September 13, 2015 John 8:42-59
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It has taken us several weeks (since August 9 or so) but this passage brings us to a climactic moment in the ongoing (and escalating) controversy between Jesus and various groups. Throughout the eight-day celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles, or Booths (John 7:2), Jesus had what appears to be a continual encounter with various groups.
The city was probably crowded with pilgrims for the annual celebration. John describes the people who heard and sometimes responded to Jesus as the Jews, the people, the crowd, the Pharisees, the chief priests, the temple guards. The responses covered a broad range: “Is He the Christ?” (7:31); “He should be arrested!” (7:30); “He can’t be the Christ because He doesn’t have the right birthplace” (7:41, 52); “He is astonishingly educated!” (7:15); “He is demon-possessed!” (7:20); “He is a good man. (7:12). He was controversial enough that many were too afraid to even mention Him (7:13).
In this confusing situation, many believed in Him (7:31, 8:30). But as Jesus continues His teaching even some believers soon began to have serious questions (8:33). We have seen the pattern before. A large following that didn’t follow through (John 6:60-66). Perhaps that recent experience of followers who “believed” in signs (and especially in free meals) was in Jesus’ mind when He exhorted those who were coming to Him now: “If you continue in My word…” (8:31, emphasis added). In the previous sudden decline of His following the crowd drifted away; they “withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore” (6:66). The reaction to His difficult teaching in John 8 is much more severe.
Previous patterns continue. Several comments in our group pointed out that the Jews continued to miss any spiritual significance and focused on the physical, such as their ancestry from Abraham (8:33, 39). Earlier Jesus had challenged their obedience to the Law of Moses (7:19-24) because they were concerned only with appearances (7:24). Their focus was on Abraham’s lineage and Moses’ Law rather than on the God whom Abraham and Moses served.
One of the responses of the Jews stimulated our discussion: “You are a Samaritan and have a demon!” (8:48). At first this appears as a desperate ad hominem attack: people who cannot defend their beliefs often resort to personal insults. But one member of our group suggested that calling Him a “Samaritan” might be more than a racial slur. Thinking back to His encounter with the woman at the well in Samaria, the controversy between Jews and Samaritans was about how and where to worship God (John 4:20). Perhaps the critics of Jesus’ teaching heard rumors that He had visited Samaria. Maybe this teaching of His was somehow trying to proselytize good Jews into the Samaritan ways. Jesus was saying things that certainly did not fit their religious sensibilities, so they tried to re-categorize Him into another box they understood. He must be a Samaritan (and demon-possessed, for good measure). Their trust level (of “those Jews who had believed Him” – John 8:31) continued to deteriorate.
As we have seen repeatedly in John’s report, Jesus continues to emphasize that His mission, His authority, and all of His actions are from His Father (John 42). The Jews’ inability to understand Jesus (v. 43) and even to love Him (v. 42) is because of their true parentage. Not only were they not genuine followers of Moses (7:19) or of Abraham (8:39). Their ultimate problem was in their devilish desires (8:44), perhaps in their pride of religiosity or racial superiority or judgmentalism and hate, reminiscent of the lies and murders of their true father.
Now Jesus comes to the culmination of this confrontation. His passion is for the glory and honor of His Father (8:50, 54). His mission is to communicate the Father’s eternal life, to overcome death itself (8:51). The Jews again revert to their pride in Abraham and centuries of prophets who died (8:53; apparently forgetting about Elijah [2 Kings 2:11] and Enoch [Genesis 5:24; Hebrews 11:5]).
The Jews want to talk about Abraham, so Jesus will talk about Abraham. Their beloved patriarch “rejoiced” and “was glad to see” the day of Jesus (8:56). Again, the Jews are not listening. Instead they respond to something Jesus never said, “You have seen Abraham?” (8:57). Jesus said nothing about seeing Abraham, but about Abraham seeing something. What? We talked about what exactly it was that Abraham saw. Abraham saw God’s grace, and anticipated that somehow, some day (“My day” Jesus said) God would do whatever was necessary to make that grace available. Then, like Abraham, many could “believe God” and it would be “reckoned as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6; Romans 4:3; Galatians 3:6; James 2:23). But because the Jews were too antagonistic to genuinely listen and hear what Jesus was actually saying, they missed even this affirmation of Abraham. If they were better listeners, they might have asked better questions to truly try to understand what Jesus might have meant.
But their hostile responses to Jesus made it impossible for them to hear the truth He was communicating. So He answered their sarcasm with truth they heard very clearly: “Before Abraham was, I AM.” Not “Before Abraham was, I was” as if there was simply some distorted misunderstanding about when Abraham lived or how old Jesus was. The meaning was clear enough that they wanted Jesus’ immediate execution by stoning. (Any ambiguity by modern readers about Jesus’ meaning should be eliminated by the response in verse 59. The Jews knew exactly what He meant.)
Jesus had been suggesting such a climax for some time. His earlier statements of “I am” with no predicate may have jarred the ears of the devout Jews. Saying “I am the Light of the world” (v. 12) may sound boastful but not blasphemous. “You will die in your sins unless you believe I am” (v. 24) and “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am” are quite a bit more daring, pushing the boundaries of Jewish etiquette. But verse 58 is unmistakable in the contrast with Abraham. Before Abraham came into being (γενέσθαι, genesthai), I exist (ἐγὼ εἰμί, ego, eimi). Abraham is always spoken of in the past (aorist) tense. Jesus is in a perpetual present tense.
The Jews knew exactly what He was saying. Jesus was identifying Himself with God’s self-identification to Moses in Exodus 3:14: “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM’ has sent me to you.’” The very words were considered sacred. To this day, many who read the Hebrew Scriptures aloud do not pronounce the divine name, but rather substitute the word for Lord, adoni. Even for Jesus to say the words would have been potentially offensive. But to express with such clarity in relation to Abraham, and to so explicitly identify Himself with that Name was beyond comprehension. There was no more debate, only stones.
As our discussion turned to application, the negative example of the Jews came up. They had their closed, static system with nothing more to learn, no more to discover about God. Law keeping took the place of communion with the Living God. The “hard sayings” of Jesus were theological points to argue rather than opportunities to see more of who God is and what He might be doing. Their unbelief was because they simply could not hear what He was saying (8:43). They were quite comfortable and satisfied with their beliefs and saw no reason to listen. How do we avoid that smug complacency? How do we remain open to new things God may want to show us about Himself? And at the same time, how do we avoid “new things” that sound interesting but are not accurate descriptions of the God who is I AM? Novelty for the sake of novelty usually ends in cults and heresy.
As our discussion brought out, the answer to the second part of the dilemma (avoiding unorthodox novelty) is it the text itself (as answers often are!). Jesus uses the phrase “My word” four times in this interchange with the Jews (8:31, 37, 43, 51). As we “continue in” and “keep” His word, His word will “have a place in us” and we will “hear” His word. Consistent, rigorous, methodical inductive Bible study (as we are trying to do in this group) is how we see more of who God is while avoiding trendy or eccentric doctrinal deviations.
We need the thirst for more of who God is that the Jews seemed to lack as they confronted Jesus. We have the opportunity to begin now what Puritan pastor Jonathan Edwards understood about seeing more and more of God. John Piper communicates it well:
Heaven will be a never-ending, ever-increasing discovery of more and more of God’s glory with greater and ever-greater joy in Him. If God’s glory and our joy in Him are one, and yet we are not infinite as He is, then our union with Him in the all-satisfying experience of His glory can never be complete, but must be increasing with intimacy and intensity for ever and ever. The perfection of heaven is not static. Nor do we see at once all there is to see – for that would be a limit on God’s glorious self-revelation, and therefore, His love. Yet we do not become God. Therefore, there will always be more, and the end of increased pleasure in God will never come.[1]
We are finite. God is infinite. We will never get to the end of the joyous experience of knowing Him better and better. Our joy will continue increasing for all of eternity.
Selah
[1] John Piper, God’s Passion for His Glory (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books, 1998), 37; italics in the original.