutely the Father’s will for Jesus. Just as in English, the words translated “work” have the connotation of effort.3
The Lord speaks metaphorically to drive home the point: “while it is day.” He compares His ministry to the activity of a day laborer. This joins the idea of hard work with limited opportunity, as their work was irksome and they were hired one day at a time (Matt 20.2, 12).
Jesus came into the world to work, not play. His whole life was dedicated to the fulfillment of moral duty and divine calling. By God’s will there were seasons of rest and recreation, but instead of being an end in themselves, they were useful for the necessary refreshment of this man with a mountainous sense of mission, and a steely resolve to fulfill it to the nth degree. “For the Lord GOD will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed” (Isa 50.7; cf. Luke 9.51).
By definition, Christians are devoted followers of Jesus (Acts 11.26), with the same perspective and spirit, though His fervent devotion is a raging inferno compared to our little spark. As the Father sent Jesus, so He sends us (John 20.21). As we get to know Christ better and become more and more enamored of Him, we will become increasingly passionate to spiritual duty (2 Cor 3.18). We will wisely rebel against the frivolous time-wasting so prevalent in our godless culture (Eph 5.15-16). Each Christian will say to himself, “I must work the works of Him that sent me, while it is day.”
Our Fleeting Opportunity
The second line is a statement of prediction about the time (“the night cometh”) with its circumstances (“when no man can work). In an agrarian culture, the cycle of work and rest especially tracks with light and darkness for obvious reasons. This cycle is beautifully portrayed in Psalm 104.19–24, “Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour until the evening” (v. 23). When the sun goes down, we retire from the fields and take our rest.
With great effect, Christ moves from speaking about Himself in the last days of His earthly ministry and makes a universal application. “When no man can work,”—not Me, nor you, nor anyone else. What a picture of this life’s fleeting opportunity! “Only one life, ’twill soon be past, Only what’s done for Christ will last.” Missionary C. T. Studd (1860-1931), with a great sense of urgency, wrote a poem based on these two lines,4 and has left us a legacy of indefatigable Christian service. He also said, “If Jesus Christ died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him.”5
Unbelievers, too, should take note of Christ’s warning. Jonathan Edwards used John 9.4 in a piece “concerning the endless punishment of those who die impenitent.” He said that Christ’s words here
prove that there is no other day of trial after this life. . . . Death is coming,
which will be the setting of the sun and the end of this day, after which
no work will remain: nothing to be done that will be of any significance
in order to the obtaining of the recompense of eternal felicity.6
If, in this life, you fail to seek the Lord with all your heart and soul, and to pursue holiness, you will throw away your only opportunity to be saved (Isa 55.6-7; Heb 12.14). The Lord help us all to seize the day while we can. Ω
Notes:
1 Newberry, T., & Berry, G. R. (2004). The interlinear literal translation of the Greek New Testament. Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.
2 Arndt, W., Danker, F. W., & Bauer, W. (2000). A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian literature (3rd ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
3 Ibid.
4 http://www.literarylane.com/2012/01/poem-of-week-only-one-life-by-ct-studd.html (accessed 4/22/15).
5 http://www.rarechristianbooks.com/?page=shop/flypage&product_id=2933 (accessed 4/22/15).
6 Edwards, J. (2008). The works of Jonathan Edwards (Vol. 2). Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.