For this reason the Jewish leaders persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath.

But Jesus answered them, “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.”

Therefore the Jewish leaders sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God.

Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does; and He will show Him greater works than these, that you may marvel. For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will.

“For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son, that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.” (John 5:16-23)

A diplomat is described as someone who can tell you to go to Hell in such a way that you look forward to the trip. Jesus was no diplomat. When the crowd got angry with him, he just poured more gasoline on the fire. Jesus justified his service for humanity on the Sabbath by pointing out that his Father didn’t take the day off. The already angry crowd grew angrier still. Not only was Jesus a Sabbath-breaker, now he was blaspheming.

How so? By calling God his Father, they understood that Jesus had claimed to be God. Why? Because the son of a man is, like his father, a man. But since there is but one God, God’s Son must simply be God.

The crowd did not like that at all, but Jesus didn’t back down. He hammered the point home. His critics were right: he was claiming equality with God. Everything Jesus knew, everything he did, he’d gotten from his Father. He also told them that if they didn’t accept him as God then they were the ones guilty of the blasphemy.

Jesus was not concerned with making himself likable. He was only concerned with making sure people understood what he meant, even if they didn’t like it. It’s not always possible, or even necessarily a good idea, to calm your critics.

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