Bible 101 Notes for March 5—John 8:12-John 10

Review: In John 7 and in the earliest verses of ch. 8, Jesus is dealing with the unbelief of the crowds, and specifically, of the religious leaders in Jerusalem. He’s left Galilee for Jerusalem to attend the Feast of Tabernacles, and there, teaches in the Temple courts. Notice he does not hide from those who, in ch. 5, vow to kill him. But Jesus is here to do the Father’s work (ch. 4, ch. 5, ch. 6), and even in the face of persecution, he is carrying out God’s will and purpose in sending him. In John’s Gospel, Jesus is called the light, life, water of life, bread of life—all meant to show us who he is and how belief in him brings us life.

John 8:1-11: With this incident the Pharisees hoped to trap Jesus. They brought a woman “caught in the act of adultery” to him and demanded she be stoned according to the law. Remember that Jesus says nothing, but stoops down and writes in the dirt. They keep demanding that he answer; finally, Jesus says “let him that is without sin cast the first stone,” and all of the men leave. The woman and Jesus are alone and he asks her about her accusers. She is stunned that they’ve left; Jesus tells her “go and sin no more.” All through this Gospel we see Jesus’ concern for people’s spiritual hunger, for their repentance, and their acceptance of the life he offers. This woman’s heart has been touched. And notice that he doesn’t judge her in the way her accusers did; they had charged, arrested, indicted, tried her and wanted to execute her. Jesus simply tells her not to sin again. He doesn’t pretend she wasn’t guilty; he gives her an opportunity to repent and live a new life.

John 8:12: here is another of Jesus great “I am” statements. In ch. 6, he said “I am the bread of life.” In ch. 4, he’s the “living water.” Now he says “I am the light of the world.” All of these reflect God’s call to Moses from the burning bush in Ex. 3. God tells Moses he’s sending him to Egypt to deliver his people; Moses has several objections to God’s plan. Finally, God says “I will be with you; speak in my name.” Moses says, “they’ll ask me what God sent me.” God said “Tell them ‘I am’ sent you.” This is THE name of God: it implies eternity: I am, I was, I will always be God. So when Jesus tells us “I am the light of the world” we start with the “I am” reference to God’s calling himself “I am.” And we return to John 1 when John describes Jesus: “In him [Jesus, the Word] was life and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it” (John 1:4-5). Jesus compares light to truth and darkness to unbelief in his conversation with Nicodemus in ch. 3: “Light has come into the world bit men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. . . But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be see plainly that what he has done has been done through God” (John 3:19, 21). Now in ch. 8, Jesus expands on this metaphor: “Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (v. 12). We live in an age of powerful street lights; we flip a switch and we have light in our homes. We have lights on our vehicles, small lights on keychains—kids even have them in their shoes. But think about walking in the country without any light except that of stars and moon. In Jesus’ day, people had to carry lighted torches or small oil lamps to see at night. People traditionally worked sunup to sundown—by natural light. But he promises that following him, accepting his light, means we’ll never walk in darkness. We’ll understand that we are following the one who IS the light; we are walking in his truth (the only truth). Psalm 119:105 tells us “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” John 1:1: In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” Jesus, the Word, says “I am the light of the world.” It all fits, doesn’t it? But not to the Pharisees.

John 8:13: His ultra-legalistic critics challenge him, saying he’s testifying about himself. In ch. 5, Jesus points out five external witnesses to his being the Messiah: John the Baptist, God the Father, Jesus’ miraculous works (ordained by the Father), Scripture and Moses. Were the Pharisees listening to him then? Are they now? Jesus tells them “I know where I came from and where I am going.” We aren’t going to follow someone who does not know where he’s going. Not only does Jesus know where he’s going, he’s told us he’s the light, and if we follow him, we won’t walk in darkness; by following him, we’ll know where we’re going, too. Do you see how deep the Pharisees’ rejection of Jesus is? They can’t hear him so they can’t hear the truth he speaks. Their ears, as Isaiah says, are deaf. Jesus quotes Isaiah 6:9-10 in Matthew 13: “You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears and they have closed their eyes” (Matt. 13:14-15). Their hearts are calloused, hardened, their ears closed to Jesus’ words—and to the work God sent him to do. Jesus continues to discuss judgment as he did in ch. 5, once again implying that the Pharisees’ lack of openness to his message has condemned them already.

John 8:19: Now begins a long discussion on Jesus’ identity. Many people already believe he is the Messiah, but his critics ask “who is your father?” Jesus frequently has told them what he does and says comes from the Father. Now they challenge him. This may perhaps be an insult, an indirect way of accusing Jesus of being illegitimate. But Jesus never wavers from his message, one he’s conveyed to them over and over. He tells them that knowing him, the Son, means they also know the Father. It’s been said that if we want to know who God is, we look at Jesus, the Word made flesh. Jesus is God in a human body. The Pharisees don’t see Jesus’ identity even when he speaks to them and performs miracles in front of them. They are still in the Temple, and though the religious leaders are furious, they do not arrest Jesus because “his time had not yet come.” Later Jesus continues his debate with them, saying “where I am going you cannot come.” His home is in heaven; unless the hearts of men are changed, they cannot go to heaven. Once again they ask him “who are you?” Jesus is clear: I am what I’ve been saying I am all along. Jesus has not tried to hide his identity; he evades crowds who want to make him king, but he is not hiding from anyone. As Paul says, the eyes of the Pharisees’ hearts haven’t been opened (Eph. 1:18) so that they will understand. Jesus finally says “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am who I claim to be.” Once again, he refers to the cross, and doing the Father’s work. Many believed in him; his critics did not.

John 8:31: Jesus speaks to the believers: “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” The freedom he speaks of is freedom from sin and its guilt, a spiritual freedom knowing that God has given us complete forgiveness. It is not the political freedom the Jews as a nation sought. As expected, the religious leaders reject this saying “We are children of Abraham. We have never been slaves to any man.” (Have they forgotten Egypt, and their captivity in Assyria, Babylon, political dominance by the Greeks and Romans? ) Jesus tells them they are born sinners, and thus slaves to sin; it takes the forgiveness and redemption God alone provides to free one from that slavery. The religious leaders shout again that they are Abraham’s children, to which Jesus agrees, but then he asks them why they don’t have faith as Abraham did. He is the father of faith, “being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he promised,” (Rom. 4:21). And God rewarded Abraham’s faith; he knew Abraham’s heart and counted his faith as righteousness. Jesus accuses the Pharisees of wanting to kill him, God’s son, something Abraham would never do. Jesus then tells them their father is the devil, so it’s no wonder that they carry out his work rather than God’s. Nothing he could have said would have made them angrier. His proof? They don’t believe him, the Son of God; if they belonged to God (were his children) they’d recognize the truth of what Jesus is saying.

John 8:48: To deflect Jesus’ accusations they shout that he is a Samaritan (an unclean person in their eyes) and demon possessed. Once again, Jesus tells them he’s doing God’s work, honoring him, speaking the truth. The Pharisees reject everything he says, and when Jesus says “Before Abraham was born, I am,” they pick up stones to kill him as a blasphemer. Jesus escapes and they’re left fuming and more determined than ever to kill him.

John 9: A blind man is pointed out to Jesus and his disciples ask him whether he or his parents sinned to cause his blindness. Jesus said “neither” and adds that his blindness is a means by which God will show his power in the man’s life, in his family’s and to all who recognize that this is a man who was born blind. Jesus makes mud of spit and dirt, places it on the man’s eyes and sends him to wash in the Pool of Siloam. (The site of the Pool of Siloam was in the news last year as having been identified as part of an archeological discovery.) The blind man obeyed Jesus and could see to walk home. His neighbors and friends are astounded, but the Pharisees and others who doubt want to know why he can now see. Some are happy, some are curious, and some appear angered by this miracle. They question the man about his healing; he’s astounded that they can’t accept that though he’d been born blind, he’s now been healed by “a prophet.” Others agree; only someone sent by God could do such wondrous things. But of course the Pharisees, knowing it must have been Jesus, are more concerned that he’s a Sabbath breaker than they are that he’s a healer. How they cut themselves off from blessings! They, too, could be healed, but they put up barriers and refuse to believe. The parents of the man who can now see are questioned: “is this your son? Was he born blind?” They weren’t there when Jesus touched him, and so they say, “yes, he’s our son, and yes, he was born blind. We don’t know how, but he’s old enough; ask him!” The Pharisees ask more questions; the man repeats his answers. Finally, the once-blind man says to the still-blind interrogators, “I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples, too?” Not on your life, they tell him. “We’re disciples of Moses.” But then they decide to deny what they can see and have been told, to which the new disciple says: “This is remarkable! If this man were not from God he couldn’t do such things,” but once again, the Pharisees’ minds are made up and they throw the man out. The ironies in this scene are stunning. Here are the religious leaders trying hard to undo what God has done through his Son just because they don’t want to change. They’d rather believe it’s impossible for God to send his Messiah, the one promised from the beginning of time, than to believe Jesus is that Messiah.

John 9:35: Jesus finds the man and talks to him of spiritual matters. The man’s eyes have been opened physically; now he’s about to have his spiritual eyes opened. The man believes Jesus is who he says he is and worships Jesus. Jesus speaks once again of judgment: “For judgment I have come into this world so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.” The Pharisees overhear him and know he’s speaking of their blindness, which they loudly deny. Jesus says because they claim that they can see but prove they cannot, they are walking examples of the spiritual blindness he spoke of.

John 10: In this chapter, we find the great “Good Shepherd” discourse. Jesus calls himself the good shepherd who knows his sheep and his sheep know him. He implies that the deaf Pharisees are not his sheep; they will not listen and do not know his voice nor God’s. Some of the first paintings of Jesus which I can remember showed him carrying a lamb. I have seen it on Sunday School classroom walls, on little bookmarks, on plaques—for some reason, it’s a comforting image. We feel safe with the Good Shepherd. And yet being called a sheep isn’t flattering; sheep are not too bright. In this analogy, we see our need of protection, healing, someone to care for our needs and to call us by name. The Good Shepherd teaching of Jesus is as close to a parable as we come in John’s gospel. Jesus says he’s the gate for the sheep, conjuring up the image of the shepherd lying down at the opening of the “corral” so a sheep would have to hop over him to leave; by contrast, a wild animal would have to jump over the shepherd to get to the sheep. He speaks of thieves and robbers, and we know he’s speaking of the religious leaders whose wrong teaching has led people astray—robbing them of faith, replacing it with slavery to legalistic rules and traditions. He speaks, too, of the “hired hand” who runs when trouble comes. Such a hired hand is interested only in his wages, not the sheep. The thief is interested in himself. At least four times in this passage, Jesus says that as the good shepherd, he lays down his life for the sheep. He’s the sacrifice and the priest at the same time: the Lamb of God and the Good Shepherd. Jesus came to be the Paschal Lamb, the once and for all sacrifice for sin. And notice that he says he does this because it’s the Father’s plan, but that he has authority to lay down his life and pick it up again. We see this at his trial when he tells Pilate, “you would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above” (John 19:11).

John 10:22: After the religious leaders debate over Jesus’ identity, once more they ask him “don’t keep us in suspense; tell us plainly if you’re the Messiah.” Jesus answers that he has told them and they don’t believe him. He reminds them his miracles speak for his being the Messiah. And he continues to speak of himself as a shepherd saying “my sheep know my voice.” In other words, if the Pharisees unstopped their ears, they’d hear and see and know who Jesus was. But they refuse to be convinced. He knows he is the Messiah; he tells them “Do not believe me unless I do what my Father does. But if I do it, even though you do not believe me, believe the miracles that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I in the Father.” Once again they want to end his ministry by stoning or arrest. And Jesus “escaped their grasp.” It’s been said that faith grows when we believe and then by believing, we begin to understand. Jesus has just said this: if you don’t believe I’m the Messiah, believe the miracles are of God. If the Pharisees had done this, they’d gradually have lost their spiritual blindness. But they were much too attached to their ways, their traditions, their status to believe Jesus. And their decision to reject him cost them eternal life.

Next week: We’ll see Lazarus, Mary and Martha.

Homework for those who want to go deeper:

1. What does Jesus as Good Shepherd mean to you?

2. In how many ways are people spiritually blind? Are there people today who are spiritually bind?

3. Read Ephesians 1:15-23. Paul speaks here about spiritual sight. What will a person with spiritual sight see, according to Paul?