Friday, March 13: John, Jan, Sam Wang

John 8:39-40. They answered him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children you would be doing what Abraham did, but now you are trying to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did.”

This passage seems somewhat innocuous and self-evident upon first reading, but as is so often the case with scripture…all is not what it seems. So, how do we begin? First, we should look at the context in which we find this passage. At the beginning of the chapter, the Pharisees bring a woman before Jesus in the temple. They test him by saying the Law (of Moses) requires that they stone her. They do this to challenge Jesus, in the hope that they can find an excuse to—at the very least—get him out of the temple. He counters them with the famous challenge of his own: “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Ashamed, the people all drift away and Jesus asks the woman if anyone condemned her, to which she replies, “no one.” Jesus then says that he does not condemn her either, and that she should go and sin no more. So here we see Jesus
cleverly defying traditional views about sin and punishment.

Skipping ahead for a moment, we go to the beginning of Chapter 9 and we hear a story about a blind man. The disciples ask Jesus whether it was the man’s sin or the parents’ sin that caused such an affliction. Again we see traditional views about sin, the law, and consequences presented to test Jesus. He responds to this challenge by telling the disciples that the blind man suffers so that God’s will can be revealed through him. Jesus then heals the blind man, again countering the old attitudes that justify all suffering as punishment for one’s bad behavior.

So we see that Chapter 8 is framed on both sides by stories of Jesus challenging people’s beliefs about how to measure oneself as sinful or righteous, and we see this same message in the body of the chapter. Jesus is trying to explain that even while acting according to the law, the Hebrew people are still living in sin. They have become so attached to their rules that they have lost their ability to reflect on their own actions. He is trying to tell them that although they follow the law, it does not automatically make them righteous.

Jesus wants the people to see that just following man’s law is not the message he has for them. Jesus says, “You should do what you have heard from the Father,” but they do not realize that he is speaking of God. They immediately respond by saying—at the beginning of this passage—“Abraham is our father.” Jesus is frustrated here at their lack of understanding so he switches gears and talks about Abraham as the father, and implies that if they really did follow Abraham’s beliefs and values, they would not be acting as he sees them now. He makes it clear that they are not doing the right thing with regard to Abraham or God. After this passage, the people continue to quibble with him, trying to find any justification to silence or invalidate his message—exactly as he claims when he says “…but now you are trying to kill me.” Jesus finally lets loose and says very directly,

“If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now I am here… Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot accept my word.”

What we see here is Jesus essentially repeating what he said before in John 8:39-40, but using God as the Father instead of Abraham. He is trying desperately to get the people to recognize that their hubris—their steadfast belief that they know best—has led them astray and is preventing them from hearing God’s message. He is trying to say that their dependence on law and ancestry as the only measure of righteousness is little more than a comfortable lie—and deep in their hearts, they know it.

So in this Lenten season, what does this passage mean for us? Perhaps it is saying that what we need is to quiet the clamor of our judgments, our excuses, and our pride, so that we can listen clearly to the Word that God is yearning to tell us.  

    

 —John, Jan, Sam Wang