John 8:48-59

Jesus' Claims About Himself

48 The Jews answered him, "Aren't we right in saying that you are a Samaritan and demon-possessed?"

49 "I am not possessed by a demon," said Jesus, "but I honor my Father and you dishonor me. 50 I am not seeking glory for myself; but there is one who seeks it, and he is the judge. 51 Very truly I tell you, whoever obeys my word will never see death."

52 At this they exclaimed, "Now we know that you are demon-possessed! Abraham died and so did the prophets, yet you say that whoever obeys your word will never taste death. 53 Are you greater than our father Abraham? He died, and so did the prophets. Who do you think you are?"

54 Jesus replied, "If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. 55 Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and obey his word. 56 Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad."

57 "You are not yet fifty years old," they said to him, "and you have seen Abraham!"

58 "Very truly I tell you," Jesus answered, "before Abraham was born, I am!" 59 At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.



Dig Deeper

There is a hilarious scene that takes place during a winter day in the classic American movie, A Christmas Story. A groups of students gathers around one of the young boys named Flick and another boy named Schwartz begins to challenge him. He dares Flick to stick his tongue to the flagpole in the freezing weather, telling him that if he does so, his tongue will surely stick to the pole. Flick doesn't believe Schwartz but is quickly challenged by his confronter with a "double dare." The narrator of the movie informs us that "The exact change and nuance of phrase in this ritual is very important," as he describes this amusing showdown between boys during a school recess. Flick replies that he will not stick his tongue to the pole because it's "dumb". But Schwartz fires back that Flick doesn't want to because he knows his tongue will stick. He then offers a pointed "double-dog dare," which causes the mouths of all the onlookers to open aghast and induces the narrator to inform us that "now it was serious." Flick again laughs it off but Schwartz emphatically says, "I triple-dog dare you." At these words, everyone gasps and the narrator tells us that the triple-dog dare was sinister and that "Schwartz created a slight breach of etiquette by skipping the triple-dare you and going right for the throat." At that, Flick is left with no choice but to step up and prove that he is not afraid. He gallantly sticks his tongue on the pole only to find that it really did stick. Suddenly the bell rings and everyone abandons poor Flick on the playground, stuck to the pole.

This scene with Jesus, and what has turned into a mob of sorts, is certainly not humorous, nor is the challenge quite the same, but it does remind me of the scene in that movie in some respects. Jesus is surrounded by accusers who simply are not buying into what he is saying. He's got some things to prove and he is being challenged to do so. As the scene grows more serious and the tension builds, it comes to a head. Jesus has to either back down or stand up the challenge of his identity. In this scene, though, it's not the challenge that draws the gasps and bug-eyed looks, it is the response that Jesus gives. And in his response, he creates more than just a humorous "slight breach in etiquette." He commits pure and unadulterated blasphemy in the eyes of the Jews.

Here's a simple question. Who would possibly accuse the people of God of being children of the devil? Who would dare do such a thing? In their own eyes, there were two possibilities. Someone who was demon-possessed or a Samaritan, and there wasn't much of a difference in their view between those two categories. Isaiah 52:5 speaks of those who mistreat God's servant as blaspheming God Himself. Surely, when Jesus accused them of being children of the devil it was because he was cursed himself. Yet, it is in that very passage that it speaks of God Himself sending his servant with good news for all people, and that those who truly revere God will recognize what God is doing. This passage goes on into the famous Isaiah 53, where God's servant will be rejected, despised, and brutalized by the people who would consider min stricken by God. The Jews mistakenly thought they were the servant being mistreated, but in reality they were the ones blaspheming God by mistreating His true servant.

It was not that Jesus was possessed by a demon, quite the opposite. They have responded to Jesus' charge of being in league with Satan with a retort similar in kind. It's almost like a small child in our culture who will respond to an insult with the classic line, "I know you are but what am I?" Jesus is not demon-possessed. He honors the Father, but they dishonor Jesus, so they by default, dishonor the Father. He is not trying to grab glory for Himself but for the Father. If they would simply stop and look at his words and works compared to theirs they would see that he truly is God's servant, representing him fully and that they are on the path to death and destruction, both as a nation and as individuals. The only hope for them was not to stand there and accuse Jesus of being possessed or a hated Samaritan but to obey his word. Those who would align themselves with the logos would find eternal life.

Now he's done it. What was merely a question about demon possession in verse 48 becomes a full-out angry charge in verse 52. Jesus has crossed the line by saying that the only way to escape death was his words. Wrong. It was the prophet Daniel who promised that "at that time your people—everyone whose name is found written in the book—will be delivered. Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt" (Dan. 12:3). How dare Jesus claim that they needed something other than being the children of Abraham to take part in the resurrection. Did he think he was somehow superior to Abraham. Did he think that he would have some power over death and access to resurrection that Abraham and the prophets did not? They did not (but we, as John's readers do) understand the irony in all of this.

Again Jesus asserts that the reason that they do not recognize or know him is not any fault of his own, but is because they simply do not know the Father, a charge similar to the one made against Israel by the prophet Hosea (Hos. 4:1; 6:6). They claim that the Father is their God, yet he is glorifying Jesus, how could they possibly explain that. In fact, that has put them in a difficult position. No one could or even tried to deny that Jesus had performed incredible miracles and signs. The question was what was his source of power. Their only two choices were to acknowledge that he was from God or to charge him with being from Satan. They chose the latter which put them in the untenable position of denying God. When we charge the things of God as coming from Satan or being evil or wrong, we paint ourselves into a corner with nowhere to go. If Jesus denied that he had come from the Father, which is what they wanted him to do, then he would be unfaithful to his mission. All Jesus is doing is obeying God's word, something he consistently called his disciples to emulate (cf. Matt. 7:21-27; Luke 6:46; Matt. 6:10; Luke 11:27-28; Matt. 28:20; Jn. 14:23-24).

They have charged Jesus with the ironic claim of thinking that he is greater than Abraham or can some how bring about resurrection in a way that Abraham and the prophets could not, for not even they could escape death (Ps. 89:48; Zech. 1:5) but were left to wait on the Lord. They could not overcome death with their own words. Only God could do that. Jesus picks up on this charge in verse 55 and says that Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing his day. It was common Jewish belief in Jesus' day to assert that (based on passages like Gen. 15:17-21) God had revealed to Abraham the mysteries of the Messianic age. In fact, Jesus said that Abraham saw his day and was glad. Some have claimed, based on Genesis 22:4 that God revealed the coming mystery of the Messiah when he was to sacrifice Isaac (There are two primary reasons for that: The first is that the word rachowq, which is translated "in the distance" can also mean "in the future"; the second reason is that Abraham tells Isaac that the Lord will provide a "lamb" for the sacrifice [22:8] but in that scene a "ram" is provided [22:13]. Some have asserted, based on that, that God had revealed the sacrifice of Jesus to Abraham and that this was the "lamb" of which he spoke.)

The Jews mistake Jesus' statement, accusing him of seeing Abraham, for he said that Abraham saw him. How could this be? He wasn't even 50 years old, which in Jewish thought was the end of the working life and the full maturity of a man (cf. Num. 4:3, 39: 8:24-25). Jesus wasn't even a fully mature man, how could he claim to have known Abraham? In their eyes Jesus was making a ridiculous claim, so they would respond with pointing how ridiculous this assertion was.

Truly what they didn't know could kill them. Jesus answered them by echoing God's revelation of Himself to Moses in Exodus 3:14, "I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.'" Jesus says that before Abraham was born, I Am. This is as close as Jesus comes in his own words to what John stated about him in 1:1-2. Jesus is clearly echoing God's words, but the question is, was he claiming divinity here? If Jesus was simply claiming that he existed before Abraham but was not God (as groups like the Jehovah's Witnesses claim), then he would have said, "Before Abraham was born, I was." Jesus was not merely claiming pre-existence, but was claiming that he was divine. He and the Father were so unified and one in essence and nature (Phil. 2:6) that Jesus could rightly refer to himself with the sacred identifier that the Father had used for himself. The response of the Jews makes it clear that they understood that Jesus was not just claiming eminence for himself but divinity (cf. 10:33). He had committed blasphemy and the punishment for blasphemy was stoning (Lev. 24:16). Yet, his hour had still not come, so Jesus hid himself (probably miraculously) and slipped away from the Temple grounds.



Devotional Thought

The people of Jesus' day thought that he was crazy to say the things that he said. In a similar way, those that truly hold to his words and teachings are often accused of being evil, mean, intolerant, and are often as maligned as Jesus was in his day. Yet, Jesus would never let negative public opinion dissuade him from obeying the Father. How about you? Do you hold tightly to the words of Jesus and boldly proclaim them despite the reactions you might get from those around you, or do you tend to shrink back from situations where the true gospel might not be embraced or appreciated?