Daily Devotions
John
Spiritual darkness at its worst
Text: John 8 : 12-59
SPIRITUAL DARKNESS AT ITS WORST
The Jews heard the words of Jesus, and remonstrated with indignant self-righteousness! They exclaimed in reply,
“Now we know that You have a demon!
Abraham is dead, and the prophets;
and You say, ‘If anyone keeps My word
he shall never taste death.’
Are you greater than our father Abraham,
who is dead? And the prophets are dead.
Who do you make Yourself to be?”
John 8:52-53
The Jews deliberately twisted the meaning of the words of Jesus! They took a wooden-literalistic approach to interpret Jesus! The Jews must surely believe in the concept of eternity! They must know that Jesus was speaking of spiritual and eternal things, as He had always been doing (John 6:51, 54 etc).
The Jews sought to interpret Jesus in the worst possible way. They were saying that Jesus was preaching a doctrine of eternal physical life! They argued that this was an impossible teaching and could only have been concocted by a demon!
To prove their point, they argued that their illustrious forefather, Abraham was dead. They also pointed that the great servants of God, the mighty prophets were also dead! What could Jesus mean when He said that people who believed in His word would not see death?
This was a very deliberate attempt to run down Jesus! They were once again trying to force Jesus into a corner. They were trying to make Jesus say something that He would regret saying. Then they could take that up against Him with even greater intensity. This was just another attempt to pressurize Jesus! The Jews displayed that they were living in spiritual darkness in the worst possible way!
AN UNRUFFLED SPIRIT
Jesus refused to be ruffled by this attack of the Jews. He was not afraid of the rhetoric of the Jews. He was not in the least perturbed by what they said. With great composure He replied,
“If I honour Myself, My honour is nothing.
It is My Father who honours Me, of whom
you say that He is your God.
Yet you have not known Him, but I know Him.
And if I say, ‘I do not know Him,’
I shall be a liar like you; but I do know
Him and keep His word.
Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day,
and he saw it and was glad.”
John 8:54-56
Jesus knew the mindset of the Jews. They were subtly accusing Him of seeking “honour”. His words were so lofty that they felt that He was doing nothing more than elevating Himself to a plane that was not His at all.
Only a person with a very worldly mindset would do something like that. Jesus was not of the world. He had no personal desire to see any kind of honour at all. If there was any honour at all, it was something that His Father had given to Him.
Jesus knew that the Jews were trying to force Him to back down from His statements. They wanted Him to admit that perhaps He had overreached Himself when He claimed that He knew God so intimately! Jesus had always maintained that He stood in a special position with God the Father. He spoke of Himself as the eschatological Son of Man! However, He knew that He could not say anything less! He was who He was! He did know God on the most intimate of terms! If He backed down in the slightest, then He would have denied God. He would be no better than the Jews. To say less than what He had preached would be tantamount to the sin of lying! He would be a liar just like the Jews.
The Jews had lied when they said that they knew God! They did not know Him. Jesus on the other hand declared that He truly knew God, and He could not state it in a lesser way! He had been given the words to say by His Father Himself. He had kept His Father’s word faithfully all the time. No matter the pressure against Him, no matter the accusations hurled against Him, He could not say less than what He had declared!
Jesus then made a statement that greatly riled the Jews. He spoke of how Abraham rejoiced to see His day! To the wooden-literalistic Jews this last statement was like waving a red cloth to a mad bull! They charged at Jesus once again when they heard these words.
“Then the Jews said to Him, ‘You are not yet
fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?”
John 8:57
Jesus knew that this would be the typical response of the Jews. He astonished them further with the next statement.
A CLAIM TO DIVINITY
The Jews knew that Jesus claimed to be more than what they were willing to concede to Him. However, they were not able to accept this startling statement from Jesus.
“Most assuredly, I say to you,
before Abraham was, I AM.”
John 8:58
We need to be very careful about how to interpret Jesus’ statement. Jesus always distinguished Himself from His Father! His Father was Jehovah (“Yahweh” or simply “I AM”) of the Old Testament. He was simply saying that even as His Father was the “I AM” so He was “I AM.” He was as Eternal as the Father. Jesus did not claim that He was the Yahweh of the Old Testament! His claim to Divinity, was by appealing to “Eternal Existence”. As may be expected, the Jews sought to kill Him (John 8:59).